Gauri Deshpande (11 February 1942 – 1 March 2003) was a novelist, short story writer, and poet from

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. She wrote in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

Biography

Deshpande was born in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

to Irawati and Dinkar Dhondo Karve, youngest of three children. She is also the granddaughter of the social reformer Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve. Her daughter Urmila Deshpande is also an author and published the novels ''Kashmir Blues'', ''A Pack of Lies'', and ''Equal to Angels''; the short story collection, ''Slither: Carnal Prose'', and edited ''Madhouse: True stories of the Inmates of Hostel 4''.

Education

Deshpande finished her high school education at Ahilyadevi School in Pune. She then attended

Fergusson College Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by Vaman Shriram Apte, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vishnushashtri Chiplunkar, Mah ...

to receive an

M.A Ma, MA, or mA may refer to: Academia * Master of Arts, a degree award * Marin Academy, a high school in San Rafael, California * Menlo-Atherton High School, a public high school in Atherton, California * Minnehaha Academy, a private high schoo ...

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

. She eventually received her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in English from

Pune University Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Pune, is a public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshkhind. The uni ...

Professional life

Deshpande taught at the Department of English at

and later as a professor at the department of English at the then

University of Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Pune, is a public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshkhind. The uni ...

Death

Deshpande died in Pune on 1 March 2003 due to complications arising as a result of alcohol abuse. She is survived by two daughters from her first husband, one daughter from her second husband, three grandsons and a granddaughter.

Works

Deshpande wrote in Marathi and English. Her works include fiction, non-fiction, short stories, articles and translations.

Marathi works

* ''Paus Ala Motha'' (1973) * ''Ekek Pan Galawaya'' (1985) (fiction) ** translated to Gujarati as ''Ekek aa khare pandadun'' in 1989 by Jayantilal Mehta * ''Teruo Te Ani Kahi Door Paryant'' (1985) (fiction) * '' Ahe He Ase Ahe'' (1986) * ''Niragathi Ani Chandrike Ga Sarike Ga'' (1987) (fiction) * ''Dustar Ha Ghat Ani Thang'' (1989)(Marathi fiction) * ''Mukkam'' (1992) (fiction) * ''Vinchurniche Dhade'' (1996)(fiction) * ''Goph'' (1999) (fiction) * ''Utkhanan'' (2002) (fiction) * ''She also translated the ten volumes of "

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

" written by

Sir Richard Burton Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, KCMG, FRGS, (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, army officer, orientalist writer and scholar. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa and South America, as wel ...

from English to Marathi. The volumes were published in 1976-77.''

English works

* "Between Births" (1968) * ''Lost love'' (1970) * ''The Murder'' (Article) * ''Beyond the Slaughterhouse'' (1972) (poems) * ''The position of women in India'' (1973) (Pamphlet) * ''An anthology of Indo-English poetry'' (1974) * ''Small is beautiful'' (Article) * ''That's the way it is'' (1982)(Article published in ''Journal of South Asian literature'') * ''Collected Plays of Satish Alekar'' (1989) co-editor. Within the book, the story ''The Dread Departure'' was the english translation of the 1974 Marathi play ''Mahanirvan'' by

Satish Alekar Satish Vasant Alekar (born 30 January 1949) is a Marathi playwright, actor, and theatre director. A founder member of the Theatre Academy of Pune, and most known for his plays ''Mahanirvan'' (1974), ''Mahapoor'' (1975), ''Atirekee'' (1990), ''P ...

* ''Right on, Sister!'' (1995) (Article co-authored with Vidyut Aklujkar published in ''Journal of South Asian literature'') *''--and Pine for What Is Not'' (1995) (translation of

Sunita Deshpande Sunita Deshpande ( Thakur; 3 July 1926 – 7 November 2009) was an Indian writer. She was fondly called "Sunitabai". Career Deshpande began writing late in her life. She published her memoir ''Aahe Manohar Tari'' (आहे मनोहर � ...

's ''Ahe Manohar Tari...'') *''The Lackadaisical Sweeper'' (1997) (short story collection) * ''Diary of a decade of agony'' (translation of Avinash Dharmadhikari's ''Aswastha dashakachi diary'') * ''The female of the Species'' (a short poem)

Influence

* In 1989, her book ''Ekek Pan Galawaya'' was translated to Gujarati as ''Ekek aa khare pandadun'' by Jayantilal Mehta * In 2010, her book ''Niragathi Ani Chandrike Ga Sarike Ga'' was translated to English as ''Deliverance: a Novella'' by Shashi Deshpande * In 2018, her book ''Paus Ala Motha'' was adapted into the Marathi film '' Aamhi Doghi''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deshpande, Gauri Marathi-language writers 2003 deaths 1942 births Writers from Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University alumni Indian women short story writers Indian women poets 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century short story writers Poets from Maharashtra Women writers from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian women writers