Dhiruben Patel

Dhiruben Patel
Born (1926-05-25) May 25, 1926
Vadodara, Baroda State, British Raj
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • Playwright
  • Translator
Language Gujarati
Nationality Indian
Ethnicity Indian
Citizenship Indian
Notable works Agantuk
Notable awards Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak
Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati

Literature portal

Dhiruben Gordhanbhai Patel, (Gujarati: ધીરુબેન પટેલ Hindi: धीरुबेन पटेल); born May 25, 1926 in Vadodara),[1] is a Gujarati novelist, playwright, and translator who won the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati language for her novel Agantuk.[1][2]

She is a former President of the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and one of her plays, Bhavni Bhavai, has been turned into a film.[3]

Early Life

Dhiruben Gordhanbhai Patel was born in 1926 to Gordhanbhai Patel, a journalist with the Bombay Chronicle, and Gangaben Patel, a political activist and member of the All India Congress Committee. Although born in Vadodara in Gujarat, she grew up and still resides in Santacruz, a suburb of Mumbai. She was educated at the Poddar school in Mumbai, and later taught English literature at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.[4]

From 1966 to 1975, she edited Sudha, a Gujarati journal. Subsequently, she founded Kali Prakashan, a publishing house.[5] She later served as the President of the Gujarat Sahitya Sabha.[3]

Works

Overview

Dhiruben Patel is the author of several collections of short stories and poetry, as well as novels. She has written plays for performance on stage and on radio. Her work is deeply influenced by Gandhian ideals. Critics Susie Tharu and Ke Lalita have written that "Although Dhiruben does not consider herself a feminist, like the novelist Kundanika Kapadia, she believes that the root cause of women's inferior status lies in their own mental conditioning." [5] Her early work, in particular, deals with the lives of women and their relationships, and what Tharu and Lalita have also described as the "quest for selfhood".[5] Her later work has been primarily for children and young adults, and she has spoken about writing to reach children through books despite the easy availability of information on the internet.[6]

Dhiruben Patel's early writing was in Gujarati. Her novel, Agantuk won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2001, for writing in Gujarati. This was translated by Raj Supe into English, as Rainbow at Noon in 2011. In an interview, Patel said she agreed to let Supe translate it because ".. he would understand my hero and his struggles as he has travelled the same path.”[7] A recent collection of poetry, Kitchen Poems is in English, and was first recited by her at the Neemrana Literary Festival in 2002. These were later published and translated into German, by Peter D O'Neil, and into Marathi, by Usha Mehta.[8]

Partial Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 Vyas, Daksha. "સાહિત્યસર્જક: ધીરુબેન પટેલ" [Writer: Dhiruben Patel] (in Gujarati). Gujarati Sahitya Parishad.
  2. ↑ "Sanskrit Sahitya Akademi Awards 1955-2007". Sahitya Akademi Official website. Archived from the original on 2008.
  3. 1 2 "Dhiruben Patel". Muse India. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  4. ↑ Raikar-Mhatre, Sumedha (9 July 2014). ""'Older people deserve their space, which is often denied to them,' noted writer Dhiruben Patel"". Mid-Day. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 Tharu, Susie, Ke Lalita and (1993). "Dhiruben Patel" in Women Writing in India vol 1. Feminist Press at CUNY. pp. 224–226. ISBN 9781558610293.
  6. ↑ Iyer, Aruna V (May 16, 2011). "Foray into English". The Hindu. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  7. ↑ Kulkarni, Reshma S (4 July 2011). ""Wonder Women all write"". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  8. ↑ Raikar-Mhatre, Sumedha (October 14, 2012). "Kitchen Confidential". Pune Mirror. Retrieved December 12, 2014.

See also

Awards
Preceded by
Vinesh Antani		 Recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Gujarati
2001 		Succeeded by
Dhruv Prabodhrai Bhatt
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.