<p>Well-known Indian writer Kamala Das Suraiya, who courted controversy with her unorthodox views, died here on Sunday.<br /><br />She was 75 and is survived by three sons.</p>.<p>The Malayalam writer and poetess, who earned fame for her works in English, breathed her last in a city hospital where she had been admitted on April 18 following a complaint of respiratory distress.</p>.<p>Kamala, winner of many national and international literary awards, had settled down in the city a few years ago, leading a secluded life.</p>.<p>Known for her frank and explicit expression on matters of sexuality, Kamala focused on love, betrayal and the resultant agony in her writings that unsettled the orthodox readers.</p>.<p>Kamala hit the headlines when, though born in a conservative Hindu Nair family in Kerala with a royal lineage, she embraced Islam in 1999 at the age of 65, assuming the name Kamala Suraiya.</p>.<p>The conversion, just as the themes of her stories, generated much heat and dust in social and literary circles.</p>.<p>The writer who loved to tread the unorthodox path, had also made a foray into politics and floated 'Lok Seva Party' aiming at social and humanitarian work, providing asylum to orphaned mothers and to promote secularism. She unsuccessfully contested a Lok Sabha election in 1984.</p>.<p>A prolific author who was widely acclaimed for her short stories and novels in Malayalam, Kamala also became famous for her poetry in English that won her many international awards.</p>.<p>Her books in English include 'Summer in Calcutta', 'The Descendants', 'The Old Playhouse', 'Alphabet of Lust', 'My story' (Autobiography), etc. </p>
<p>Well-known Indian writer Kamala Das Suraiya, who courted controversy with her unorthodox views, died here on Sunday.<br /><br />She was 75 and is survived by three sons.</p>.<p>The Malayalam writer and poetess, who earned fame for her works in English, breathed her last in a city hospital where she had been admitted on April 18 following a complaint of respiratory distress.</p>.<p>Kamala, winner of many national and international literary awards, had settled down in the city a few years ago, leading a secluded life.</p>.<p>Known for her frank and explicit expression on matters of sexuality, Kamala focused on love, betrayal and the resultant agony in her writings that unsettled the orthodox readers.</p>.<p>Kamala hit the headlines when, though born in a conservative Hindu Nair family in Kerala with a royal lineage, she embraced Islam in 1999 at the age of 65, assuming the name Kamala Suraiya.</p>.<p>The conversion, just as the themes of her stories, generated much heat and dust in social and literary circles.</p>.<p>The writer who loved to tread the unorthodox path, had also made a foray into politics and floated 'Lok Seva Party' aiming at social and humanitarian work, providing asylum to orphaned mothers and to promote secularism. She unsuccessfully contested a Lok Sabha election in 1984.</p>.<p>A prolific author who was widely acclaimed for her short stories and novels in Malayalam, Kamala also became famous for her poetry in English that won her many international awards.</p>.<p>Her books in English include 'Summer in Calcutta', 'The Descendants', 'The Old Playhouse', 'Alphabet of Lust', 'My story' (Autobiography), etc. </p>