Kumaran Asan As A Business Man

Kumaran Asan – One among the Triumvirate poets of modern Malayalam was a business man also. He is fondly known as ‘Asan’ for the contributions given to Malayalam literature. He is the only ‘Maha Kavi’ of Malayalam who got that title without writing any ‘Mahakavyam’ (Great poem). But only a few persons know him as a business man. Writers are most notorious for spending their life without any time table, discipline and mind filled with mad thoughts and addiction to drugs. Kumaran Asan was an exception to all these modern principles. Apart from starting a tile factory in Ernakulam, he has also started a printing press with the name, Sharada books depot. So, not only through his writings, but also through his business, he proved that he was a responsible person who thinks about the future of his family. Through this article I would like to reveal his untold episode of his business career that I read from Mathrubhumi Newspaper.

Once pointing towards full moon, a poet told a business man, “What a beautiful sight to see the full moon!” The business man replied, “For what use? It can’t serve the purpose, even to dry coconuts!” That’s the difference between writers and businessman – extremely two distinct poles that never intersect or go together. But Asan was a poet who proved that business also belongs to him.

Seeing that printing presses make high profits from his poems, Asan started a printing press. As long as he was alive and till the end of copy rights of Asan’s poems, Sharada books depot was alive. Now let me mention about his tile business – a tile factory started by Kumaran Asan at Ernakulam. He got married at the age of 40 and started tile factory that time. As per the trends that time, during early 1900’s it can be termed as a modern concept. He initiated ‘Union Tile Works’ at Aluva in 1921 with the help of a few friends. But when he found that clay used for making tiles pollute the palace pond, he left the project and handed over that piece of land to Narayana Guru to build Adwaytha Ashramam.

Then he started the project nearby Aluva river so that water and fire wood can be get sufficient. Also transport of prepared tiles was also easy. They used water ways to transport 4k to 5k tiles at a time. Just a few days later, with the success initiation, Kumaran Asan passed away in a boat accident. Later his wife Bhanumathi Amma took care of the tile company and successfully ran the company during 1940’s to 1960’s. She even bought all the shares of the company. But when concrete homes came into exist and new laws were implemented in clay mining, growth of tile factory deteriorated and now, with 10 sons from second marriage, this tile factory is put for audition.

It has been 60 years or more since Asan started this project. This tile factory may be destroyed to build up new constructions. Yet, they are the live monuments of the greatest poet of Malayalam literature that poets also have aims and destinations, they also pay due respect to their responsibilities to family as well as society.