KOCHI: Writer K L Mohanavarma was presented with the Balamani Amma Award, instituted by the Kochi International Book Festival Committee in the name of poet Balamani Amma.Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan presented the award to Mohanavarma at a ceremony held at the Ernakulathappan Ground, where the Kochi International Book Fest is being held.Adoor hailed Mohanavarma on the wide variety of topics he dwells on. “Share market has been an unfamiliar terrain for majority of Keralites, but Mohanavarma brought clarity to the subject through his articles.
Similarly, his books on sports-based themes are quite commendable,” he said. Adoor said though he had attended the Balamani Amma award presentation earlier, this time around he is infinitely happier since the winner happens to be a close friend. Moreover, the award is instituted to perpetuate the literary legacy bequeathed by a poet of yore. Poet S Rameshan Nair, who presided over the function, showered encomiums on Balamani Amma’s poetic impulse and her body of work. He recited a few lines from Balamani Amma’s poems and said it was only because of language barriers she was unable to get universal recognition.
Sulochana Nalapat, daughter of Balamani Amma, said: “Earlier, I was not much familiar with Mohanavarma’s works. But when I came to know about them in detail, I realised what a remarkable writer he is.”“I am proud to have been born as Balamani Amma’s daughter,” said Nalapat, who expressed her happiness to be part of the function.
Writer Mohanavarma expressed his gratitude to the organisers for considering him for the award. Mohanavarma said he had been part of the book festival committee from its inception and felt happy to get recognition from them. He also shared his thoughts on Balamani Amma’s poems and noted though her works were famous for depicting motherhood, they were much more than that.
“It had so much of depth and spoke about women struggle and freedom. One should never categorise her works under ‘motherhood’ alone,” he said. A painting of Mohanavarma was also presented to him by one his admirers, Satkala Vijayan, at the function. The International Book Festival, which started on December 1 will conclude on December 10.