M. N. Paloor

Paloor Madhavan Namboothiri(22 June 1932 - 9 October 2018), commonly known asM. N. Paloor,was aMalayalam-languagepoet fromKerala,India.He was one of the early modernist poets in Malayalam but his writings were steeped in the poetic tradition of Malayalam. He was a recipient of theKerala Sahitya Akademi Award,the state's highest literary honour, in 1983 for his collectionKalikalam.He also received theKendra Sahitya Akademi Awardfor his autobiographyKathayillathavante Kathain 2013.

Life

He was born as the son of Palooru Manakkal Madhavan Namboothiri, Sr. and Sreedevi Antharjanam on 22 June 1932 inParakkadavu,Ernakulam.Hailing from a very conservativeNamboothirifamily, he learnedSanskritunder scholarK. P. Narayana Pisharodyat an early age. He also had the opportunity to learnKathakaliatKerala Kalamandalamunder Pattikkanthodi Ravunny Menon and Vazhenkada Kunju Nair.He is not formally educated.

Growing up in an impoverished Namboothiri household in Paravoor, poetry was his mother's most precious gift to him. His mother got married at the age of 14. She would recite him poems, of G. Sankara Kurup, of Poonthanam and Ezhuthachan.He repeated verses everywhere, at home, while playing or merely gazing at the waters of the Chalakkudy river.

He left home toBombayand engaged in different trades for a living. He had served the Indian Airlines in Bombay. He worked first in the transport department and later in the maintenance section and retired as Senior operator of Ground Supporting Division in 1990. After retirement he settled in Kovoor inCalicut.He died due to age-related ailments on 9 October 2018, at the age of 86.

Poetry

Paloor is the author of some of the finest Malayalam poems of the latter half of the 20th century. His major collections areKalikalam, Pedithondan, Theerthayathra, Bhangiyum Abhangiyum, Sangamasangeetham, PachamangaandSarga Dhara.

It was a personal tragedy that made him turn to poetry seriously. "It was after my sister's death at the age of 22 that poetry grew in stature in my life," he says.

Paloor's poems traced the sufferings of mankind involving all the complexities of a highly urbanised system. He is one of those poets who were part of a major turning point in the history of 20th-century Malayalam poetry. Poet and scholarK. Satchidanandanwrites inIndian Literature,theSahitya Akademipublication: "M.N. Paloor conceives God as a Sultan, smoking his pipe filled with dried human lives (The Coward). He envisages himself as the crazy poet of the 20th century caught between comets andBoeings,living onAnacin(A Poet at the Airport). "

Works

• Pedithondan(The Coward)
• Kalikalam
• Theerthayathra(The Pilgrimage)
• Sugama Sangeetham
• Kavitha(The Poem)
• Pachamanga(Raw Mango)
• Bhangiyum Abhangiyum
• Ardhanareeswaran
• Kathayillathavante Katha(Autobiography)

Awards

• 1983:Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award(Poetry) forKalikalam
• 2009:Asan Memorial Poetry Prize
• 2004:Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awardfor his over all contribution
• 2007: O.M.C. Narayanan Namboodiripad Memorial Deviprasadam Award
• 2007: Kavanakauthukam-Kanipayyur Award forArdhanareeswaran
• 2007:Deviprasadam Trust Award
• 2013:Kendra Sahitya Akademi Awardfor his autobiographyKathayillathavante Katha