Gauri Deshpande

Gauri Deshpande

Gauri Deshpande (11 Feb. 1942 - 1 Mar. 2003) was a novelist, short story writer and poet. She created a space for herself in the literary world by writing in a style of her own. She left a mark on the Marathi literature world with her short story and novels having themes and center on the upper middle class cosmopolitan women.

Gauri Deshpande was born in Pune to Irawati and Dinkar Karve. She completed her schooling in Ahilyadevi School and then went to the Fergusson College to recieve MA in English Literature. She also recieved PhD from Pune University. She has two siblings - Jai and Anand.

She translated ten volumes of Arabian Nights written by Sir Richard Burton in Marathi and were published in 1976-77. She translated the Marathi books written by Sunita Deshpande "Ahe Manohar Tari " into English as "---and Pine for What is Not" and Avinash Dharmadhikari's "Aswastha Dashkachi Diary" in English as "Diary of a Decade of Agony".

She had never planned to write in Marathi. However, after the death of Irawati Karve in 1970 , Gauri wrote an article in memory of her in a newspaper. This article was well recieved and this opened the doors of Marathi literature.

Her "Ek Pan Galavaya" is a collection of 3 short stories. "Turungatil Patre" is a story of an urban and sensitive young woman who is trying to comprehend her relationships to men in her life. The second story "Madhya Latapatita" is again a story of a happily married woman in that anxious passing phase of approaching middle age. She is unsure of the meaning and purpose of her married life. She leaves her husband, with whom she is living in a foreign country, and returns to Mumbai to reassess the meaning she was seeking. The last story in the collection "Ek Pan Galavaya", is about Radha, a woman past her middle age who has lost her husband recently.