Malti Joshi (4 June 1934 – 15 May 2024) was an Indian novelist, essayist and writer, who wrote primarily in the

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

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 ...

languages. She was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honours, in 2018.

Biography

Joshi was born in 1934, in

Aurangabad Aurangabad (), officially renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in 2023, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a ...

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state in the Deccan region of south-central India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and the ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, and was educated in

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

, graduating from Holkar college, Devi Ahilya University], in

Indore Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...

. Her family spoke Marathi at home, but she was educated primarily in Hindi. Following her undergraduate education, she earned a master's degree in arts in Hindi literature, in 1956. Joshi died in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

on 15 May 2024, at the age of 89.Author, storyteller Malti Joshi passes away: Family sources
/ref>

Writing

Joshi began writing poetry and short stories as a teenager, contributing to Hindi children's magazines such as ''Parag.'' In 1971, she published a short story in the Hindi literature magazine, ''Dharmayug'', which was then produced by the ''

Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specificat ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

. She continued to publish stories in several well-circulated Hindi magazines, including ''Saptahik Hindustan'', ''Manorama'', ''Kadambini'', and ''Sarika''. She also launched the magazine "Shubh Sankalp" edited by Dr. Sunita Shrivastava. Joshi also participated the practice of ''kathakathan'', or oral recitation, performing her stories for audiences in live settings. Her stories have been collected and published in several volumes, and she has also written two novels, publishing fifty books in all. Joshi's work has been translated to

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

, and

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

. Her works have been translated to English, Russian, and Japanese. In addition to her short story collections, which were primarily written in Hindi, she has published eleven books in Marathi. Some of Joshi's stories were later adapted by the Indian government broadcaster,

Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...

, for television. They featured as part of the television show 'सात फेरे' (''Seven Turns'') produced by

Jaya Bachchan Jaya Bachchan (''née'' Bhaduri; born 9 April 1948) is an Indian actress and politician. She is regarded as one of the greatest actresses of Hindi cinema. She is serving as member of the parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party ...

, and 'किरदार' (''Character'') produced by

Gulzar Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh Kalra; 18 August 1934) is an Indian Urdu poetry, Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He starte ...

. In an interview with ''

Aaj Tak () is an Indian Hindi-language television news channel owned by the TV Today Network, a part of the New Delhi-based media conglomerate India Today Group. History Aaj Tak was first broadcast on DD Metro of Doordarshan (DD) in 1995. It ...

'', a Hindi-language news channel, Joshi stated that she drew her characters from her family and social circle, preferring to narrate the experience of middle-class families in India. She cited

Amritlal Nagar Amritlal Nagar (17 August 1916 – 23 February 1990) was one of the prominent Hindi writers of the twentieth century.P. L. Deshpande Purushottam Laxman Deshpande (alternatively written as Pu La Deshpande; 8 November 1919 – 12 June 2000), popularly known by his initials ("Pu. La.") or as P. L. Deshpande, was a Marathi writer and humorist from Maharashtra. He was also an a ...

, and

Sharad Joshi Sharad Joshi was an Indian poet, writer, satirist and a dialogue and scriptwriter in Hindi films and television. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1990. Biography Early life and education Sharad Joshi was born on 21 May 1931 in Ujjain, Madhya ...

as some of her influences.

Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshi, Malti 1934 births 2024 deaths People from Aurangabad, Maharashtra Indian women novelists Hindi-language writers Marathi-language writers Writers from Maharashtra Writers from Madhya Pradesh 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian writers Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature and education