Google dedicates doodle to author and poetess Kamala Das

Kamala Surayya was born in Punnayurkulam, Thrissur District in Kerala, on 31 March 1934. She was the daughter of VM Nair, former managing editor of Mathrubhoomi, and Nalapat Balamani Amma, a renowned Malayali poet. She spent her childhood in Calcutta, where her father was employed with Walford Transport Company, and at the Nalapat ancestral home in Punnayurkulam.

On this day in 1976, Kamala Das released her autobiography, 'My Story'. Through every upheaval in her life, Kamala Das never gave up on writing poetry and prose. Das was one of the many voices that began featuring in cult anthologies in the 1960s when art in Calcutta was undergoing a tumultuous time.

She fell in love with poetry from an early age. At the age of 15 she was married to Madhava Das, a banker by profession. Her husband encouraged her to write, and she started publishing her works both in English and Malayalam.

Her autobiography journals her life from childhood to marriage and beyond. She began writing this book in English but soon started translating it to Malayalam as she wrote along.

She was appreciated for her honesty and the way she expressed herself through words.

She was honoured with Sahitya Academy Award in 1984, one of the many awards she received in her lifetime.