NOTES 57 and revolution? Though we were vigilant and sometimes even jealous in guarding the scientific purity of our outlook, and unsparing in our criticism of alien trends, the study circles functioned as a broad forum of debate, discussion and creativity. There are but few among the older generation of writers who would not consider it an honour to be invited to our platforms., even to face a barrage of adverse cirticism and argument. Writers like N V Krishna Warrier, M T Vasudevan Nair, S K Pottekkatt, P C Kuttikrishnan Vyioppilly Sreedhara Menon, P K Sivasankara Pillai, K Damodaran. Pavanan, Ayyappa Panicker, Kainikkara Kumara Pillai, G Sankara Pillai, Balamony Amma, Kakkanadan, Joseph Mundassery, M K Sanu, M S Menon and others, who can by no means be put in the same category as the circle's sponsors, are ready and willing to cooperate with us. Some of them are agreeable, a few neutral and others opposed to what we stand for. Theirs are names to conjure with in modern Malayalam literature. But eminence is by no means their monopoly: it is shared equally by the sponsors and leaders of the study circle movement like E M S Namboodi-ripad, Cherukat, Thayat Sankaran, M K Chandrasekharan, E K Nayanar, V Aravindakshan, P Valsala, Sreerekha, lyyankode Sree" dharan, G Janardhana Kurup, Punalur Balan, A P Kalakkad, P A Syed Mohammed, M N Kurup and others. Though the awards of government, the Academies and other establishment organs are no decisive criteria of excellence, the fact that many of the latter group had honour and recognition bestowed on them from such bodies need not have to go unmentioned. Encouraging New Writers The new generation of authors who came to prominence under the inspiration of the study circles can count among their number critics like Vasanthan, Appukuttan, Rajeevan, Kuttikrishnan and Mohanan; poets V P Vasudevan, Abu Baker, Ezhachery, Krishnan Kutty, S Ramesan; short-story writers like C V Balakrishnan, T M Varghese, Lalitha, Devi, M K Gangadharan, Bakkalam Damodaran, Haridas Verkode, Prabha-karan, Nassar, Jayaraj and Bharathi Devi who are fast making their mark on the literary scene ofKerala. Another significant development pertains to quite a few talented writers who till recently had been roaming the wilderness of Modernism, Ultra-modernism, Extremism, Existentialism and what have you. Though one would not say that they have finally found their feet firmly on the highway of science and revolution, there are unmistakable signs of their being strongly drawn towards our movement. Among these may be mentioned Sachidanandan, Sankara Pillai, Rajeevan, Vinayachandran and B Krishnan Nair. They were moved neither by flattery nor compromise. Our principled stand on their aberrations was combined with a readiness to give them a patient hearing and to appreciate the style and dazzle of their writing which held much that was of value to our members. This approach acted as a powerful inducement to extricate themselves