Renowned Malayalam poet Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri was conferred the Jnanpith award, the country's highest literary award at a special function held at his house at Kumaranallur, near Palakkad. Akkitham is the sixth writer to bag the Jnanpith Award for Malayalam literature. 

A true Gandhian, social reformer, journalist and an iconic example of simplicity, Akkitham has been a man who wears many hats with aplomb besides his gifted literary life. Akkitham is the only living poet being called Mahakavi (great poet) in Malayalam.

Velicham dukhamanunni, thamasallo sukhapradam (roughly translated as light bring sorrow my child, darkness is bliss). These lines of Akkitham are repeated by every common man and it's like a proverb for Keralites. He is instrumental in heralding modernism in Malayalam poetry.

The first Jnanpith was awarded to Keralite Poet G Sankara Kurup in 1965, then in 1980 it was awarded to writer S K Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai in 1984, M T Vasudevan Nair in 1995 and O N V Kurup in 2007.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)