Kamala Das a major Indian English poet and a leading Malayalam author was born in Punnayurkulam, Thrissur District in Kerala, on March 31, 1934, to V. M. Nair, a former managing editor of the widely-circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, and Nalappatt Balamani Amma, a renowned Malayali poetess.
She spent her childhood between Calcutta, where her father was employed as a senior officer in the Walford Transport Company that sold Bentley and Rolls Royce automobiles, and the Nalappatt ancestral home in Punnayurkulam.
Like her mother, Balamani Amma, Kamala Das also excelled in writing. Her love of poetry began at an early age through the influence of her great uncle, Nalappatt Narayana Menon, a prominent writer.
At the age of 15, she got married to bank officer Madhava Das, who encouraged her writing interests, and she started writing and publishing both in English and in Malayalam. Calcutta in the 1960s was a tumultous time for the arts, and Kamala Das was one of the many voices that came up and started appearing in cult anthologies along with a generation of Indian English poets.
Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the fiery poems and explicit autobiography.
On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. Her body was flown to her home state of Kerala. She was buried at the Palayam Juma Masjid at Thiruvanathapuram with full state honour.
Awards and other recognitions
- Kamala Das has received many awards for her literary contribution, including:
- Nominated and shortlisted for Nobel Prize in 1984.
- Asian Poetry Prize - 1998
- Kent Award for English Writing from Asian Countries - 1999
- Asian World Prize - 2000
- Vayalar Award - 2001
- Sahitya Academy Award - 2003
- Kerala Sahitya Academy Award - 2005
- Honorary D.Litt by University of Calicut - 2006
- Muttathu Varkey Award - 2006
- Ezhuthachan Puraskaram - 2009
- Bibliography
English
- 1964: The Sirens (Asian Poetry Prize winner)
- 1965: Summer in Calcutta (poetry; Kent's Award winner)
- 1967: The Descendants (poetry)
- 1973: The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (poetry)
- 1976: My Story (autobiography)
- 1977: Alphabet of Lust (novel)
- 1985: The Anamalai Poems (poetry)
- 1992: Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories (collection of short stories)
- 1996: Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (poetry)
- 2001: Yaa Allah (collection of poems)
- 1979: Tonight,This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy)
- 1999: My Mother At Sixty-six (Poem)
- 1999:My Grandmother House (Poem)
Malayalam
- 1964: Pakshiyude Manam (short stories)
- 1966: Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories)
- 1968: Thanuppu (short story, Sahitya Academi award)
- 1982: Ente Katha (autobiography)
- 1987: Balyakala Smaranakal (Childhood Memories)
- 1989: Varshangalkku Mumbu (Years Before)
- 1990: Palayan (novel)
- 1991: Neypayasam (short story)
- 1992: Dayarikkurippukal (novel)
- 1994: Neermathalam Pootha Kalam (novel, Vayalar Award)
- 1996: Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories)
- 1998: Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories)
- 1998:"Ente Kadha" (Autobiography)
- 2005: Chandana Marangal (Novel)
- 2005: Madhavikkuttiyude Unmakkadhakal (short stories)2x
- 2005: Vandikkalakal (novel)
- 1999: My Mother At Sixty-six (Poem)
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