U. A. Khader

U. A. Khader (16 November 1935 – 12 December 2020) was an Indian author. He published in Malayalam, including novels, novellas, short stories, travelogues and non-fiction. His works have been translated to various languages including English, Hindi and Kannada. He was a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009 for his novella Thrikkottur Novellakal and had earlier received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1984 for Thrikkottur Peruma. Khader was born on 16 November 1935, in Bilin, Mon State, near Rangoon (now Yangon) in today's Myanmar. His father Ussangaantakathu Moithootti Haji had migrated to Burma from Quilandy, in the southern Indian state of Kerala. His mother, Mamaidi, was of Burmese origin. His mother died three days after his birth, from small pox. With the outbreak of the Second World War, a few years later, his family fled Burma and came to Kerala, when he was eight years old. On return to India, he grew up as a Malayali at his father's native place in Quilandy. He completed his schooling from Koyilandy High School. Describing his early days, he talked about the dilemma of straddling two distinct cultures. He also talked of his classmates finding him strange because of his features. He would go on to obtain a degree in painting from the Madras College of Arts. During this period he got in touch with noted writers and social activists such as K. A. Kodungalloor and C. H. Mohammed Koya (who would later go on to become the chief minister of Kerala) during his days as a student in Madras (present day Chennai). His association with Koya would be a turning point, introducing him to books and writing, starting with a copy of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer's Balyakalasakhi.