Kottayam: Veteran Malayalam journalist and former editor of Manorama Weekly K Padmanabhan Nair alias Padman, 90, passed away in Kottayam on Saturday.

Padman began his career at Malayala Manorama and went on to head the local news section of the paper. He wrote caption for the newspaper's hugely popular pocket cartoon 'Kunjukkuruppu' for 35 years.

After his retirement from the newspaper, Padman took charge as the editor of the Manorama Weekly, which was first published under the editorship of his father and eminent satirist E V Krishna Pillai. He retired from the weekly on December 31, 2001.

Born in 1930 at Adoor, Padman studied at the Adoor High School before pursuing higher education at University Intermediate College in Thiruvananthapuram and NSS College in Pandalam.

Padman was the founder of children's theatre in Kerala in 1961.

He was the founding president of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) unit at Malayala Manorama. Later, he became the president of Kottayam Press Club.

His prominent books are 'Kunchukuruppum Prahladanum', 'Sahodaran Bhasiyude Jeevacharithram', 'Natakandyam Bhasyam', 'Bhasuram Hasyam', 'Kunhalakal' 'Kunhadukal'.

His mother Maheswari Amma was the youngest daughter of famous Malayalam writer C V Raman Pillai.

Prominent filmmaker late Chandraji (Ramachandran Nair) and versatile actor late Adoor Bhasi were his elder brothers.

His wife Vimala Devi passed a few years ago.

He is survived by daughters Chithra, Lakshmi, Jayakrishnan Nair (special correspondent, The Times of India), sons-in-law Ramesh Kumar (retired deputy chief electrical inspector), Jagadeesh Chandran (engineer, Kuwait) and daughter-in-law Dhanya.