THE MIND OF A SUPER-BALANCER: THE STORY OF PROF. JOSEPH CHERUVELIL — AN EDUCATOR AND THINKER WITH HONESTY, DIPLOMACY, OPINION, AND SELF-ESTEEM

(A Review of the Recently Published biography: “A Passage to America: Notes of an Adopted Son.”  Part of this was presented at Vicharavedi, New York.)

[Prof. (Dr.) Joy T. Kunjappu, D.Sc., Ph.D.]

When you write my story, you highlight what you think who I am — a biography is born.

When I write my story, I view my life as I perceive based on my real experiences with multiple scenarios; with my own perspectives because I wear the shoe and I know where it pinches — an autobiography is born.

A stock question that people ask when you publish something is “how much of it is autobiographical?” Does it really matter from the literary perspective?

An autobiography is an exception.  Nobody asks you such a question. 

We love seeing the story narrated in the first person “I”.  The raw material is derived from his own life.  Psychologists call it the “Availability Bias,” because the author relies on whathe sees and not on what you see.

Biographies are meant for the most matured minds to read, the readership statistic says.

This biography of Prof. Cheruvelil is not penned down for a Malayali audience, not even for an Indian audience — its scope is truly international.   Malayalis may find many parallels and may even easily recognize some diagonals and curves, but its emphasis is universal in nature.  For a generic reader, it’s a free ride and an assisted access into the life of a man who survived, after a long fight against grueling odds and conflicting visions, right from his childhood.  The characteristics of a thinker is to meditate on all the aspects of a problemand accept one’s decision with supporting logistics and calm oneself — man doesn’t live with bread alone!   Often, the strong influence of his upbringing makes him say, “mea culpa” as a litany in Latin — an acknowledgment of one’s own fault or error, as in a Catholic confession.

When he was merited with St. John’s University’s “Outstanding Achievement in Teaching” award, and selected as the Grand Marshall for the 135th Commencement Exercise (p.575), looking with profound internal fulfillment, and facing his wife, Rose; son, Roy; daughter, Sheila; son-in-law, Vijay; and grandson, Seth in the audience, he “… remembered the first time I attended my preschool class, the first time I went to college in Thevara, and the first time I came to St John’s …”
Elsewhere, he mentions “… [he was] courting [throughout his life] history, philosophy, poetry, and spirituality …”

To this I will add:
Geography;
Mythology (Indian, Greek and what else!);
Literature (English and Malayalam);
Proudly drawing fodder for thought and food for the mind, quoting  from Shakespeare to Shelly, Keats to Changampuzha, … and the paired comparison is unending; 
Love for travel, observation and learning;
Special liking toward academic institutions;
Appreciation of music (Indian and western);
Reverence for architectural monuments, especially with a slant toward religiosity (of temples, churches);
A penchant for checking facts and substantiating his understanding with an advanced critical positivity and negativity;
Placing his teachers, friends, and benefactors  on a pedestal with everlasting gratitude for their contributions, kindness,generosity, and love, which he returns to others on several occasions in cash and  kind;
Expressing his love and respect for his parents and family.

In short, this is not a book to be read to get familiarized with the story outline or the plot, but a study material, if not for you, for your second generation.

This biography is saturated literally with a plethora of characters, numbering of which is a challenging project by itself.  You will find characters distributed starting from his mother (ammachi), father (chachan), paternal uncle (achayan), people like Madahavan, Velayudahan to his grandchildren, Seth and Neil.

I believe his real forte is “reading and note-making.”  Probably, he subtitled his book to reflect this strong characteristic: “Notes of an Adopted Son.” It cannot be accidental. 

I will cook a story – a hypothetical one – that could have happened:  One night, Joseph was in his bed, turning left and right, and up and down, which broke Rose’s sleep.  Joseph says, “Sweetie, I am not able to sleep…”  Rose thinks for a while and comes with a simple prescription: “Honey, you were not reading today.  Please do read.”  Joseph reads for half an hour and sleeps like a log. 

