KAKKANADAN G V

Kakkanadan (1935–2011), whose full name was George Varghese Kakkanadan, was born on April 23, 1935. He earned a B.Sc. degree in 1955 and, after working as a school teacher for two years, joined the Southern Railway in 1957 and later served in the Railway Ministry from 1961 to 1969. A prominent figure in Malayalam literature, he received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards for Ashwathhamavinte Chiri (1980) and Orotha (1984), the Muttathu Varkey Award in 1996 for Ushnamēkhala, the Padmaprabha Award for lifetime achievement in 2001, the Samastha Kerala Sahitya Parishad Award and a second Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2004, and the Central Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005 for Jappana Pukayila. He passed away on October 19, 2011.