Six personalities from Kerala made to the list of Padma awardees from various fields. The Padma awardees included versatile singer K S Chithra, who has been conferred Padma Bhushan while Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri, O Madhavan Nambiar, Balan Pootheri, Dhananjaya Sudhakar and KK Ramachandra Pulavaar were conferred Padma Shri.
Chithra, a Padma Bhushan recipient, has rendered songs in Malayalam, Tamil ,Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. She is known as Malayalam’s “Vanambadi” which means the singer of the state.
Padma Shri recipient, Kaithapram is from Payyannur in North Kerala and is a lyricist and musician. He has written several songs and given music also for several Malayalam movies. Before entering into the movies, Kaithapram was a temple priest at Suryanarayana Temple in Thalassery.
O Madhavan Nambiar or OM Nambiar is a reputed athletic coach of the state and has been the mentor, trainer and coach of PT Usha, the only woman athlete from India to reach the first four in the 400 meter hurdles in the Los Angels Olympics. Nambiar is credited to have developed her as an athlete and he has also coached almost all the Indian women sprinters and hurdlers of during those days.
Another Padma Shri recipient, Balan Pootheri is an educator and a visually challenged person who has written several books. He has been publishing books even after losing his vision completely a few years ago. He has written many books and majority of them are in the genre of spiritual literature.
Dhananjaya Sudhakar, who has also been conferred Padma Shri, is a medical doctor and has been working amongst the tribes of Wayanad under Muttil, Vivekananda Mission hospital. He hails from a well to do family from Nagpur.
KK Ramachandra Pulavar, an eighth generation puppeter, has also been awarded Padma Shri. He is a specialist in shadow puppet theater of Kerala, Tolpavakuthu. He has been training the teachers in schools and conducting demonstrations in schools across the state.
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