Tamil novelist 'Pushpa' Thangadurai passes away

Noted Tamil novelist and short story writer Sri Venugopalan, popularly known as 'Pushpa' Thangadurai, passed away at a hospital here today after a brief illness, family sources said.
He was 82 and a bachelor. He is survived by his sister.
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, the sources said.
He had written over 2,000 novels and over 1,000 short stories under the pen name -- 'Pushpa' and was a recipient of of several awards.
Some of his works like 'Oru Oothappu Kan Simitugiradhu" and "Nandha En Nila" were also made into Tamil movies, they said.