S.K. Pottekkat

SANKARANKUTTY POTTEKKAT, popularly known as S.K. Pottekkat, is an iconic Malayalam writer. He is the author of nearly 60 books, which include 10 novels, 24 collections of short stories, and 18 travelogues. Pottekkat won the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award in 1961 for the novel Oru Theruvinte Katha (The Story of a Street). His autobiographical novel Oru Desattinte Katha (The Story of a Locale) won, in succession, the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award (1971), the Kendra Sahitya Award (1977), and the Jnanpith Award (1980). His works have been translated into English, Italian, Russian, German, and Czech, as well as all major Indian languages. TRANSLATOR: Venugopal Menon retired from a career in Sales and Marketing in 2012, running the training unit of an engineering conglomerate, where his writing and workshopping skills were widely appreciated. He lives in Kochi, publishes occasionally in the national media, and shares with the author a profound empathy for the downtrodden.