Renowned writer and columnist Malathi Chandur, succumbed to cancer at a private hospital in Chennai on Wednesday. She was 83.
Born in Nuzvid in Krishna district in 1930, she moved to Eluru after completion of 8th class and joined St Theresa’s English medium school. It was in Eluru that she met poets Sri Sri and Viswanatha Satyanarayana. In 1947, she married Chandur Nageswara Rao and the couple shifted to Madras. Through the regular Pramadaavanam column, which had appeared in the Andhra Prabha weekly for nearly five decades, she quickly made a name for herself with her practical solutions to day-to-day problems.
Starting with short story Ravvaladdulu published in Anandavani weekly, followed by Luz Corner, she had also published stories like Neeraja in Bharathi, the prestigious monthly of yore. Her novels like Champakam, Cheedapurugulu, Aalochinchu and Sadyogam, among others, won her many an award (about 16), including those conferred by the AP Sahitya Akademi and Kendriya Sahitya Academy, besides Kalaaprapoorna of the Padmavathi Mahila University.
Her famous recipe book Vantalu-Pindivantalu has been publised many times. Her other famous columns were Nannu Adagandi(ask me) in Swati weekly and Patha Keratalu in Swati monthly. Her husband, Chandur Nageswara Rao, a renowned journalist, writer and translator, passed away earlier in 2011 in Chennai. He was 90.
He was also the founder-editor of Jagathi magazine. Malathi Chandur was conferred the Sahitya Akademi award in 1992 for her novel Hrudaya Netri, and also Bharatha Bhasha Parishad award (Kolkata) and the Telugu University award for her prolific work.