Author Vijay Nambisan, the first All India Poetry Champion in 1988, who had been terminally ill for quite some time, died on August 10 at the age of 54. He co-composed the poetry book Gemini, with Jeet Thayil and Dom Moraes. He championed the moral utilization of dialect and made an appeal to readers, essayists and lovers of writing in his book Language as an Ethic'..
His poem 'Madras Central' collected rave reviews from critics and in addition to others, for which he won the All India Poetry Competition organised by the Poetry Society of India in association with the British Council.
A graduate from IIT Madras, Chennai, Nambisan also translated the devotional poetry of famous poets — Poonthanam and Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri. His wife Kavery Nambisan, a famous writer herself, wrote books like ‘The Scent of Pepper’, ‘The Truth (Almost) About Bharat’ and ‘The Story That Must Not Be Told’ which went on to be nominated for Man Asian Literary Prize 2008.
Many, took to Twitter to pay their condolences to the veteran writer. Historian Ramchandra Guha said he was sad to hear of Nambisan’s passing. “He was a wonderful writer, and human being, with a gentle, dry, wit,”
“Like his friend Dom Moraes, Vijay Nambisan was a fine prose stylist as well. His book Bihar is in the Eye of the Beholder is superb.” Whilst Thayil tweeted “Radium decays A bit at a time; Your poems have burned away Line by half-line
Vijay Nambisan (1963-2017), genius who never received his due”
