Writer dies of heart attack at airport

HYDERABAD: Celebrated writer and academic Meenakshi Mukherjee, 72, suffered a massive heart attack and passed away quietly at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport while waiting for her flight to New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon.

The writer was going to participate in the launch of her latest book `An Indian For All Seasons, The Many Lives Of R C Dutt,' at the India International Centre, Delhi, on Thursday. "We were with her last night; she was hail and hearty. She went to the airport today and checked in. Somebody noticed her in the chair sitting quite still, though the final call for boarding the flight had been made. Her death was sudden and quiet,'' social activist Chandana Charavarthi, a close fried of Mukherjee, told TOI.

Mukherjee is survived by her mother, 94, and two daughters. Her husband Sujit Mukherjee, also a writer, had died in 2003.

A winner of Sahitya Academy Award, Meenakshi Mukherjee taught English in colleges in Patna, Pune and Delhi before joining the University of Hyderabad. Her last stint was with JNU, Delhi.

Among her noted books are `The Twice Born Fiction,' `Realism and Reality: Novel and Society in India,' `Re-reading Jane Austen' and `The Perishable Empire.' Link...