THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Poet O N V Kurup has always been holding high the flag of green politics rather than the flag of any particular political party, according to poet Sugathakumari. Releasing the memoirs of O N V Kurup ‘Pokkuveyi Mannilezhuthiyathu’ published by Chintha Publishers here on Thursday, she said mother earth has always been the central theme in his poems ever since he started writing lyrics for plays staged by KPAC theatre group.
“In his songs and poems, he instilled the idea of universal love. Love for the mother earth and fellow human beings,’’ she pointed out.
She also said ONV has been striving hard to serve mother tongue Malayalam. “He always remained with his roots dug deep into the earth. He fought vehemently against the elimination of the green forests and destruction of the environment. Through ‘Bhoomikkoru Charamageetham’ and ‘Uppu’, he was making known his philosophy of Green politics,” she pointed out.
Sugathakumari, who led the campaign for protecting Silent Valley, recollected that ONV was one of the very few writers who came out in support of the movement braving the attacks from powerful political parties.
Receiving the copy of the book from Sugathakumari, noted poet V Madhusoodhanan Nair said ONV was an infinite letter (alphabet) and will remain a master in the days to come. He said ONV, who released his first anthology of poems in 1949, has been serving his mother tongue all these years. Referring to the memoirs, Nair said ONV has not used the book to belittle anyone or paint anyone black.
Poet Ezhacherry Ramachandran and T N Seema MP spoke on ONV’s poems and lyrics. The speakers opined that ONV could have added more in his book .They hoped and wished that ONV would come out with his memoirs as teacher, theatre activist, music lover and lyricist.
Students of Malayalam Pallikkoodam sang ONV’s poem ‘Oru thai nadumpol oru thanal nadunnu.’
CPM district secretary Kadakampally Surendran presided over the function.
Owing to ill health, ONV could not attend the event. However, his message was read out. In his poetic prose, ONV said what he had been trying to convey to the readers was some of the ‘fragrant stones ‘ of his memoirs he had collected from the days starting from his childhood days.
Maybe for the first time in the history of a book, the book release function was held simultaneously at four centres in the state.
M T Vasudevan Nair, Chemmanam Chacko and CPM leader M A Baby released the books at Kozhikode, Kochi and Kollam respectively.
Chintha Publishers general manager V K Joseph welcomed the gathering and Shaji proposed the vote of thanks.