പണ്ഡിതൻ, വാഗ്മി , പത്രാധിപർ അദ്ധ്യാപകൻ, ഭരണകർത്താവ് എന്നീ നിലകളിൽ അരനൂറ്റാണ്ട് കാലം കേരളത്തിന്റെ സാമൂഹികജീവിതത്തിൽ നിറഞ്ഞുനിന്ന മുണ്ടശ്ശേരി തന്റെ ജീവിതകാലതെക്കുറിച്ച് കൊഴിഞ്ഞ ഇലകളിൽ എഴുതുന്നു .സാംസ്കാരിക - രാഷ്ട്രീയ - സാമൂഹിക വിഷയങ്ങൾ തുടങ്ങിയ അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ ധിഷണ വ്യാപരിച്ച എല്ലാ ലോകങ്ങളുടെയും വരമൊഴി സാക്ഷ്യമായ ഈ പുസ്തകം മലയാളിയുടെ പ്രക്ഷുബ്ധമായ ഒരു കാലഘട്ടത്തിന്റെ അനുഭവസാക്ഷ്യം കൂടിയാണ്
Professor Joseph Mundassert was a well known , intellect, critic, educationist and orator.
He did his schooling in Thrissur and completed his college education at St Thomas College Thrissur and St Joseph College Trichy. Joined the St Joseph College as a Lecturer and got active in the political and cultural sphere.He was selected as an MLA to both Kochi and THirukochi assemblies.
He was the first Education minister of kerala, in the EMS's ministry, and also served as a member of the planning board, and was the first vice chancellor of the Cochin University.
Held the editorial positions at the Mangalodayam, 'Keralam' and Navajeevan and served as the president of 'Purogamanana sahitya prasthanam'(Progressive Writers Movement) and 'Sahityaparishathu'.
Joseph Mundassery is today remembered as the architect of the education bill that provoked “Vimochana Samaram” which brought down the first communist government of Kerala. Apart from being a communist fellow traveller and Kerala’s first education minister, he had many other facets. Mundassery was born in a conservative Catholic family of Thrissur. He graduated in science from St. Joseph’s college Trichy, a Jesuit institution, which was then a major centre of higher learning for Kerala’s catholics. He joined the science faculty of St. Thomas college, Thrissur, as an instructor. Having acquired post graduate degrees in Malayalam and Sanskrit, he became the head of the department of Malayalam in St. Thomas College, in which capacity he continued for more than two decades. Mundasserry had a literary bent right from his childhood. 'Akshara slokam' was one of this childhood passions. But as a teacher, he started applying western standards of literary criticism to the analysis of malayalam literature. In the process, he crushed many idols, notably Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer. Mundasserry also played a key role in the canonization of Asan as modern Kerala’s greatest poet. Through his writings and organizational activities, he gave respectability to the progressive movement in Malayalam literature. As an independent minded man, he stood up for his rights as a teacher against the Catholic management of his college. This ultimately resulted in his getting fired from the institution after some 25 years of service. His personal experiences as a teacher in a private management college had something to do with his championing of the cause of private school teachers in his education bill. In today’s Kerala, literary figures, with a broadly leftist ideology and affilialted to various cultural institutions of the state, command enormous power. Mudassery was the man who created this cultural elite through institutions like, Kerala Sahitya Academy. Kerala Lalith Kala Academy and so many others, most of them situated in his home town of Thrissur. Apart from literature, education was his pet subject. He stood for skill training for children at school level on the pattern of Germany. After his exit from the ministry, he became the Vice Chancelloer of Cochin University, where he tried to create Kerala’s first non affiliating university. Mundassery was a family man. His desperate efforts to give modern and professional education to his many children within the constraints of his limited income, makes for poignant reading. This book gives a ringside view of a crucial era in Kerala’s modern history. In Malayalam, this books is regarded as a classic and is still widely read. I read it in a competently done recent English translation by Mini Chandran, bearing the title, 'Autumnal Memories'.
Prof. Joseph Mundassery,The first education minister of Government of Kerala, wrote his memoir in way all the readers could peek through his life. It is worth for its rating because I think, his way of presentation was worth of it. Above all its a good book that every reader should read.