Kiran Nagarkar (2 April 1942 – 5 September 2019) was an Indian novelist, playwright and screenwriter. A noted drama and film critic, he was one of the most significant writers of post-colonial India. Amongst his notable works are Saat Sakkam Trechalis (tr. Seven Sixes Are Forty Three) (1974), Ravan and Eddie (1994), and Cuckold (1997) for which he was awarded the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award in English by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. His novels written in English have been translated into German. In 2012, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Personal life Nagarkar was born on 2 April 1942 in Bombay, now Mumbai, in a middle-class Maharashtrian family, the younger of two sons to Sulochana and Kamalkant Nagarkar. His grandfather, B. B. Nagarkar, was a Brahmo and had attended the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. He studied at Fergusson College in Pune and the S.I.E.S. College in Mumbai. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1964 and a master's degree in English literature in 1967. After that, he worked as an advertising copywriter for 15 years. From June to November 2011 he was 'writer in residence' at the Literaturhaus Zurich and the PWG Foundation in Zurich. He was married to Tulsi Vatsal, sister of industrialist Anand Mehta. Nagarkar was a life-long critic of the establishment and stood by his political views throughout his literary career. He was admitted to hospital on 2 September 2019, after suffering a brain haemorrhage at a friend's place during celebrations for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. He remained in coma for two days and died on 5 September 2019. Novels Nagarkar is notable among Indian writers for having written acclaimed novels in more than one language. His first novel, Saat Sakkam Trechalis published in Marathi in 1974, was translated into English by Shubha Slee in 1980 and published in 1995 as Seven Sixes Are Forty Three. It is considered a landmark work of Marathi literature. His novel Ravan and Eddie, begun in Marathi but completed in English, was not published until 1994. Since Ravan and Eddie, all Nagarkar's novels have been written in English and also translated into German. His third novel, Cuckold, based upon the mystic Meerabai's husband, Bhoj Raj, was published in 1997 and won the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award. It took him nine years to write his next, God's