Kamala Surayya
Kamala Das (c. 1990)
Born	Kamala (1934-03-31)31 March 1934 Punnayurkulam,Thrissur District,Kerala,India
Died	31 May 2009(2009-05-31) (aged 75) Pune,Maharashtra, India
Resting place	Palayam Juma Masjid,Thiruvananthapuram, India
Pen name	Madhavikutty
Occupation	Poet, novelist,short story writer
Genre	Poetry, novel, short story, memoirs
Notable works	Ente Katha Balyakala Smaranakal Neermathalam Pootha Kalam My Story Summer in Calcutta The Descendants
Notable awards	Ezhuthachan Puraskaram,Vayalar Award,Sahitya Akademi Award, Asan World Prize, Asian Poetry Prize, Kent Award
Spouse	K.Madhav Das
Children	Madhav Das Nalapat Chinnen Das Jayasurya Das
Parents	Balamani Amma (mother) V. M. Nair (father)

Kamala Surayya (bornKamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), popularly known by her one-time pen nameMadhavikutty and married nameKamala Das, was an Indian poet inEnglish as well as an author inMalayalam fromKerala, India. Her fame in Kerala primarily stems from her short stories and autobiography,My Story, whereas her body of work in English, penned under the pseudonym Kamala Das, is renowned for its poems and candid autobiography. Her works are known for originality, versatility and indigenous flavour of the soil. She was also a widely read columnist and wrote on diverse topics including women's issues, child care, politics, etc. Her liberal treatment of female sexuality, marked her as aniconoclast in popular culture of her generation.^[1] On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died atJehangir Hospital inPune.^[2]

Kamala Das was born inPunnayurkulam,Ponnani taluk,Malabar District,British India (present-dayThrissur district, Kerala) on 31 March 1934, to V. M. Nair, a managing editor of the widely circulated Malayalam dailyMathrubhumi, and poetNalapat Balamani Amma, a renownedMalayali family.^[3][2] Kamala got her family name,Nalapat, throughmatrilineal succession.

She spent her childhood inCalcutta, where her father was employed as a senior officer in the Walford Transport Company that soldBentley andRolls-Royce automobiles, and the Nalapat ancestral home inPunnayurkulam.^[4][3]

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,Nalapat Narayana Menon, a prominent writer.^[5]

At 15 years old, she wed bank officer K. Madhava Das of the Kalipurayath family, who supported her literary pursuits. She commenced writing and publishing in both English and Malayalam. The 1960s in Calcutta witnessed an era of artistic turbulence, during which Kamala Das emerged as one of numerous voices featured in esteemed anthologies along with a generation of Indian English poets.^[6] English was the language she chose for all six of her published poetry collections.^[7]

She was known for her several Malayalam short stories as well as poems written in English. Kamala Das was also asyndicated columnist. She once claimed that "poetry does not sell in this country [India]", but her forthright columns, which sounded off on everything from women's issues and child care to politics, were popular. Kamala Das was aconfessional poet whose poems have often been considered at par with those ofAnne Sexton,Robert Lowell andSylvia Plath.

Kamala Das' first book of poetry,Summer in Calcutta was a breath of fresh air inIndian English poetry. She wrote chiefly of love, betrayal, and the consequent anguish. Kamala Das abandoned the certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat sterile,aestheticism for an independence of mind and body at a time when Indian poets were still governed by "19th-century diction, sentiment and romanticised love."^[8]

Her second book of poetry,The Descendants was even more explicit, urging women to:

Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of
Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts,
The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your
Endless female hungers ...

This directness of her voice led to comparisons withMarguerite Duras andSylvia Plath.^[8] At the age of 42, she published a daring autobiography,My Story; it was originally written in Malayalam (titledEnte Katha) and later she translated it into English. Later she admitted that much of the autobiography had fictional elements.^[9]

"An Introduction" is very bold poem in which Das expresses her femininity, individuality, and true feelings about men.^[10] This autobiographical poem is written in the colloquial style. She presents her feelings and thoughts in a bold manner. She realises her identity and understands that it is the need of every woman to raise a voice in this male-dominated society. The poet longs for love that is the result of her loneliness and frustration.

