T. D. Ramakrishnan

T. D. Ramakrishnan Biography

T. D. Ramakrishnan is a Malayalam contemporary writer, best known as a novelist and translator. Francis Itty Cora and Sugandhi Enna Andal Devanayaki are his famous novels. His celebrated novel - Sugandhi Enna Andal Devanayaki won Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel and Malayattoor Award in 2016, and Vayalar Award in 2017. Hmm and Thappu Thalangal are his translation works from Tamil to Malayalam.

He was born in Eyyal, Thrissur, Kerala in year 1961. Damodaran Elayathu and Sreedevi Antarjanam are his parents. He did schooling from Kunnamkulam and later graduation from Aluva. He is married to Anandavalli and has two children. He taught at tutorial colleges after studies, before getting government jobs. Though he received admission to mechanical engineering, as advised by others, he didn’t enrol for it. Many felt that it needs a lot of physical efforts.

In 1981, he joined Indian Railways as a ticket collector in Salem. From there on he held various positions in Indian Railways for many years and retired from government service as Southern Railway Chief Controller in 2016. He has been serving this position for long 10 years. After retirement he dedicated his full time on writing and also published his acclaimed work, Sugandhi Enna Andal Devanayaki the same year.

He has been fascinated from Sri Lankan Tamil migrants from India. Some of his works and translations deal with this subject. In fact he lived most of his service years in Tamil Nadu. His first novel Alpha is set in an imaginative island with the same name, somewhere near Sri Lanka. . His third novel, Sugandhi Enna Andal Devanayaki, is based on the death of Tamil human rights activist Rajini Thiranagama. He took almost 6 years from 2000 to 2006 to complete this novel. His second novel Francis Itty Cora was published in 2009.

Published: January 05, 2020

Updated: January 05, 2020