Udhagamandalam: A familiar figure for several years, albeit  generally alone, particularly on the Government Botanical Garden road in Ooty, M.Prabhu,recently travelled to Chennai to receive an award from Chief Minister Edappadi  K Palaniswamy.

Called the Tamil Chemmal Award, it was in recognition of his long time literary pursuits. A cheque for Rs.25,000 went with the award.

Naturally elated, on the gesture of the government,Prabhu chose to show the award first to an appreciative Collector of the Nilgiris
Ms.J.Innocent Divya and seek her encouragement.

Later speaking to The Covai Post ,Prabhu, pointed out how his passion for poetry  and literature has been keeping him going right from his early days.

Born in Ooty to a Malayali father and Tamil mother,Prabhu has since 1991 been regularly bringing out his poem “Kaatchikku Varaadha
Kadhambangal” on the days of the Annual Floral Carnival at the Government Botanical Garden,in this hill station,in the hope that,it will make a difference to the lives of at least a few of the girls,who are undergoing suffering in one form or the other. While welcoming the visitors to the show, it urges them to spare a thought for the ‘flowers’,who may be widows or victims of dowry harassment or destitute or  differently abled.

So far he has distributed 2.80  lakh copies among the tourists. Many have written to him stating how thought provoking it was.

His tally of poems,published in various books and magazines,now stands at 3000. Many of them have also figured in Radio and Television programmes.Little wonder,he has been the Secretary of the Nilgiri Tamil Poets Association since 2004.