Ezhacheri Ramachandran and B Murali bag awards

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — Ezhacheri Ramachandran has bagged the prestigious Mahakavi Pandalam Kerala Varma poetry award for the year 2011 for his collection of poems, Jathakam Kathicha Sooryan.

The media award for the best editorial of the year, also instituted by the Pandalam Kerala Varma Smaraka Samithy, went to Malayala Manorama's Chief Sub-editor B Murali for the piece titled Kerala Kaumudikku Nooru Vayassu.

The poetry award carries a cash prize of Rs 10,001 and the media award Rs 5,001, besides citation and statuette, the Samithy president Dr K S Ravikumar and secretary P Ravi Varma told reporters here yesterday. The prizes will be presented at a function to be held in Pandalam on January 28.

"Ramachandran represents the popular face of Malayalam poetry. His poems are rooted in Dravidian tradition while reflecting the anxieties of the present time and expectations of the future," the award committee comprising Dr P Soman, Dr KS Ravikumar and Ravi Varma observed.

The previous recipients of the poetry award include Akitham, O N V Kurup, Ayyappa Panikker, Satchidanandan, Vishnunarayanan Namboothiri, Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan, Sugatha Kumari, Attoor Ravi Varma, D Vinayachandran and K G Sankara Pillai.

The media award was decided by a jury chaired by senior journalist T N Gopakumar. Ravi Varma and Ravikumar were also members of this panel, which observed that it's rare for a leading newspaper to write an editorial in praise of its competitor.

"The editorial highlighting the concept of social justice that the Kerala Kaumudi was upholding all these years reflects the silver lining of the media morality," the panel said appreciating the editorial written by Murali, who is also an accomplished short story writer in Malayalam.

Ravikumar said Pandalam Kerala Varma was not only a Malayalam poet par excellence but a journalist who had edited and published the Kavana Kaumudi, a fortnightly which had the entire content, including editorials, written in chaste poetry.