Biography
Mangesh Keshav Padgaonkar (Devanagari: ????? ???? ?????????) is a Marathi poet from Maharashtra, India. He was born on March 10, 1929 in Vengurla, Sindhudurg District in Maharashtra. He is married to Yashoda Padgaonkar and has three children, Dr. Ajit Padgaonkar, Abhay Padgaonkar and Anjali Kulkarni.
Education and Career
He received a Master of Arts degree in Marathi and Sanskrit from the University of Bombay, He taught Marathi at Ruia College for some years, and then during the 1970-1990 period served as an editor at the U.S. Information Service, both in Mumbai.
Along with Vinda Karandikar and Vasant Bapat, Padgaonkar has been part of many poetry recitation programmes that were held in Maharashtra in 1960s and 1970s. He has also written lyrics of many Marathi film songs. Sung by Arun Date, his songs ?Ya Janmawar, Ya Jaganyawar Shatada Prem Karawe?, ?Bhatukalichya Khelamadhali? and ?Shukratara Mand Wara? are well known.
In 1983-84, he also penned University of Pune?s theme song ?Punyamayee De Amha Akshar Vardaan?. It was Pu La Deshpande who asked Padgaonkar to write this song in one day. It was then composed by music director Bhaskar Chandavarkar. In 2012, he was also honoured with ?Jeevan Sadhana Gaurav Puraskar? by University of Pune for his contributions in the field of literature.
He has been President of the 2nd Vishwa Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Dubai in 2010 and organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal.
Padgaonkar has 40 publications to his credit. The U.S. Library of Congress has acquired 31 of his publications. He has written a collection of essays and published it under the title "Nimbonichya Zaadamage". On suggestion of author N. G. Deshpande (Naa Gha Deshpande), Padgaonkar started working on translations in his spare time. N G Deshpande, who has written various poems, has himself also translated Bhagwat Gita in Marathi. Following his and Kakasaheb Kalelkar's advice Padgaonkar translated works of Mirabai and published a book "Mira" in 1965. He has also translated works of Kabir and Surdas in Marathi alongwith Shakesphere's plays The Tempest, Julius Ceasar and Romeo and Juliet. These translations have been included in the Shakesphere Memorial at British town of Stratford upon Avon. The only other Indian author whose poems are included in the memorial is Rabindranath Tagore. His latest translations of Bible: The New Testament was published in 2008. Along with translating the famous works of other authros, Padgaonkar also wrote forewords to these books wherein he has commented on the original authors, their styles of writing and literature of respective eras. A collection of these forewords is publihed as "Chintan" by Popular Publications.
Recently Padgaonkar also published his experiences of poetry writing in the book "Shodh Kavitecha". He writes about his poems, how they were born, their journeys so far and other author's views on them. Most of the articles in this book have been separately published previously. His another book "Snehagatha" reminisces days with other fellow authors. The book is divided in three sections. First section "Murgi Club" is about authors Gangadhar Gadgil, Shri Pu Bhagwat, Sadanand Rege, Vinda Karandikar and Vasant Bapat. The second section talks about Nath Pai, Shrinivas Khale, Pu La Deshpande, poet Maydev, Rabindranath Tagore, Mama Varerkar and Dr. Sharachandra Gokhale. The last section is dedicated to Keshavsuta, Balkavi, Kusumavati Deshpande and others.
Padgaonkar has received several awards, including the Sahitya Academy Award in 1980 for his collection of poems Salam (????), the M.P. Literary Conference Award in 1956, and the Maharashtra State Award in 1953 and 1955. In 2008 Padgaonkar was awarded with Maharashtra Bhushan Award along with Late Nana Dharmadhikari, noted Spiritual leader. ..
