Balamani Amma: Google Doodle celebrates Malayalam poet’s 113th birth anniversary

Padmavibhushan awardee Balamani Amma was remembered on her 113th birth anniversary with a Google doodle dedicated to her. She was a renowned Malayalam poet with a Sahitya Academy Award to her credit. Her life was inspirational and her poems were ahead of the times.

Thiruvananthapuram: Google, the internet giant, paid heartfelt tributes on the 113th birth anniversary of Nalappat Balamani Amma, a noted Malayalam poet, with a special Google doodle. The poet, commonly referred to as the poet of motherhood, is shown sitting on the verandah of her ancestral house and writing in the doodle.

Balamani Amma published her first poem in 1930 when she was 21 years old. She broke male dominance in the field of art, particularly poetry, through her alluring poems proclaiming to the world that poetry is also for women. Nalappat Balamani Amma was born on July 19, 1909, at Punnayurkulam in the Thrissur district. She grew up under the influence of her uncle, poet Nalappat Narayana Menon, and did her studies entirely at home.

She got married at the age of 19 to the then Managing Director and Managing Editor of Mathrubhumi, V M Nair. She continued her love for poetry even after her marriage and got her first poem 'Kooppu Kai' (Folded hands) published when she was 21. Balamani Amma's poetry can be broadly categorised into three phases. In her initial writing phase, Balamani Amma mostly dealt with themes of motherhood.

In the second phase, her writing deepened and dived into more internal conflicts, confusions, and moral dilemmas of humans, and in the third phase, her poetry journeyed through more philosophical themes. She even penned down an anti-war poem towards the end of her writing career. Balamani Amma was honoured with Sahitya Academy Award, Ezhuthachan Award, and Padmavibhushan.

She also had won the Saraswathi Samman, one of the coveted awards for writers in the country. Her famous works include 'Amma' (1934), Muthassi (1962), and 'Mazhuvinte Kadha' (1966). She died of Alzheimer's in 2004. Balamani Amma's daughter Kamala Das aka Madhavikutty was also a noted English poet and Malayalam short story writer. She too passed away in 2009 after a long battle with pneumonia.