Well-known Malayalam writer UA Khader passed away at a private hospital in Kozhikode on Saturday, 12 December, at the age of 85. According to a report by The Indian Express, Khader had been suffering from respiratory ailments for a long time.
Khader’s novels and stories are considered among the finest published works in the language. In a career spanning decades, he worked in various government capacities and headed the Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham, a progressive body of artists and writers.
Born in 1935 near Rangoon in present-day Myanmar, Khader’s family fled to Kerala during the Second World War, where he completed his school and college education.
In 1983, his novel Thrikkottur Peruma won him the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. He also received the Kendriya Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009 for his novella Thrikkotlur Novellukar. Khader had also written a travelogue, Ormakalude Pegoda, describing his nostalgic trip to his birthplace Yangon in Myanmar, after 70 years of his migration to India.
Condoling the writer’s death, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a tweet said that Kerala has lost one of its literary masters.
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