KOZHIKODE: The mortal remains of noted writer and journalist, Babu Bharadwaj (68) will be cremated here on Friday evening. His body will be kept at his residence in Malaparambu here on Friday from 10 am to 2 pm for the public to pay their last respects.
He died on Wednesday night due to cardiac arrest. Bharadwaj, the first national joint secretary of Students Federation of India (SFI), later became critical of the mainstream left parties alleging deviation from leftist ideology. A civil engineer by profession, he was known as a writer with notable works including, Shavaghoshayathra, Panchakalyani, Puppet theater and Kalaapangalkkoru grihapadam.
The novel, ‘Kalaapangal-kkoru grihapadam’ was awarded by the Kerala Sahitya Akademy in 2006. Babu Bharadwaj’s long stint in Saudi Arabia led to him publishing a number of notable works in which he narrated the life of expats in a poignant manner.
The narration of expats’ life earned him many readers and brought him into the limelight. “He was always an optimist who dreamt of light in all the gory tunnels of darkness. I never ever saw him being disappointed,” recalled actor and writer V.K Sreeraman. He was the producer of the political movie, Iniyum Marikkatha Nammal (1980), directed by late Chinta Ravi.
Chelavur Venu, film activist, reminisced that Babu Bharadwaj went on to produce the offbeat film although he knew the film would never bring back his hard earned money.
Babu Bharadwaj was not the kind who struggled in a non-comfortable ambience but preferred to quit. His working stints in many media organisations underlines this. He was asscoiated with some of the news channels in their early stages but chose to quit them mid-way. He was working as the chief editor of the online news portal, Dool News. He is survived by wife Prabha and children-- Reshma, Greeshma and Thashi.
