TAGORE AWARD PRESENTED TO
AKKITHAM
Poet Akkitham
Achuthan Namboothiri receiving the Tagore Literature Award from Union Minister
for Corporate Affairs Veerappa Moily in Kochi on Tuesday. Photo: Vipin Chandran
Veteran poet Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri had his first poem, Tagore,
published in a little magazine when he was just an 11-year-old. It seems he won
an award for that debut published work 75 years later, as the humanist poet
received the Tagore Literature Award instituted by Samsung and the Central
Sahitya Akademi at a ceremony on Tuesday12nd June,2012. “This recognition is
for my first poem,” he said after receiving the award from Union Minister for
Corporate Affairs M. Veerappa Moily and recited the English rendering of the
short poem.
Besides
Akkitham, who was selected for the award for his anthology of poems, Anthimahakaalan
in Malayalam, six more writers —Amitav Ghosh for Sea of Poppies
(English); Sheela Kolambkar for Geera (Konkani); Jagdish Prasad Mandal
for Gaamak Jingi (Maithili); N. Kunjamohan Singh for Eina Kenge Kenba
Natte (Manipuri); Indramani Darnal for Krishna Krishna (Nepali) and
Arjan Hasid for Na Ien Na (Sindhi) — won the award for works published
between 2007 and 2009. Speaking on the occasion, Janpith awardee ONV Kurup said
that the universal humanism of Tagore poetry was all the more relevant today. A
multi-faceted personality who rose to be the champion of the freedom and love,
Gurudev Tagore was a saint-poet of modern India and belonged to the Arsha
Kavi tradition that traced its roots back to Valmiki, he said.Sahitya
Akademi secretary Agrahara Krishna Murthy and Samsung South West Asia President
and CEO B.D. Park spoke.
Prof. John Kurakar
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