Poems in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam filled the air in the precincts of Kanakakkunnu Palace on Saturday at the inaugural of the two-day national ‘Kavyotsavam’ organised by the Ayyappa Panicker Foundation.
The event, held in memory of the doyen of modern Malayalam poetry Ayyappa Panicker, was inaugurated with the reading of poems by Rati Saxena (Hindi poet), K. Siva Reddy (Telugu poet), Prathiba Nandakumar (Kannada poet), Ravikumar (Tamil poet), and Sugathakumari (Malayalam).
The post-inaugural session saw poets from other States engaging in animated conversation with Malayalam poets on poetry as a literary genre, followed by a book release and poetry reading session. Poets who participated in the reading session included K. Satchidanandan, Kureeppuzha Sreekumar, and Desamangalam Ramakrishnan.
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At the inaugural session, Mr. Satchidanandan, who is the president of the Ayyappa Panicker Foundation, said the greatness of Panicker was that he was able to bring new rhythm, style, and patterns of imagination into the realm of poetry. All through his life, Panicker tried to improvise and modernise his style of writing.
Apart from his poetic contribution, he was a thinker par excellence and could present complicated subjects in a lucid manner. “He was a multifaceted personality, and his proficiency in English and Malayalam was commendable,” he said.
Kerala State Higher Education Council vice-chairman T.P. Sreenivasan, who is the vice-president of the foundation, spoke.
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On the concluding day, literary seminars, poetry reading, and an audio-visual presentation of Ayyappa Panicker’s poems will be held.