Legendary Tamil writer Ashokamitran died at the age of 85 in Chennai on Thursday. Kalyan Raman, who translated four of his Tamil fiction books, said on Twitter, “I have such happy memories of his warmth and friendship. Go well, sir. Goodbye.”

In an interview with The Hindu earlier in March, he had said, “I’ll write as long as I’m physically able to.”

Born in 1931 in Secunderabad, Ashokamitran had written more than 250 short stories as well as two dozen novels and novellas. He had received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1996 for a collection of short stories Appavin Snegidhar. His work has been translated into a number of Indian and European languages.