Nalapat Balamani Amma was an Indian poet born on 19th July 1909. Amma was a prolific Malayalam writer and was known as the “Poetess of motherhood”.
Three of her well-known works are Amma (Mother), Mazhuvinte Katha (The Story of the Axe) and Muthassi (Grandmother). She never received any schooling. Her maternal uncle's huge book collection helped her to become a poet and she was influenced by Poet Vallathol Narayan Menon and Nalapat Narayan Menon. She started writing poems at a very young age. Well, her first poem was "Kooppukai" in the year 1930.
Amma was the recipient of many honours and awards, including the Padma Bhushan. Her work includes more than 20 anthologies of poems, prose, and translations. The talented writer died on September 29th 2004, having suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for almost 5 years.
