Neela Padmanabhan is a Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 writer from Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He also writes in Malayalam.

Biography

Neela Padmanabhan was born in Kanyakumari District

Kanyakumari District

Kanyakumari District ) is a district of Tamil Nadu state, India and is the southernmost land area of mainland India.The district is the second most urbanised district in Tamilnadu, next only to Chennai and ahead of Coimbatore. It also has the highest literacy and education levels in the...

. He obtained a B. Sc in Physics and a degree in Electrical Engineering from Kerala University

Kerala University

The University of Kerala, formerly the University of Travancore, is an affiliating university located in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, India. It was established in 1937, long before the birth of the state of Kerala in India...

. He worked in the Kerala State Electricity Board till his retirement in 1993. His first noted work was the novel Thalaimuraigal (lit. Generations). He has written 20 novels, 10 short story collections, 4 volumes of poetry and 7 essay collections in Tamil. In Malayalam, he has published a novel, four short story collections and a single essay collection. Besides Tamil and Malayalam, he also has a few English works to his credit. During 1985-89 he was the Tamil editor at Sahitya Akademi

Sahitya Akademi

The Sahitya Akademi ', India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India...

 and was the convener of the Akademi's Tamil advisory board during 1998-2002. In 2007, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...

 for Tamil for his novel Ilai uthir kaalam (lit. Autumn). He had earlier won the Akademi's award for translators in 2003 for his translation of Ayyappa Paniker's works into Tamil. In 2010, his novel Thalaimuraigal was made into a Tamil film titled Magizhchi

Magizhchi

Magizhchi , is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by V. Gowthaman, who earlier directed several TV series like Santhana Kaadu and Auto Shankar. It stars Gowthaman himself in the lead role with Anjali, Karthika, director Seeman and Prakash Raj essaying important supporting roles...

(lit. Happiness). His most noted work is his novel Pallikondapuram.(lit. Where the Lord sleeps). He currently lives in Thiruvananthapuram.

Novels

• Thalaimuraikal (1968)
• Pallikondapuram (1970)
• Filekal (1973)
• Uravugal (1975)
• Min ulagam (1976)
• Yaathirai (1977)
• Anubavangal (1977)
• Samar (1977)
• Nerru Vanthavan (1978)
• Udaya Tharagai (1980)
• Vattathin veliyae (1980)
• Bhagavathi kovil theru (1981)
• Bothayil karaithavaigal (1985)
• Thee (1985)
• Murivugal (1985)
• Therodum veedhi (1987)
• Thee Thee (1990) (Malayalam)
• Dhavam seidhavargal (1991)
• Vellam (1994)
• Koondil pakshigal (1995)
• Ilai uthir kaalam (2005)

Short story collections

• Moham muppathaandu (1969)
• Sandayum Sambandhamum (1972)
• Moondravathu naal (1974)
• Irandavathu mugam (1978)
• Naagammava (1978)
• Siragadikal (1978)
• Kathakal irupathu (1980) (Malayalam)
• Sahityanin sannithiyil (1985)
• Erumbukal (1987) (Malayalam)
• Vaana veethiyil (1988)
• Arkande Koanil (1997) (Malayalam)
• Avaravar antharangam (1998)
• Verathavar(2003) (Malayalam)