The poem "A Hot Noon in Malabar" is about climate, surrounding in a town in Malabar. The people may be annoyed by the heat, dust and noise but she likes it. She longs for the hot noon in Malabar because she associates it with the wild men, wild thoughts and wild love. It is a torture for her to be away from Malabar.

In "My Mother at Sixty-Six," Das explores the irony in a mother-daughter relationship, and it also includes the themes of aging, growing-up, separation and love.^[11] "Dance of Eunuchs" is another fine poem in which Das sympathises with eunuchs. It has an autobiographical tone. The eunuchs dance in the heat of the sun. Their costumes, makeup and their passion with which they dance suggest the female delicacy. Their outward appearance and joy is contrasted with their inward sadness. Actually, there is no joy in their heart, they cannot even dream of happiness. In the poem "A Request," Das realises that her life is meaningless. She is alone and her colourless life is designed of crumbling patterns.

Kamala Das is essentially known for her bold and frank expression. The prominent features of her poetry are an acute obsession with love and the use of confession. The main theme of her poetry is based upon freedom, love and protection. She wrote on a diverse range of topics, often disparate - from the story of a poor old servant, about the sexual disposition of upper-middle-class women living near a metropolitan city or in the middle of the ghetto. Some of her better-known stories includePakshiyude Manam,Neypayasam,Thanuppu, andChandana Marangal. She wrote a few novels, out of whichNeermathalam Pootha Kalam, which was received favourably by the general readers, as well as, the critics, stands out.

She travelled extensively to read poetry to Germany'sUniversity of Duisburg-Essen,University of Bonn andUniversity of Duisburg universities, Adelaide Writer's Festival,Frankfurt Book Fair,University of Kingston,Jamaica, Singapore, and South Bank Festival (London),Concordia University (Montreal, Canada), etc. Her works are available in French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese.

She has also held positions as Vice-chairperson inKerala Sahitya Akademi, chairperson in Kerala Forestry Board, President of the Kerala Children's Film Society, editor ofPoet magazine^[12] and poetry editor ofIllustrated Weekly of India.

Although occasionally seen as an attention-grabber in her early years,^[13] she is now seen as one of the most formative influences on Indian English poetry. In 2009,The Times called her "the mother of modern English Indian poetry".^[8]

Her last book titledThe Kept Woman and Other Stories, featuring translation of her short stories, was published posthumously.^[14] Kamala Das is best remembered for her controversial writings where she openly talks about the restriction imposed on women. She is known for her rebellious nature against the patriarchal conventions.^[15]

Kamala married K. Madhava Das at the age of 15. The couple had three sons:Madhav Das Nalapat, Chinen Das and Jayasurya Das.^[16] Her husband predeceased her in 1992, after 43 years of marriage.^[17] Her eldest son, Madhav Das Nalapat is married to Princess Thiruvathira Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi from theTravancore Royal House.^[18] He holds theUNESCO Peace Chair and is a professor ofgeopolitics at theManipal University. He had been a resident editor ofThe Times of India. Kamala Surayya converted to Islam in 1999 and it was alleged that she did it to marry someone she loved although she never remarried.^[19][20]

On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital inPune, after a long battle withpneumonia. Her body was flown to her home state of Kerala. She was interred at thePalayam Juma Masjid atThiruvananthapuram with full state honour.^[21][22]

