Shamnad, a street bookseller-turned-writer in Kerala

Kochi, Sep.20 (ANI): A 24-year-old street bookseller in Kochi, who could not have formal education beyond seventh grade in school, has penned a collection of poems and has a novel in the offing.

The anthology titled 'Episode', with poems that talk of love, solitude, pain, loneliness was recently released at Kerala Sahitya Akademi in Thrissur, Kerala.

Shamnad had to give up his studies due to poverty and joined his father who used to sell second-hand books.

After his father's death, the responsibility of mother and three visually challenged sisters was on him.

Shamnad says that while sitting in a street corner with books of great writers spread before him at his shop to sale, he decided to explore his latent talent.

Having tried writing in spare time, Shamnad realised that he had developed an inclination to write.

"I noticed that everyone had some kind of skills but I never noticed mine. I could only read. I used to read with my old books to pass time. One day, I thought of penning down my thoughts and sufferings. Later, I started reading more books of many famous English writers, the novels translated in Malayalam language and magazines and that is how I developed deep interest in writing," says Shamnad.

His soulful poetry won him appreciation and a number of admirers including Vaisakhan, a famous Malayalam writer.

"Shamnad is a genuine poet. Actually his profession is that he is selling the books on the street side, but his poems are like gems. That shows education is not contributing much to the creativity of a person. He could write very very lofty ideas using very simple words,' says Vaisakhan about Shamnad's poetry.

With a novel in the offing, who knows Shamnad's books may be sharing shelf space with other famous names he today sells at his makeshift stall. By Juhan Samuel (ANI)