Ootupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan (Malayalam: ഊട്ടുപുലാക്കല്‍ വേലുക്കുട്ടി വിജയന്‍; July 2, 1930 – March 30, 2005) was an Indian author and cartoonist, who was an important figure in modern Malayalam language literature. Best known for his first novel Khasakkinte Itihasam (1969), Vijayan has six novels, nine short-story collections, and nine collections of essays, memoirs and reflections.

O. V. Vijayan was born in Palakkad on July 2, 1930. His father O. Velukkutty was an officer in Malabar Special Police of the erstwhile Madras Province in British India. As a child, Vijayan was largely homeschooled. Formal schooling began at the age of twelve, when he joined Raja’s High School, Kottakkal in Malabar, directly in to sixth grade. The informal education arranged by his father during his absentee years was sufficient to keep him at par with his peers. The following year, Velukkutty was transferred and Vijayan joined the school at Koduvayur in Palakkad. He graduated from Victoria College in Palakkad and obtained a masters degree in English literature from Presidency College.

An unidentified flying object, often abbreviated UFO or U.F.O., is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object.

While technically a UFO refers to any unidentified flying object, in modern popular culture the term UFO has generally become synonymous with alien spacecraft; however, the term ETV (ExtraTerrestrial Vehicle) is sometimes used to separate this explanation of UFOs from totally earthbound explanations.

Proponents argue that because these objects appear to be technological and not natural phenomenon, and are alleged to display flight characteristics or have shapes seemingly unknown to conventional technology, the conclusion is then that they must not be from Earth. Though UFO sightings have occurred throughout recorded history, modern interest in them dates from World War II (see foo fighter), further fueled in the late 1940s by Kenneth Arnold's coining of the term flying saucer and the Roswell UFO Incident. Since then governments have investigated UFO reports, often from a military perspective- and UFO researchers have investigated, written about, and created organizations devoted to the subject. One such investigation, The UK's Project Condign report, notes that Russian, Former Soviet Republics, and Chinese authorities have made a co-ordinated effort to understand the UFO topic and that State military organizations, particularly in Russia, have done "considerably more work (than is evident from open sources)" on military applications which have stemmed from their UFO research. The report also noted that "several aircraft have been destroyed and at least four pilots have been killed 'chasing UFOs'."