staged all over Tamil Nadu by T.K. Balachander troupe and lyrics for the play were penned by Paatukkottai Kalayanasundaram - which led to a close relationship with this legendary poet. He sharpened his writing skills with constant criticism and guidance from Tho.Mu.Si. Raghunathan/ Thi.Ka.Sivasankaran/ Jeevanandam. In fact when Jeevanandam was the editor of "Thamarai" D.S. was the one editing the magazine behind the scenes. He spent years and years researching his novels before sitting down to pen them. His "Thol" novel is an apt example of that effort. He spent 10 years researching the novel in Dindigul tanneries and erstwhile workers in tanneries before writing it down. "Thol" was awarded the Tamil Nadu Government Award for the best novel of 2009 and the novel has been given the honour by Sahitya Akademi in 2012. He lived his last years in Dindigul. He was married to Bharathaputri and had three children (Siddharthan Prabhu, Sarvagan Prabhu, Veda gnana lakshmi all 3 married) . He happily shared his time between writing, his advocate practice and playing with his 5 grand children. Bibliography Malarum charugum (Novel) (Malligai, 1967) Theneer (Novel) (New Century book house, 1973) Moolathanam (Novel) (1977) Agnikundam (Novel) (1980) Yugasangamam (Play) (1968) Jeeva - Biography of P Jeevanandham (Sahitya Akademi, 2005) Saamichidambaranaar - Biography of Tamil writers (Sahitya Akademi, 2006). Pradosham (Varam:Chennai, 2007) Thole (2010) - Awarded best novel of the year by the Tamil Nadu Government - Presented by the Hon Chief Minister Dr. J. Jayalalitha on 13 April 2012 References 2019 deaths 1938 births Tamil writers People from Tirunelveli district Tamil-language writers Novelists from Tamil Nadu Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Tamil Indian Communist writers Indian lawyers