Reading penetratingly is his basic requirement, a soporific for his insomnia, if any.   The know-how he reaped thus is scattered throughout the book.  It is a long book and it will require a two-semester intense study to absorb.  That is one reason I think it is meant for those who read sitting tight, and it is not a bed-time story for a couch potato.

There is a paradox in his life: he is an icon-lover; at the same time, an iconoclast!  In the prologue, he amply enunciates himself as “… a catholic in religion, [a] Hindu in culture, [a] republican in politics, and [an] eclectic in taste.” He wants to relax now a bit in the wake of retirement, smelling the proverbial “roses.” There is a compulsive writer in him, as he vouches, “… every time I finished a good book, I thought of writing one…”  According to my own definition, a good book is one that inspires you to write another one, as it triggers your imagination and forces you to embrace virgin paper, the only limiting factor being the realization that there is a writer in you.

A question that haunts him deeply is about God’s unfairness toward life: some are born rich, some are born sick, and some are born talented, and this aspect is highlighted several times in this book, which reminds me of Milton Friedman’s socio-economic theories, in which Friedman says, “Life is not fair.”  All the cultural, social, political, and economic thinking direct to bridge that gulf and induce fairness in life.  All the revolutions and fight for social justice is oriented toward this.

As a progressive person, he believes in the big bang and the evolutionary theories, which once upon a time was a Catholic-scientist’s conflicting concern.  He marks his own birth in 1937 as happening “1 million years after Adam and Eve began experimenting with apples and figs,” contrary to the popular biblical interpretation of the age of the earth as 5000 years.  Fortunately, relying on the recommendation of Pontifical Academy of Sciences of Vatican, Pope Francis has clearly complied with the big bang theory in 2014.  Darwinism was officially accepted by Catholics in 1989 or so with the proclamation from Pope John Paul II.  But, as it happens frequently, though God is willing, the poojari is not ready to disperse the gift! 

I will focus only on a microscopic cross section of his life: to be specific, (1) the voyage to US, which is the title-phrase “passage,”(2) the debilitating racial bias, (3) nexus with Malayalam and Malayalis, (4) miscellaneous ideas.  I will try to be brief.

The chapter “Aboard a Cargo Ship,” running to 50 pages, is the best chapter in this book, as I judge.  I recommend it as a section to include in any text book of advanced institutions of higher learning inthe world, universities in Kerala not exempted.For anybody, short of time, but inclined to browse the book, this chapter is a must-read.   And, I tell you why. A 23-year-old young man, traveling from Cochin to Boston in a span of one month, to an unknown territory, is a time to test that person and to know who he is.  If you follow a person in a book store or library, you will know who he/she is, from the sections s/he visits. 

Such a long ship journey is a time for reflection and observation and utilization.  It is said, Tagore translated Geetanjali into English, at least performed major tuning and tweaking to his translated manuscript, during his trip to London in a ship in 1912, which earned him the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.  Joseph takes us from Arabian Sea through many gulfs and straits, straight into a trans-Atlantic surface journey.  He is worried when the ship doesn’t anchor in Venice., which is a counter-part of his native Kuttanad with its shallow waterways.   His worry, translated into his reflectivewriting becomes a feast for us —above all, a means to understand the biographer, his interests, life’s philosophy, and attitudes.  That is why I say this chapter is representative of the person.  His interest in geography, history, spirituality, music, poetry,literature, architecture, and contemplative nature become topical. 

I will exemplify:

When the ship doesn’t halt at Venice, he ruminates over:
1. Puccini and Verdi, the opera composers;
2. St. Mark’s Bell tower;
3. Titian’s painting, “The Assumption of the Virgin” in the church, Santa Maria Gloriosa;
4. St. Mark as the symbol of Venice as a winged lion;
5. Sculpture of St. Theodore crushing a crocodile’s spine;
6. Thinking about Shakespeare’s characters: Shylock,  transvestite Portia, …;
7. Thomas Mann’s Aschenback;
Partial consolation was from the served Italian dishes like macaroni, spaghetti, … in the ship;

When landing in Malta:
1. Thinks about  St. Paul’s shipwreck there two millennia ago;
2. Plutarch’s Lives (of Romans and Greeks – I had a copy of them for a long time);
3. Chirstopher Marlow’s play: The Jew of Malta.
The transient sojourns through Greece, Libya, Tunisia and Spain provide us the geographical understanding of the sea-route with a spectacular entry into the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar.  The connection with religion, art, literature, music, geography, cuisine, mythology, … are obvious in his thoughts.  Often, he taxes his brain, comparing and contrasting Greek mythology with Indian myths, for example, in comparing and contrasting Hercules and Bhima. 

