New Delhi, Dec. 28 -- About 30 years ago, I interviewed MT Vasudevan Nair, recipient of India's highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award, and the Sahitya Akademi Award. He also received the Padma Bhushan. He passed away in Kozhikode, Kerala on Christmas Day.

While in Delhi, where I was working for the New York-based weekly newspaper India Abroad, I called on him in the guest house of India International Centre, the capital's intellectual and cultural hub. He was in transit, on his way to Chicago to see his daughter.

Widely known as MT, the celebrated Malayalam writer, filmmaker, and literary giant, received me - like him a Malayalee - with warmth and a down-to-earth demeanor. Like him, his writings and films overwhelmingly represente...