Ollur: Kallookkaran Jose Cleetus (55), a resident of BSF Road, Kokkath, Puthur in Thrissur, owns a rare collection of school textbooks which are one hundred years old. The books preserved by Jose were used by his ancestors in 1925 and 1930. Some of these textbooks were originally priced at six annas (equivalent to current 35 paise).

Jose owns 25 such textbooks, most of which deal with English and Malayalam. A few of the textbooks were printed in England. Jose’s ancestors studied these textbooks while they were enrolled at various schools in Ollur and St Thomas College, Thrissur.

Jose started collecting books ever since he developed the reading habit at the age of 17, and now owns around 2,000 different titles. He has books from 20 countries on topics such as history, biography, novel, travelogue, children’s literature, English grammar and cartography. Books donated by Aswathy Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi of the Travancore royal family are among the highlights of his collection.

Notable volumes include those related to Malayala Manorama such as the souvenir published to celebrate the diamond anniversary of the publication in 1949, the centenary edition in 1988 and the quasquicentennial edition in 2013. Jose also possesses each and every issue of Manorama’s ‘Balarama Digest’ and ‘Traveller’ since their launch.

In addition to books, Jose has carefully preserved certain artefacts aged around 100 years used by his ancestors such as ‘kolambi’ (spittoon), chair, box to keep clothes, the traditional cooking vessel ‘uruli’, a device to sharpen blade and ‘bharanis’ (earthen jars). Yet another highlight of Jose’s collection is a bunch of handwritten manuscripts from the eighteenth century.

Jose, who runs Excel Graphics, a DTP centre, at Post Office Road in Thrissur also loves travelling, and is an executive member of KHRS, an organisation promoting visits to historic monuments.