People Track

Malayalam poet Kamala Suraiya (Madhavi Kutty) has been conferred with the highest Malayalam literary award, “Muttathoovar” by the Varkey Foundation. The award carries a citation, cash Rs. 33,333 and a memento. The Award was presented on May 28 in Kochi on the 17th anniversary of Muttathoovar. Kamala Suraiya had embraced Islam nearly a decade ago.

Dr Mohamed Rela, liver transplant specialist, flew from London on April 23, 2006 to help in the treatment of Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary late, Pramod Mahajan. He is one of the world’s foremost liver transplant specialists. Rela heads a transplant team at the King’s College Hospital, London. He hails from Myladuthurai in Tamil Nadu. He has 800 liver transplants to his credit. His liver transplant on a five day old Irish infant got him an entry to the Guinness Book of World Records in 2000. .He has a MBBS degree from Stanley Medical college in Madras and MS from the same college. He then went to UK to get the FRCS in 1988. He is 47 years old.


Dr Rela also has signed an agreement with Global Hospitals, Hyderabad, to provide for liver transplantation surgery free of cost to children below the age of 12. He has pioneered ‘split liver’ transplant surgery which involves the division of a healthy donor organ to help transplant it to two patients. He is also an expert at live donor transplants. He has published 100 scientific papers related to liver transplantation.