Acclaimed Tamil novelist no more

The versatile Tamil novelist Venugopalan aged 82 years also popularly known as `Pushpa` Thangadurai, passed away at a hospital here on Sunday after a brief illness. . Thangadurai had been on ventilator support for the last two weeks at Rajiv Gandhi government general hospital. His condition worsened today and he passed away at around 1800 hrs. He had written over 2,000 novels and over 1,000 short stories under the pen name  Pushpa. Some of his works like Oru Oothappu Kan Simitugiradhu and "Nandha En Nila" were also made into Tamil movies.