Zacharia suggests birdwatching as post-retirement activity

Well-paid pensioners encouraged to take up birdwatching, with a photo exhibition honoring writer and bird watcher Induchoodan.

Writer Zacharia on Thursday suggested that well-paid pensioners could do birdwatching instead of idling at home.

He was speaking after inaugurating a photo exhibition titled, ‘Padiparakkunna Malayalam’ in connection with the birth centenary of writer and bird watcher Induchoodan at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery.

Birdwatching enhances people’s memory, thinking prowess, and eyesight, he said. The writer added that the recent republication of the book, The Birds of Kerala, by V.T. Induchoodan, the biography, Birds and a Man, by Suresh Elamon, and the photo exhibition would all help resurrect the memories of the great writer Induchoodan. The Birds of Kerala contains the best Malayalam prose. Mr. Zacharia said it was books like this that made him a writer.

Writer-actor V.K. Sreeraman recalled that Mr. Zacharia had written about his father reading a few pages of The Birds of Kerala every night before going to sleep. In all, 61 photographs by 23 photographers including celebrity lensmen and actor Mammootty are on show at the exhibition.

The picture of a bulbul resting on the tip of a tree branch taken by Mammootty will be auctioned on June 30, the last day of the exhibition, to raise funds for the Induchoodan Foundation, which is organising the event. On June 30, at 5.30 p.m., critic M.K. Sanoo, who was Induchoodan’s colleague, will speak in his memory. On June 29, at 5.30 p.m., bird watcher Manoj Karingamadathil will speak.

The show was curated by writer and naturalist Suresh Elamon, writer Sreedevi Madhavan, and art critic M. Ramachandran.