The Best of Kamal Das
Kamala Suraiyya
Kamala Suraiyya was
a major Indian English poet and literateur and at the same time a
leading Malayalam author from Kerala state, South India. Her popularity
in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while
her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the fiery poems and explicit autobiography.
Her open
and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt,
infused her writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in
her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital
in Pune, but has earned considerable respect in recent years.