Late journalist and writer Payam Sudhakaran was awarded the Arts Icon Award of the Golden Cat Literary Award-23, sponsored by Alphabets Realistic Thought Society (ARTS). Sudhakaran’s novel, The Misfit, is a thrilling story that explores themes of love, loss, friendship, deceit, and hope. The book takes readers on a journey through Indian villages and cities, capturing the essence of different regions. The story centers around Jagadeesh, a young man from Kerala who runs away from home after discovering a shocking truth about his father and his lover. He travels to the Northeast of India to escape his troubled past. In Nagaland, Jagadeesh faces dramatic events in the midst of a separatist crisis. He builds a life there as a teacher and falls in love with a Naga woman, but betrayal from a close friend changes everything. Jagadeesh then befriends a Naxal leader named Venkanna during a train journey and joins the movement in Andhra Pradesh. However, Venkanna has other plans for him and sends him to Hyderabad to start a new life.
