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Kamala Suraiya (aka Kamala Das), besides being India’s best-known English poet, is the most famous writer of short stories in Malayalam. [Better known to Keralites as Madhavikutty.]

In 1984, she was short-listed for the Nobel Prize for Literature along with Marguerite Yourcenar, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer.

Kamala Suraiya has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award and the coveted Asan World Prize. She lives in Cochin. Her husband, the late Mr.Madhava Das, was the Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India and a consultant to the International Monetary Fund.

Kamala Suraiya has three sons — all of them with the Times of India: the eldest, Monu Nalappat, is the political editor; Chinnan Das is the vice president in charge of south India; and the youngest, Jaisurya Das, is the response manager.

Her mother, Padmabhushan Nalappat Balamani Amma, is considered the best poet in Malayalam and has won the Saraswati Samman, the highest literary honour in India.

Photographed by KC George
with Leica M7 and 90mm APO Summicron ASPH