Wellknown Kannada Poet Kayyara Kinhanna Rai passed away.

Kayyara Kinhanna Rai started his career as a secondary school teacher in NHSS PERDALA. He received the National Award for Best Teacher in 1969.He is a writer and poet who has written books on theatre, grammar and children. Some of his famous poems are Shreemukha, Aikyagana, Punarnava, Chethana and Koraga. He has written a biography of Govinda Pai, the Kannada poet from whom he was highly influenced. His other important works are Malayala Sahitya Charithre (History of Malayalam literature),which is a translation of an original work by P. K. Parameshwaran Nair and Sahithya Drushti. He was conferred an honorary doctorate by Mangalore University in 2005. He also chaired the 66th Akhila Kannada Sahitya Sammelana (Kannada Literature Conference), which was held at Mangalore. Some of his poems have been used as songs for the Kannada film, Paduvaaralli Pandavaru (Kannada: ಪಡುವಾರಳ್ಳಿ ಪಾಂಡವರು) which was directed by Puttanna Kanagal.