Ramesh Veluskar was a Konkani poet and litterateur from

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

. He died on October 21, 2018.

Background

Veluskar was a school teacher for 33 years, and has taught Konkani,

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

and

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

. Veluskar has written poetry, essays, novellas, and dramas for children. While in

Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango trees (''ekamra'')). Bhubaneswar is ...

to study

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 ...

in order to understand art appreciation in Delhi, he met the

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

-born Mithilesh Kumari Srivastava, whom he married in 1982. He has mastered

, Konkani and Bengali languages.

Interests, skills

He was trained in Indian classical vocals, does caricatures, and also acted in drama. Veluskar translated Sant Tukaram's abhangs and Rabindranath Tagore's Geetanjali to Konkani, and took the Portuguese poet Carlos Drumond de Andrade's works to Hindi readers.

On his writing

In a video uploaded in 2010, scholar and writer Dr Nandkumar Kamat says of Veluskar: "Ramesh Bhagwant Veluskar is one of Goa's best known modern Konkani poet A

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

award winner, he has several Konkani and a Hindi poetry collection to his credit and is known as pioneer to introduce folklorical and mythological elements in Konkani and offer a new ecoerotic and ecoastehtic idiom." Veluskar had "25 odd books to his credit, including translations from languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and English", and some of his recent books include ''Zen Kavita'' and ''Pandurang Pandurang'' (2014). According to Bharati Pawaskar, writing in ''The Goan'', "Wordsmiths like Manoharrai Sardesai,

Ravindra Kelekar Ravindra Kelekar (7 March 1925 – 27 August 2010) was a noted Indian author who wrote primarily in the Konkani language, though he also wrote in Marathi and Hindi. A Gandhian a 2010ctivist, freedom fighter and a pioneer in the modern Konk ...

, Bakibab Borkar,

Madhav Borkar Madhav Borkar (also Borcar, in Konkani वेणी माधव बोरकर) is a noted Konkani poet, former station director of All India Radio and Konkani litterateur based in Goa, India. Work, life Borkar was earlier station director o ...

, Dharmanand Kamat, R V Pandit, S S Nadkarni, Muralidhar Kulkarni, Nagesh Karmali, Evagrio Jorge encouraged Veluskar to write."

Awards

His awards include the

Kala Academy Kala Academy (Academy of the Arts) is a prominent cultural centre run by the Government of Goa, in Goa, India. Situated at Campal, Panjim Panaji (; also known as Panjim) is the capital of the Indian state of Goa and the headquarters of ...

Puroskar for ''Moni Vyotha'' (1978–79), Konkani Bhasha Mandal Puroskar for ''Morpakham'' (1980), Konkani Bhasha Mandal Nehru Puroskar (1981) and

Puroskar (1982–83) for ''Bhunk Bhunk Bhishu''. His first collection of Konkani poems, ''Morpakham'', was published in 1979. He won the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

award for his 1989 collection of poems, ''Saulgori''. Veluskar bagged the Non-Hindi Hindi Writer Award of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

Ministry of Human Resource Development The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further d ...

for his poetry collection ''Samudramudrika'' in 2011.

References

External links

Ramesh Veluskar, a poet from Goa
Recorded by FN/

Frederick Noronha Frederick Noronha (born 23 December 1963) in São Paulo, Brazil is a journalist based in Saligão in the Bardez taluka of Goa. He is active in cyberspace and involved with e-ventures involving Goa, developmental concerns and free software. No ...

Zen poems by Ramesh Bhagvant Veluskar, translated by Samantini Ramesh VeluskarEnjoying poetry with Ramesh VeluskarOn a chilly, December morning. Article by Ramesh Veluskar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Veluskar, Ramesh 20th-century Indian poets Poets from Goa Konkani-language poets 2018 deaths 21st-century Indian poets Indian male poets 20th-century Indian male writers 1947 births 21st-century Indian male writers Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Konkani