MALAYALAM

I need not even mention about his interaction with the English language.  That became his bread and butter, and his only answer for anybody’s query, “What did you do for a living?”

He opted for Malayalam in the college at Thevara, partly due to his ingrained interest in his mother tongue.  He recalls some of his bestMalayalam teachers like P. C. Devasia and T. M. Chummar, whose penchant for comparing contextually the topic with comparable materials from Sanskrit and English literature did he use in his own teaching of English in a reverse way; i.e., he told his English students in Kerala at Christ College, Irinjalakkuda, comparable materials from Malayalam and Sanskrit literature.

If you crave for some juicy story:  Devassia Sir was once proposed to, in the most traditional way, to Sr. Alphonsa before she joined the convent.  Devassia Sirtaught Swapna Vasavadattam and Abhinjana Sakunthalam. 

From his teacher Chummar, he picked up about Kunjikuttan Thampuran, Vallathol, Ulloor, Asan, Shankara Kurup, etc. 

Later on, at the University College, Trivandrum, out of sheer interest, he took special permission to audit Malayalam classes. He also got an opportunity to be friends with G. Kumara Pilla and Ayyappa Panickar.  His friendship with Ayyappa Panikkar helped him to get a poem from Panikkar to include in an Anthology of Malayalam poems from New York and US, in honor of Shri. Cheriyan K. Cheriyan on his 60th B’day.

Professor Cheruveilil was active in the literary societies in NY and a founder-member of Sargavedi.His formal and informal training as a speaker during his student days helped himembellish his leadership positions in Kerala Samajam, NY and elsewhere.  Moreover, he was the first person to initiate Malayalam classes, certified under the seal of a recognized university, viz.St. John’s.

Toward the end of the book (p.725), there is a good comparison between English and Malayalam literature, highlighting some of their attributes:

1. Historic intrigues: Sir Walter Scott/C.V.Raman Pillai
2. Counter-culture escapades: J. D. Salinger/Kesava Dev
3. Local color and rustic life: Mark Twain/Thakazhi
4. Psychological symbolism: James Joyce/S. K. Pottekkat
5. Simple mantras and magic of love: D. H. Lawrence/Muttathu Varkey

APARTHEID and INDIANS

American Indians and Blacks (aka Negroes, aka African Americans) were subjected to inhuman treatment and indiscrimination before and, even after the civil war and civil rights movement. More so in the so called Sothern states on the eastern region of the river Mississippi.  Professor Cheruvelil moved from Chicago to Ole Miss, Oxford, in the Lafayette county of Mississippi for furthering his academic interest with a view to joining the graduate school.  There is a vivid description of his days there, embedded in history and literature. 

Apartheid is something like a genetic mark, which by enacting rules alone cannot be erased.  It is something like the general attitude of Indians toward untouchables, even after constitutional amendments are made prohibiting the evil practice.  But our internal constitution doesn’t permit us to forget the past easily.When Martin Luther King visited Kerala in 1959, he was addressed as an “Untouchable American,” of course, not in a bad sense.  The hero of this autobiography had his own first-hand experience of this prejudice in raw and refined forms on various occasions. 

1.  It may be at a ticket counter, where he was instructed to line up in the BLACKS-OLNY line;
2. In a restaurant, he was not allowed to sit and eat;
3. During the Montgomery protest days, his room was ransacked since there was a general resentment against blacks and foreigners.
4.  When he was riding to his friend’s place in the Bronx before joining St. John’s, the shouting of the black taxi driver echoed the driver’s parents’- and forefathers’ sour experiences in the apartheid south before they moved to Harlem in New York.

