Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer was born in the year 1908. He was one of the early Muslim writers to gain wide renown as a novelist in Malayalam. Basheer had very formal education. Most of his works were based on his own rich personal experience rather than on books from the past. When he was in class five at school, Basheer left home to take part in the Salt Satyagraha. Later he spent years wandering in different parts of India and travelling even to Arabia, working in a ship, living with Sufis and Hindu sanyasis, and training as a wrestler.