O. N. V. Kurup
Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup , popularly known as O. N. V. Kurup or simply and endearingly O. N. V., was a renowned Malayalam poet and lyricist from Kerala, India, who won the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India for the year 2007. He received the awards Padma Shri in 1998 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011, the fourth and second highest civilian honours from the Government of India. In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by University of Kerala, Trivandrum. O. N. V. is known for his leftist leaning. He was the Left Democratic Front candidate in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the Lok Sabha elections in 1989. He died onFebruary 2016.
O.N.V Kurup was born to O. N. Krishna Kurup and K. Lakshmikutty Amma, onMay 1931 at Chavara, Kollam in Kerala. He lost his father when he was eight. His childhood days were spent in Chavara where he attended the government school. After graduating with a bachelors degree in Economics from SN College, Kollam, he moved to Thiruvananthapuram city where he joined Travancore University and pursued Master of Arts in Malayalam literature.
Source: Wikipedia