"We all know we come from a culture where the shade of the skin color is compared,one arm against another, and evaluated.  But all of us would have to stand then in the same Queue reserved for “Black Alone.”  Tata’s experience in England manifested as a sign board at the Taj Mahal hotel on its inaugural day in Bombay that read, “English Men and Dogs Not Entertained,” as a tit-for-tat for a similar one in England that read, “Indians and Dogs Not Entertained,” which had hurt his ego.  New York City was relatively safe because of the preponderance of the Immigrant population.  He describes how hard he found in 1965 to get the lease of an apartment because colored people were not welcome to many buildings. While looking out for buying a house, he again felt the dark shadow of the same evil.   

FOLLIES AND FOIBLES

A biographer goes through profound agony, worrying if some of the events are going to hurt the sentiments and ego of some of the characters therein.  To circumvent this, authors usually hide the identity of certain characters.  In some cases, they even refrain from narrating the questionable events. It is the prerogative of the author. 

But it is said, a biography becomes really valuable when the author, the biographer, exposes his own follies and foibles, rather than achievements alone.  Those unique experiences are the ones that teach us about the pitfalls and hidden dangers in life, and in that sense they are very valuable lessons.In all those cases, how his self-control and restrained life-style came to his help are worth pondering.

1. On one occasion, instead of being emotional, he prudently maintained self-control to avoid the possibility of being poisoned, which is not an imaginary fear in this world of unscrupulous dastards.

2. In his dealings with others, he maintained a safe distance to avoid undue attractions, at the same time taking care not to undergo the risk of being repelled.   That is a good balancing act. 

3. He knew very well, either translated or transliterated, the significance of the old saying in Kerala that the “barbed wire fencing will always win in hurting others,” though he believed in the heart of hearts that it is not sufficient to endure, but one has to prevail!

MUSIC

I must say something about his love for music.  He had some formal training, though not extended, in classical Carnatic music, which added to his natural ear for music, helped him to appreciate different forms of music — western, country, and the like.There is a collection of song titles of that era scattered in the book.

POETICS

There is poetry in his writing replete with rhyme and reason.  A few examples:

1. In a philosophical tone, he says about life, “… [it] turns sour dough into sweet muffin.”
2. “Man dies, tree lives, and nature thrives.”
3. “… Deep down in Dixie where lily-white magnolias bloomed, and hydra-like cottonmouths lay coiled around the roots of Cyprus trees.”
4. In the chapter, “An Arranged Marriage,” [pennukanal, i.e., “seeing” the girl], arguably the funniest of all, he explains a typical Kerala-Dating procedure.  He codes each girl with a Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha, to maintain anonymousness.  The tenth girl, coded as Kappa which sounds similar in meaning to tapioca, in Malayalam, incidentally turns out to be his present wife.  His poetic comment: “And Kappa became alpha and omega.”

PHILANTHROPY

1. Lunch for a poor Tamilian boy for a long time (St. Xaviar’s, Palayamkottai, TN)
2. Buying vada for a street boy, who was about to grab the fallen morsel from another person.
3. Writing to the mayor of Calicut about the stinky beach (p.442).
4. He refunds a $ 250.00 check — indeed, a huge sum in 1965 — to the Uni. Missi., though he was allowed to keep it.

A PERSONAL NOTE

Probably, he succeededin writing such a book of 764-pages in small print, densely populated with concepts anddescriptors, as he did not subscribe to the general attitude of the community that indirectly encouraged “fishing in shallow waters.”

There are hundreds of events described in the book, as there are multitudes of names mentioned that includes my own.

It is but natural that we ruminate over our own experiences when we see our life mirrored as in a parallel universe.  I was born in the state of Travancore-Cochin before the united Kerala existed.  Thus, my Travancore connection!On a personal note, let me state there are many equivalents in our lives, and similarities in our approach toward life.  Of course, some major differences loom large.  For example, he is a registered Republican.  After all, that is what makes each human being unique!