The Big Fight
The book chronicles the tribulations faced by the author's family and the resurrection of Malayala Manorama amid grim times.

- May 28, 2016,
- Updated Jun 1, 2016 1:37 PM IST

That could be changing. Not long ago, Zee TV group boss, Subhash Chandra, published his autobiography. Now the memoir of the late K.M. Mathew, Chief Editor of the Malayala Manorama group, is out. Mathew actually wrote his book between 2002 and 2007 in Malayalam. This was later translated into English.
Sir C.P. was a lawyer who had been Advocate General of the then Madras Presidency. He had been described as one of the cleverest men in India. In 1936, he became the Dewan and de facto ruler of the then state of Travancore. Sir C.P. backed an unsuccessful attempt to keep Travancore out of the Indian union and left Travancore after a failed assassination bid on his life. He is portrayed as the villain of this story whose evil machinations brought ruin to Mammen Mappillai and his family.
The war led to a run on the Travancore National and Quilon Bank - promoted by Mammen Mappillai and C.P. Matthen, a Quilon-based businessman - which Mathew maintains was engineered by Sir C.P.; the jailing of Mammen Mappillai, the sale of the family's insurance company and the closure of the Malayala Manorama for nine years from September 1938.
Mathew deals authoritatively with the history of Kerala's social and political movements, with his days in school and at Madras Christian College. But The Eighth Ring - Mathew was his father's eighth child and Mammen Mappillai gave each of his children rings - is also a ser-ies of random memories, as he puts it. As a result, the book jumps from topic to topic, and yet some of the anecdotes he recounts are delightful.
Incidentally, my father, too, finds a mention. He was at Madras Christian College with Mathew, and Mathew stayed with him in Istanbul, Turkey, where the archbishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church plied them at lunch with potent wine till their heads spun.
The book's landscape largely features Kerala and the Syrian Christian community. The Malayalam version would have attracted a wide readership. But will the English translation of the book be of great interest to non-Malayalees? That has to be seen.
Mathew's account of his life is peppered with Malayalee nicknames for his brothers and others. Readers have to wade through names such as Oonnoonichayan (K.M. Cherian) and Peelikkutty (K.M. Philip), and then flip pages to figure out who they are.
Clearly, someone worked on this book after Mathew died in August 2010 at the age of 93 - it mentions the death of my father, which happened in January 2013, after Mathew died.
Still, many in Kerala regard Mathew as a visionary. Under his stewardship, the paper expanded, with editions all over the country and in West Asia. Magazines (Vanitha - the women's magazine, Balarama - a magazine for children, The Week - news magazine, to name some) were launched, as were television channels and internet editions of many of these publications. And in his lifetime, the newspaper's circulation topped 16 lakh.
Does that story merit another book? Over to Mathew's sons.
The reviewer is a veteran journalist
That could be changing. Not long ago, Zee TV group boss, Subhash Chandra, published his autobiography. Now the memoir of the late K.M. Mathew, Chief Editor of the Malayala Manorama group, is out. Mathew actually wrote his book between 2002 and 2007 in Malayalam. This was later translated into English.
Sir C.P. was a lawyer who had been Advocate General of the then Madras Presidency. He had been described as one of the cleverest men in India. In 1936, he became the Dewan and de facto ruler of the then state of Travancore. Sir C.P. backed an unsuccessful attempt to keep Travancore out of the Indian union and left Travancore after a failed assassination bid on his life. He is portrayed as the villain of this story whose evil machinations brought ruin to Mammen Mappillai and his family.
The war led to a run on the Travancore National and Quilon Bank - promoted by Mammen Mappillai and C.P. Matthen, a Quilon-based businessman - which Mathew maintains was engineered by Sir C.P.; the jailing of Mammen Mappillai, the sale of the family's insurance company and the closure of the Malayala Manorama for nine years from September 1938.
Mathew deals authoritatively with the history of Kerala's social and political movements, with his days in school and at Madras Christian College. But The Eighth Ring - Mathew was his father's eighth child and Mammen Mappillai gave each of his children rings - is also a ser-ies of random memories, as he puts it. As a result, the book jumps from topic to topic, and yet some of the anecdotes he recounts are delightful.
Incidentally, my father, too, finds a mention. He was at Madras Christian College with Mathew, and Mathew stayed with him in Istanbul, Turkey, where the archbishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church plied them at lunch with potent wine till their heads spun.
The book's landscape largely features Kerala and the Syrian Christian community. The Malayalam version would have attracted a wide readership. But will the English translation of the book be of great interest to non-Malayalees? That has to be seen.
Mathew's account of his life is peppered with Malayalee nicknames for his brothers and others. Readers have to wade through names such as Oonnoonichayan (K.M. Cherian) and Peelikkutty (K.M. Philip), and then flip pages to figure out who they are.
Clearly, someone worked on this book after Mathew died in August 2010 at the age of 93 - it mentions the death of my father, which happened in January 2013, after Mathew died.
Still, many in Kerala regard Mathew as a visionary. Under his stewardship, the paper expanded, with editions all over the country and in West Asia. Magazines (Vanitha - the women's magazine, Balarama - a magazine for children, The Week - news magazine, to name some) were launched, as were television channels and internet editions of many of these publications. And in his lifetime, the newspaper's circulation topped 16 lakh.
Does that story merit another book? Over to Mathew's sons.
The reviewer is a veteran journalist