January
Beyond the sun
Under S Somanath’s leadership, ISRO’s Aditya-L1 mission, dedicated to observe the Sun, reached a critical milestone when the spacecraft was inserted at the L1 point on January 6.
Honourable mention: Eight Keralites were honoured with Padma awards. Late M Fathima Beevi (posthumous), the first female judge of the Supreme Court, and BJP leader O Rajagopal were awarded Padma Bhushan. Padma Shri went to educationist P Chithran Namboodiripad, Kathakali exponent Sadanam Balakrishnan, Theyyam veteran Narayanan E P, farmer Sathyanarayana Beleri, spiritual guru Muni Narayana Prasad, and Travancore Royal family member Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi.
February
Space Odyssey
Palakkad native Group Captain Prashant B Nair of the Indian Air Force was announced as one of the four designated astronauts chosen for ISRO’s Gaganyaan Mission, India’s first human spaceflight programme.
Honourable mention: Father of Green Revolution M S Swaminathan was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna.
March
Band of Brothers
A band of friends from Manjummel in Kochi became a national sensation when a movie based on their miraculous escape in Kodaikanal, titled Manjummel Boys, became a blockbuster hit.
April
No man left behind
In an extraordinary act of unity, Malayalis worldwide raised Rs 34 crore in four days to secure the release of Abdul Rahim, a Kozhikode native facing death penalty in Saudi Arabia.
The campaign was hailed as the ‘Real Kerala Story’.
May
A new light
Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light created history at Cannes 2024, winning the prestigious Grand Prix, the second-highest honour at the festival. It is the first Indian film in 30 years to compete in Cannes’ main category.
June
City goes lit
On June 23, Kozhikode was officially declared India’s first UNESCO ‘City of Literature’. The previous year, the city had entered the ‘Literature’ category of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Kerala will celebrate June 23 as the ‘City of Literature’ Day of Kozhikode.
July
Full sail
On July 11, barely a month after its inauguration, India’s first deep-water container transhipment port at Vizhinjam welcomed its first ship - San Fernando.
Honourable mention: Within weeks of its release, Malappuram-born rapper Hanumankind’s (Sooraj Cherukat) song Big Dawgs topped global charts, outpacing Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us and Eminem’s Houdini.
August
Top of the game
Sporting icon P R Sreejesh becomes the first Keralite to win two Olympic medals. He secured his second bronze when India defeated Spain 2-1 in a thrilling hockey match in Paris.
Honourable mentions: The long-awaited Hema Committee report on challenges faced by women in the Malayalam film industry was finally released.
Malayalam cinema struck gold at the 70th National Film Awards with 10 awards in various categories. Anand Ekarshi directorial Aattam topped the list of laurels winning three major awards including Best Feature Film.
September
A matter of heart
Malayalam cinema lost its ‘mother’ when beloved actor Kaviyoor Ponnamma passed away on September 20.
Honourable mention: Kerala made global headlines when 14 patients undergoing treatment for amoebic meningoencephalitis, a rare and almost always fatal brain infection caused by Naegleria fowleri (a brain-eating amoeba), recovered successfully.
October
DREAM VOYAGE
Lieutenant commanders Dilna K and Roopa Alagirisamy embarked on an extraordinary mission to circumnavigate the globe.
Dilna (R in pic) hails from Kozhikode and Roopa, Puducherry.
Honourable mention: Asha Sobhana became the first Malayali to play in a women’s World Cup match.
November
HOME RUN
Cricketer Sanju Samson became the first in T20I history to score three centuries in a calendar year. It also included two centuries in a bilateral series, making Sanju only the second person to achieve this feat.
The Thiruvananthapuram native now holds the spot for the third-highest number of T20I centuries (three) by an Indian batter.
December
ETERNAL VOID
Literary giant and auteur M T Vasudevan Nair, often referred to simply as MT, passed away on December 25, leaving an eternal void in the state’s socio-cultural and literary spheres.
