A. MADHAVAN was born in 1934 in Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), Kerala, to Chellammal and Avudainayagam, who belonged to Kanyakumari district. His schooling in the Malayalam medium gave him an opportunity to taste Malayalam literature. His literary interest widened with the Tamil works of stalwarts such as Pudhumaipithan, Ka.Naa.Su., La.Sa.Raa., T. Janakiraman, Na. Pichamurthy, Ki. Rajanarayanan and Sundara Ramasamy. While Madhavan was engaged in business in Trivandrum's Chaalai market area, Tamil mixed with Malayalam spoken by the common people became the inspiration for his characters. Over a period of about sixty years, he has created a large body of literary work: three novels Punalum Manalum (On a River's Bank), Krishna Parunthu (Brahmini Kite), Thoovaanam (Drizzle); three important translations from Malayalam: Malayatoor Ramakrishnan's Yakshi (A Mythical Being), P. K. Balakrishnan's Ini Gnan Urangatte (And Now, Let Me sleep) and Karoor Nilakantapillai's Sammaanam (Reward); two novellas Kaalai (Bull), Ettavathu Naal (Eighth Day); some literary essays and more than sixty stories. Madhavan won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2015 for Ilakkiyach Chuvadugal (Traces of Literature).
