K. E. Mathai, better known by his nom de plume “Parappurath”, was six years senior to me. He became the President of Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society, world’s largest writers publishing co-operative. Aranazhika Neram novel about fleeting shortness of human life compared to God, eternity and in the context of the Big Bang theory about the origin of the universe had attracted me for a long time. Parappurath had won the M.P. Paul’s Prize. M.P. Paul was a writer whom I admired and whose daughter was my classmate in Union Christian College, Aluva. In 1974, when I was located in a place called Rasayani in Maharashtra while I served the company HOCL (Hindustan Organic Chemicals Lid.), I translated Aranazhika Neram by sitting late at night after my wife and children had gone to sleep. As I remember it took about four months when Aranazhika Neram was translated under the name A Half Hour’s Time. But the translation had remained with me without being published so long. Because of the bilingual expertise which I developed in New Delhi, I had plans at that time to translate maximum number of world-class Malayalam books into English. I also contacted Mr. Parappurath and got his permission to translate the book into English. This written permission is not with me now. But fortunately Parappurath’s son who is also a writer and who is abroad is my son’s friend and the question of copyright for translation has been solved by him.
A Half Hour’s Time has been published by Avanti Printers, Kottayam. I request everyone to buy the book priced Rs. 150 from Avanty Publishers or other book stalls where it is available.
