Writer Tripura dead

Noted writer Raayasam Venkata Tripurantakeswara Rao (RVTK Rao), popularly known as Tripura, died after a brief illness at a private hospital here on Friday.

Born in Purushottapuram village in Ganjam district in Odisha in 1928, Tripura had studied at Mrs. AVN High School in Visakhapatnam. He did M.A. (English) and B. Sc (Agriculture) from the Benares Hindu University (BHU). He had worked as a teacher at Varanasi, Mandalay, Madanapalle, Visakhapatnam, and Jajpur.

He had joined as an English Professor in Maharaja Bir Bikram College in Agartala in 1960 and retired as its Principal in 1987. He was influenced by Jiddu Krishnamurthy, Marxism and Zen Buddhism. His favourite writers were Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Farnz Kafka, and Sri Sri.

His works include ‘Tripura Kadhalu’ (1963-1973) and again between 1980 and 1990, ‘Segments’ (1975) and poems ‘Bandhalu – Sambandhalu’ and ‘Tripura Kafka Kavithalu’.

Tripura is survived by two daughters and a son. His eldest daughter Vindhya is Dean at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, the second daughter Natasha is a Team Leader in ‘Save The Children’ organisation in The UK and son Nagarjun is a Pathologist in the USA, according to Tripura’s nephew Chaitanya. “Tripura’ s works are ‘cut diamonds’. Though he had produced only 15 stories, each of his stories was a masterpiece. Though the number of works was less, the quality is high,” said writer Rama Theertha of Mosaic Literary Organisation.