Sankaran Kutty Kunjiraman Pottekkatt, popularly known as S. K. Pottekkatt, was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature and a politician from Kerala, India. He was also a great traveller among the Keralites, who wrote many traveloguesfor the people who have been unintroduced to the outside world. He was the author of nearly sixty books which include ten novels, twenty-four collections of short stories, three anthologies of poems, eighteen travelogues, four plays, a collection of essays and a couple of books based on personal reminiscences. he was a recipient of Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel, Sahitya Akademi Award and the Jnanpith Award. His works have been translated into English, Italian, Russian, German and Czech, besides all major Indian languages.
Biography
S. K. Pottekkatt was born on March 14, 1913, in Calicut to Kunjiraman Pottekkat, an English school teacher and his wife, Kittuli. After early schooling at Ganapath School, he matriculated from Zamorin's High School in Calicut in 1929 and passed the intermediate examination from Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College, Calicut in 1934 but could not find a job for three years, a period which he utilised for studying classics from Indian and western literature. In 1937, he joined Calicut Gujarati School as a teacher where he taught for almost three years. He was involved with activities of the Indian National Congress and attended the Tripuri session of 1939 for which he resigned from the job as the school authorities did not allow him to leave of absence. Subsequently, he moved to Bombay and Lucknow where he stayed until 1945, doing many jobs. After returning to Kerala in 1945, he travelled to many parts of India and went on his first overseas tour in 1949 when he visited Africa, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France and England. In 1952, he again went overseas to visit Ceylon, Malaya, and Indonesia. Pottekkatt married Jayavalli in 1950 and the couple had two sons and two daughters. His wife died in 1980 and two years later, he suffered a paralytic stroke in July 1982, and he died on August 6, 1982, in a private hospital in Calicut.
Literary career and travels
Pottekkatt published his first story, Rajaneethi, in the collge magazine of Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College in 1928. Makane Konna Madyam and Hindu Muslim Maithri were some of his notable early works. The story "Vydyutha Shakthi" came in the February 1934 issue of Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly. He wrote his first novel, Naadanpremam, a romantic story set in Mukkam, a small hamlet in Kozhikode district, in 1939 while he was in Bombay and the novel was eventually published in 1941. This was followed by Yavanikakku Pinnil, a short story anthology, and the second novel Vishakanyaka; the latter would receive a prize from the Madras government in 1949. Two travelogues were the next two publications, Kappirikalude Naattil and Innathe Europe, both based on his first overseas tour. He published Oru Theruvinte Katha in 1960 and his magnum opus, Oru Desathinte Katha, in 1971. Pottekkatt was a writer of strong social commitment and ideals, possessing an individualistic vision. He is reported to be the pioneer of the genre of travelogues in India and its most notable practitioner in Malayalam literature which earned him the moniker, the John Gunther of Malayalam. Poetry anthologies like Sanchariyude Geethangal and Premashilpi, Achan, novels like Premashiksha and Moodupadam, short story anthologies such as Nishagandhi, Pulliman and Chandrakatham, travelogues viz. Simhabhoomi, Nile Diary and Pathira Sooryante Nattil as well as memoirs like Ponthakkadukal and Samsarikkunna Diarykurippukal are some of his other major works. His works have been translated into English, Italian, Russian, German and Czech, besides all major Indian languages. An Italian anthology of The BestShort Stories of the World published from Milan in 1971 included his Braanthan Naaya. A collection of eleven of his short stories in Russian had a sensational sales of one hundred thousand copies in two weeks. His stories have made into feature films in Malayalam; Naadan Premam, Moodupadam, Pulliman and Njavalppazhangal are some of them.
