Mangesh Vitthal Rajadhyaksha was a Marathi writer and critic of repute.
I hadn't heard of him until his name cropped up during one of the conversations on vernacular literature and authors. Mr Rajadhyaksha didn't just write in Marathi though. He wrote in English too and for a large part of his life, he also taught English Literature in colleges in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kolhapur.
I know all this through the Internet. What spurred hours of searches in his and Vijaya Rajadhyaksha's (his wife and also winner of Sahitya Akademi award in 1992) name was a small piece of news: they are my boss's parents!
The day I learnt of it, I felt extremely elated. I had goosebumps. First, NRaj is an erudide scholar himself and a great person to work with. And, to have literary stalwarts as parents was a remarkable distinction I couldn't help gushing about. He later told me how he grew up next to the literary giants such as Dharamveer Bharti. I discovered that the place he stays at (Sahitya Sahwas) is the same place where Sachin Tendulkar grew up!
It's said that during his college years, the senior Rajadhyaksha also won the prestigious Wordsworth Prize for the best student in English Literature at Mumbai's Elphistone College. He also served on several prestigious committees, including the National Book Trust and the Jnanpith Trust that gives the Jnanpith Award.
Wikepedia says: ``He was closely involved with Abhiruchi, a Marathi literary journal that was the launching pad for some of the greatest writers in the post-independence era.''
All my life, literature has fascinated me. There is no end to it - it's like the sky, vast and without a border or ceiling to clip wings, scuttle thoughts or bury dreams. The more I know, the punier I feel. And, to discover the Rajadhyakshas felt like a blessing. As if I was in some indirect, remotest sort of way waking up to knowledge I would otherwise have missed.
My deepest condolences to the Rajadhyaksha family.
Here is the Times of India obit on the acclaimed writer:
Eminent critic, essayist and erstwhile professor of English, Mangesh Vitthal Rajadhyaksha, died on Monday at the age of 96 after a brief illness. His essays, collected in seven volumes, brought to Marathi literary criticism a rare perspicacity, candour and impatience with cant. His style was economical, precise and always lined with irony. He also coauthored a seminal history of Marathi literature with Kusumavati Deshpande. Panch Kavi, a selection of the works of five poets who represented the new and modern in poetry at the turn of the 19th century, became a literary classic. His preface to the volume remains one of the most lucidly argued pieces of literary criticism.
Born in Mumbai, he was educated at Chhabildas Boys High School and Elphinstone College where he won the Wordsworth Prize. He taught English at Elphinstone College, Mumbai, Rajaram College, Kolhapur and Gujarat College, Ahmedabad, giving to three generation of students not merely knowledge of texts but a way to look at, understand and love literature. He served for many years on the board of trustees of the National Book Trust and was, for some years, a member of the Jnanpeeth award committee and the committee for Marathi literature of the Sahitya Akademi.
The impact of his critical genius was first felt during the period 1943 to 1953 when he wrote a regular column Vaad-Samvaad in the pioneering literary magazine Abhiruchi, founded and edited by the late P.A and Vimala Chitre. The column commented on literary issues but also extended itself to include related fields like broadcasting, theatre and cinema. His critical target was always the literary object, never the writer as a person.
His going has bereaved the Marathi literary world. He leaves behind his wife, the eminent writer-critic Vijaya Rajadhyaksha, and three children.
Courtesy: TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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