ONV, Ottaplakkal Nilakanthan Velu Kurup

A poet with a home, Ottaplakkal, for a name. He is not at home. A poet's death is an 8 column lead in Sunday Mathrubhoomi. Poet Ottaplakkal Nilakanthan Velu, ONV, Kurup died on Saturday evening. Sunday Mathrubhoomi is an ONV edition. The world is short of a poet; a friend of Thakazhi Shivashankara Pillai of Chemmeen; Sunday Valentine is minus a lover. Rama took out a collection of ONV poetry and Sunday morning is into ONV verse; a poet needs readings; on Saturday, Malayalam channels played ONV pleading for Malayalam a space in the Malayali minds living in dear old naadu. Me do not know any Malayalam; nor have a naadu. Born in Chavara in Kollam in 1931, Kerala was a naadu of deep clevages; he grew into a EMS style Communism....traces always remained.... He perhaps is the second poet Kurup with the first probably being poet G. Shankara Kurup. An industrialised society or an India mimicing the West can build the sky with cement and steel; can or will it emote; can or will it be teary for a Vemula and a Kanhaiya Kumar, can it verse....will it always place youngs in prisons without qualms...will it shut down prisons...will it change 2020...ONV, the poet, sadly does not belong to a shut down us. The Indian Express has a ONV column by Amrith Lal; Lal quotes ONV:

In the quest for something, without the search,
Gaining something, missing others/
In the vision of something, blind to the rest
Singing a few tunes, silent otherwise/
I enjoy this journey.

Maybe one day India will set out on a walk; enjoy it like ONV.

Plus four pages on Love in eye of Indian Express ... an entire page to poetry... for Valentine Mumbai ....

and A Song 20

At Marine Drive
in Arabian Sea,
Kabir and Tuka,
trim Valentines, Wait.
Sunday.
Valentine saints,
never currency of exchange.