Oru Desathinte Katha

S. K. Pottekkat was born in Kozhikode as the son of Kunchiraman Pottekkatt, an English schoolteacher. He had his early education at the Hindu School and Zamorin’s High School. He graduated from Zamorin s College, Kozhikode in 1934. He did not find employment for three years following his graduation and devoted his time to the study of Indian and Western classics. From 1937 to 1939, he worked as a teacher at Calicut Gujarati School. He quit the job to attend the Tripura Congress in 1939. He then went to Mumbai and took up several jobs only to develop an aversion for any white-collared jobs. He returned to Kerala in 1945. In 1952, he married Ms. Jayavalli and settled down at Puthiyara in Calicut. They had four children- two sons and two daughters. Pottekatts’ wife died in 1980 after which his condition too deteriorated. He was hospitalized in July 1982 following a paralytic stroke. He died on August 6, 1982.