Eternal love of the spotless mind

Moideen, her childhood friend, her companion in youth and her only love, had drowned after having saved a handful of people who were thrown into the swirling waters of the Iruvazhinji on a stormy monsoon day in 1982.

A river flows close by her home that she hadn't seen for 27-odd years.
And when she ventured out to traverse the sweeping expanse of the Iruvazhinji River in Mukkam, near Kozhikode, it was to narrate her story to the world, a story drowned in sobs and silence. That day, six years ago, Kanchanamala, the unmarried widow of BP Moideen, drenched herself in rain. Her tears merged with the painfully heavy drops and she refused the shelter of an umbrella.
If she could count them as enemies, she had two right there - the rain and the river. They had snatched her love, the love of her life, from her.
Moideen, her childhood friend, her companion in youth and her only love, had drowned after having saved a handful of people who were thrown into the swirling waters of the Iruvazhinji on a stormy monsoon day in 1982.
A newspaper report of the tragedy says Moideen, despite being asked to return to safety, had ventured into the waters again, in a futile attempt to save one more boy before a whirlpool pulled both to their death.
It took three days to find Moideen's body. He was only 44: An abrupt end to a rock-star life of literature, football, fine arts, politics and social service.
A shell-shocked Kanchanamala, 41 years old then, shocked the world further when she decided to live her life as a 'widow,' after six unsuccessful attempts to end her life. It took another brave woman to bring Kanchanamala anywhere close back to life.
Moideen's mother invited her home, where Kanchana lives now deeply engaged in a number of philanthropic deeds in memory of Moideen.
Ironically, it was Moideen's death that also gave Kanchanamala 'freedom.' For a good 25 years before that, she was confined to a single room. The inter-faith love of Kanchana and Moideen, in those times, was not palatable for their highly influential families.
As children, the two used to cross the Iruvazhinji to take a bus to Kozhikode to go to school. Later they met as college students too, and love blossomed. But when the romance came to light, Kanchanamala was summarily forced out of college, and all her social life cut off.
If Kanchana was in solitary confinement, Moideen had to outlive two attacks on him by his own father - one time he was shot at and the next stabbed, which resulted in multiple wounds.
The romance of Kanchana and Moideen, however, was kept alive through letters, written in a 'script' that Kanchana developed - using alphabets from different languages and by twisting common words in her inimitable fashion.
There is only person in the world who can read it today - Kanchanamala.
Moideen and Kanchana hardly met during those 25 years of 'romance.' At one time they saw each other after 10 long years, again, on the Iruvazhinji. All they exchanged were a few whispers.
They could have eloped, as many lovers tend to do. They didn't out of consideration that the social stigma would have affected Kanchana's siblings. As platonic as it gets, their love outlived Moideen's death - in Kanchanamala, a living 'Taj Mahal,' if you may.
Twenty-seven years later, Kanchana saw Iruvazhinji again and sat on a wooden canoe silent as death. RS Vimal documented the moments for an award-winning documentary, Jalam Kondu Murivettaval (One Who Was Wounded by Water). The documentary has now spawned a feature-length film, Ennu Ninte Moideen.
Despite its rousing success and critical review, Kanchanamala has not yet watched the film. Real-life makes for great movies but for real characters, reliving their pain, even in reel, might perhaps be as painful as death.

• South Stars