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It should be noted that the Malayalam media’s Chennai-ward looking has been strengthened recently by the launch of the Chennai editions of the two leading Malayalam dailies. What the media presents as hot cakes from the city of idly creates more ripples in Kerala than in Chennai or among Chennai Malayalees. The same ripples were created in Kerala when the media reported the drive of some Chennai Malayalee sportspersons to form the Kerala Sportspersons Association (KESPA). KESPA organisers, especially Padmashree Shiny Wilson, received a number of queries from Kerala about the new outfit. In the case of KESPA, the media could evoke the Keralaite curiousity as most of the organisers are whom Malayalees are proud of. They include Shiny Wilson, Wilson Cherian, Saramma K, Sebastian Xavier, Roopa Unnikrishnan, Tinu Yohannan…
When Jayasankar, with the active support of his wife Prasanna, decided to form an organisation of Malayalee sportspersons in Chennai, their friends extended full support: “Start it; we are with you,” they said in a chorus. KESPA, which going to be launched in June, will primarily serve as a platform for Malayalee sportspersons to meet one another. “We played together for years and are intimate friends. But we don’t have a platform to meet. KESPA will fill this gap,” Jayasankar says. “Nobody returns to the game once she/he retires. I want to stop the trend. KESPA stands for bringing back sportspersons’ experience to sports,” he says. KESPA’s other aims include: To encourage sportspersons’ children becoming sportspersons, to work against politics in selection, to act as an official body while representing any grievance to the government, to provide financial aid to ailing sportspersons… We will understand the importance of an outfit like KESPA only if we look at the experience of a new sportsperson from Kerala who sets up house in Chennai for a good job and better exposure.
“All the players face the same problem. There is nobody to guide them. There are a lot of sportspersons who returned to Kerala without becoming anybody. There should be somebody to help them. It is the duty of us seniors to help the youngsters who come here. KESPA will guide them,” Prasanna adds. Shiny Wilson reflected the same view when she said, “The youngsters who come here from Kerala face many problems. We seniors can help them very well if work together.” Here is a noble cause which will take KESPA’s name everywhere, and KESPA has the potential to be the best Malayalee association outside Kerala. Salil Jose Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to salil@chennaionline.com.
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It has been a strong passion with the media in Kerala to present Chennai as a city where ‘milk and honey flows’. They find many things in Chennai worth presenting to the Kerala readers. And the average Malayalee reader, who has never been to Chennai, develops a hyperbolic impression of the city.
“In no other place will you find so many international and national Malayalee sportsperson as in Chennai. There are two Padmashree awardees, four or five Arjuna awardees, more than 10 Indian team captains and a number of Olympians. There are about 150 such families. That is why KESPA got such a label even before its formal launch,” Asian All-Star basketball player Jayasankar Menon, whose brainchild KESPA is, says.
“I was one of the first sportspersons to come to Chennai. When I came here I faced many problems - accommodation, food, language climate,” Prasanna Jayasankar Menon says.