Though never politically active before, she launched a national political party, Lok Seva Party, aiming at the promotion of secularism and providing asylum to orphaned mothers. In 1984 she unsuccessfully contested in the Indian Parliament elections fromThiruvananthapuram constituency.^[23] She contested as an independent candidate and received only 1786 votes.^[24] She was depressed after the results and was advised to rest at her sister's house inAnamalai hills. She wrote theAnamalai Poems during this period. She wrote over twenty poems in this series, but only eleven have been published: eight of them inIndian Literature journal by theSahitya Akademi (1985) and an additional three of them in the bookThe Best of Kamala Das (1991).^[25]

She was born in a conservative HinduNair (Nalapat) family, and married a member of the AristrocraticMenon family (Kalipurayath) with royal ancestry.^[26] She converted to Islam on 11 December 1999, at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Surayya.^[27][28]

• On 1 February 2018,Google Doodle by artist Manjit Thapp celebrates the work she left behind, which provides a window into the world of an engrossing woman.^[29]
• A biopic on her titledAami directed byKamal, released on 9 February 2018.
• Mazha, a 2000 Malayalam drama film written and directed byLenin Rajendran was based on her short storyNashtappetta Neelambari.
• Kadhaveedu, a 2013 Malayalam anthology film written and directed bySohanlal, was based on three stories penned by Surayya,Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer andM. T. Vasudevan Nair. In the film, the third tale was based on her short storyNeypayasam.
• Neermaathalathinte Pookkal/Flowers of Neermaathalam, a 2006 Malayalam television film directed by Sohanlal was based on a story written by Surayya. The television film won a Kerala State award.

Kamala Das has received many awards for her literary contribution, including:

• 1963: PEN Asian Poetry Prize
• 1968:Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story –Thanuppu^[30]
• 1985:Kendra Sahitya Academy Award (English) –Collected Poems^[31]
• 1988:Kerala State Film Award for Best Story
• 1997:Vayalar Award –Neermathalam Pootha Kalam^[30]
• 1998: Asian Poetry Prize^[32]
• 2002:Ezhuthachan Award^[33]
• 2006: HonoraryD.Litt byUniversity of Calicut^[34]
• 2006:Muttathu Varkey Award^[35]

• Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets (1976) ed. byR. Parthasarathy and published byOxford University Press,New Delhi^[36]
• The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992) ed. byArvind Krishna Mehrotra and published byOxford University Press,New Delhi^[37][38]
• The Golden Treasure ofWriters Workshop Poetry (2008) ed. by Rubana Huq and published byWriters Workshop,Calcutta^[39]

• Indian English literature
• Indian Writer
• Indian Poets

1. The Ignited Soul by Shreekumar Varma
2. Manohar, D. Murali. Kamala Das: Treatment of Love in Her Poetry.indear Kumar Gulbarga: JIWE, 1999.
3. "Cheated and Exploited: Women in Kamala Das's Short Stories", In Mohan G Ramanan and P. Sailaja (eds.). English and the Indian Short Story. New Delhi: Orient Longman (2000).117–123
4. "Man-Woman Relationship with Respect to the Treatment of Love in Kamala Das' Poetry". Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 191. Ed. Tom Burns and Jeffrey W. Hunter. Detroit: Thomson-Gale, 2004. 44–60.
5. "Individuality in Kamala Das and in Her Poetry".English Poetry in India: A Secular Viewpoint. Eds. PCK Prem and D.C.Chambial. Jaipur: Aavishkar, 2011. 65–73.
6. "Meet the Writer: Kamala Das", POETCRIT XVI: 1 (January 2003): 83–98.

Wikiquote has quotations related toKamala Surayya.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toKamala Surayya.

• "Meet the Author: Kamala Das".Sahitya Akademi (Audio).
• "From Kamala Das to Dashi: Doing the right thing for wrong reasons?" by Dr Mohammad Omar Farooq
• Translation ofNeypayasam
• Eroticism and feminism in Das' writings
• The histrionics of Kamala Das
• Varsha Bhosle on Kamala Das' conversion to Islam
• Funeral
• Kamala Suraiyya – Daily Telegraph obituary
• Kamla Das

• 1934 births
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