Vasdev Mohi (born Vasdev Vensimal Sidhnani; 2 March 1944) is a

Sindhi poet Sindhi may refer to: *something from, or related to Sindh, a province of Pakistan * Sindhi people, an ethnic group from the Sindh region * Sindhi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them People with the name * Sarkash Sindhi (1940–201 ...

, translator, critic, short story writer and a retired lecturer. He also served as the member of the executive board of

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 ...

and member of Council for Promotion of Indian Languages, collectively from 2008 to 2013. His work include twenty-five books of poetry, uncertain translation and critic works. The recipient of numerous awards, including

Saraswati Samman The Saraswati Samman is an annual award for outstanding prose or poetry literary works in any of the 22 languages of India listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India. It is named after the Hindu goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. The Saras ...

for his short story book titled ''Chequebook'' published in 2012, some of his uncertain critical essays have appeared in literary festivals held in national and international seminars. His first poetic collection titled ''Tazad'' became one of prominent poems in both India and Pakistan. He later published another poem titled ''Subah Kithe Ahe'' (Where is the Morning). In 1977, he was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award in Sindhi for his poem ''Barf jo Thahyal''.

Early life and education

He was born in 1944 in

Mirpur Khas Mirpur Khas ( Sindhi and ; ''meaning "Town of the most-high Mirs"'') is the capital city of the Mirpur Khas District and Mirpur Khas Division in the Sindh province, Pakistan. Mirpur Khas is the 16th largest city in Sindh province and the 80th ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(in modern-day Pakistan). Following the

partition of the Indian subcontinent The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

, his family migrated to

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

in 1947. They later moved to

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

in 1950. He married Janki in November 1964. He did his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

from the Gujarat University and joined

Life Insurance Corporation Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is an Indian central public sector undertaking headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The Life Insurance Corporation of In ...

(LIC) in 1966. He later went to UAE and started teaching English at

The Indian High School, Dubai The Indian High School is a CBSE-affiliated Indian school in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was established in 1961 to provide education to the children of Indian expatriates and was the first expatriate educational institution in the UAE. The s ...

in 1987 until he retired in 2004 as the lecturer. Prior to his retirement, he also served as the head of English department.

Career

He started his career around 1976 when he published his first poetry ''Tazad''. In 1979, he appeared in

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

's symposium. He has been engaged in various writing genres such as criticism, playwright, short stories and poem in particular. He introduced new form of poetries such as ''Mankoo'', a type of traditional poetry usually written to express author's anguish against

social discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of Racial discrimination, r ...

which was awarded Gujarati Sahitya Akademi Award in 1995. He also introduced another form of

ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

called ''Hyku Ghazal'', which uses Japanese language combination alongside

Sindhi language Sindhi ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a Scheduled languages of India ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mohi, Vasdev 1944 births Living people Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Gujarati Recipients of the Saraswati Samman Award Recipients of the Gangadhar National Award Sindhi-language poets 21st-century Indian poets Indian male poets 21st-century Indian short story writers Indian male short story writers 21st-century Indian translators Indian literary critics Writers from Ahmedabad Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Sindhi