The classic poetic culture of Malayalam has turned new generation with the launch of the first Global Network for Malayalam Poetry on the second International Malayalam Poetry Day celebrated on Monday.
A variety of programmes were conducted as part of the International Malayalam Poetry Day (‘Malayala kavitha dinam’) celebrations organised under the auspices of Kavyakeli, a Facebook community exclusively for Malayalam poetry, at Mahakavi Kumaran Asan Smarakam, Thonnakkal here, on Monday. As part of the celebrations, a Global Network for Malayalam Poetry (‘Agola kavitha srinkhala’) was also launched by the group to promote the spread of Malayalam poetry via mobile phones and internet. The network was opened by poet O N V Kurup by sending a poem by G Sankara Kurup’s to another poet Balachandran Chullikkadu via SMS. The initiative will be promoted by various Malayalam online communities by enhancing the propagation of Malayalam poems as SMS, e-mails, Facebook posts and personal messages.
“We are planning to organise the event and observe Malayalam Poetry Day every year on December 16, or the first day of the ‘Dhanu’ month in the Malayalam calendar. The significance of this particular day is that it was on Dhanu 1 in 1907 that the epoch-making poem ‘Veenapoovu’ by Mahakavi Kumaran Asan was published. Veenapoovu revolutionised Malayalam poetry and it is apt to celebrate the day as the Annual Poetry Day,” said T K Vinodan, Kavyakeli group administrator and one of the organisers of the event.
The first Malayalam Poetry Day was celebrated a year ago at the same venue by the group. The programme aims at promoting Malayalam poetry and the classic Malayalam literature among the younger generation with the help of new media.
The all-day event conducted at Thonnakkal was blessed with presence of Malayalam writers O V Usha, Kureepuzha Sreekumar and Shihabuddin Poythumkadavu. This year the major programmes included recitation, group listening and translation of poems. Discussions and review meetings of Malayalam poetry were also held.
The group had also taken the initiative to organise Malayalam Poetry Day celebrations in various schools and other institutions across the state on the day. It said that anybody can celebrate Poetry Day by organising events according to their tastes, talents and interests relating to Malayalam poetry.
Meanwhile, the admirers of Malayalam poetry across the world celebrated the day by exchanging books, sharing poetry collections and by exhibiting poems at libraries and cultural institutions. In solidarity with this movement, Malayalam Poetry Day was celebrated in Singapore by ‘Pravasi Express’, a fortnightly newspaper published from there.