things are and the way they're likely to stay. His first book, Raktham Puranda Manaltharikal was published in 1952. MT's first literary prize came to him while he was a student at Victoria College, Palakkad - his short story "Valarthumrigangal" (Pet Animals) won first prize in the World Short Story Competition conducted by The New York Herald Tribune, Hindustan Times and Mathrubhumi in 1954. It was a short story delineating the pathetic plight of circus artistes. The numerous stories that followed dealt with themes culled from widely different milieus and contexts but were uniformly successful and popular. The noted collections of his stories are Iruttinte Athmavu, Olavum Theeravum, Bandhanam, Varikkuzhi, Dare-e-Salam, Swargam Thurakkunna Samayam, Vaanaprastham and Sherlock. "Iruttinte Athmavu" ("Soul of Darkness"), one of the most celebrated among his short stories, is the heart wrenching story of a 21-year-old man, regarded as a lunatic by everyone and treated abominably. The story reveals the insanity behind the civilised and supposedly sane world. The story "Sherlock" moves between the rural milieu familiar to MT's readers and the sophisticated world of Indian immigrants in the US, highlighting the contrast between them with subtle irony. MT wrote passionately of the cruelty hidden at the heart of a seemingly idyllic rural life ("Kurukkante Kalyanam" or "The Jackal's Wedding" and "Shilalikhithangal" or "Stone Inscriptions") and of the privations endured by those dependent on the agricultural cycle ("Karkitakom" and "Pallivalum Kalchilambum" or "Sacred Sword and Anklets"). In the story "Vanaprastham", he studies the delicately balanced relationship between a teacher and a student that has miraculously survived the years. M. T. Vasudevan Nair is of the opinion that short story is a genre in which a writer can achieve near perfection. He, along with T. Padmanabhan, serve as bridges between the early modern short story writers in Malayalam, of the so-called renaissance, and the new short story of the late fifties and sixties. Naalukettu and Asuravithu MT's debut novel Pathiravum Pakalvelichavum (Midnight and Daylight) was serialised in Mathrubhumi Weekly in 1957. His first major work Naalukettu (The Legacy; 1958) is a veritable depiction of the situation which prevailed in a typical joint family when its fortunes is on a steady decline. The title attributes to Nālukettu, a traditional ancestral home (Taravad) of a Nair joint family. The novel remains a classic in Malayalam fiction. It contributed to the renewal of a literary tradition initiated by S. K. Pottekkatt,