"Ente Thankam" (My Darling) is a short story written by

Vaikom Muhammad Basheer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (21 January 1908 – 5 July 1994), popularly referred to as Beypore Sulthan, was a writer of Malayalam literature. He was a writer, humanist, freedom fighter, novelist and short story writer, noted for his path-breaking, ...

. It is his first published work. Originally published in the now-defunct newspaper ''Jayakesari'' in 1937, it was later published in the collection '' Vishappu'' (''Hunger'', 1954, Current Books) under the name "Thankam". A path-breaker in Malayalam romantic fiction, it had its heroine a dark-complexioned hunchback.

Background

After doing menial jobs in cities such as

Ajmer Ajmer is one of the major and oldest cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan and the centre of the eponymous Ajmer District. It is located at the centre of Rajasthan. It is also known as heart of Rajasthan. The city was established as "' ...

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

, Kashmir and

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, Basheer returned to Ernakulam some time in the mid-1930s. While trying his hands at various jobs, like washing vessels in hotels, he met a manufacturer of sports goods from Sialkot who offered him an agency in Kerala. And Basheer finally returned home to find his father's business bankrupt and the family impoverished. He started working as an agent for the Sialkot sports company at Ernakulam. But he lost the agency when a bicycle accident incapacitated him temporarily. On recovering, he resumed his endless hunt for jobs. He walked into the office of a newspaper ''Jayakesari'' whose editor was also its sole employee. He did not have a position to offer, but offered to pay money if Basheer wrote a story for the paper. Thus Basheer found himself writing stories for ''Jayakesari'' and it was in this paper that "Ente Thankam" (My Darling) was published in the year 1937.

References

1937 short stories Short stories by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer Malayalam short stories Works originally published in Indian newspapers {{1930s-story-stub