Purushottam Laxman Deshpande

Early life

Purushottam Lakshman Deshpande was born on 8 November 1919 in Gaodevi area (Krupa Hemraj Chawl) in Mumbai in a GSB-Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family to Lakshman and Lakshmibai Deshpande. Deshpande’s maternal grandfather, Vaman Mangesh Dubhashi, was a poet and connoisseur of literature. He had translated Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali into Marathi under the title Abhang Gitanjali The family used to stay at Kenway house (opposite Robert Money School), Proctor road, Grant Road. His family then moved to Jogeshwari where he stayed at the newly formed Saraswati Baug Colony till he was 8 years old. His first 8 years and Saraswati Baug is nicely described in his story "Balpanicha Kaal Sukhacha" in his book Purchundi. The family then moved to Vile Parle. He lived in many places like Pune, Belgaum, Varli, Santacruz, and Delhi. Finally, Pu La Deshpande settled in Pune.

Education

Deshpande studied at Parle Tilak Vidyalaya.He attended Ismail Yusuf College after high school and then Government law college for LLB. Later he attended Fergusson College in Pune and obtained his Masters in Arts, (M.A.) in 1950. He also took lessons in playing harmonium from Dattopant Rajopadhye of Bhaskar Sangitalaya.

Personal life

His first wife (the former Ms. Sundar Divadkar from a family in Karjat) died soon after the wedding in the early 1940s. On 12 June 1946, Deshpande married his teacher colleague,Sunita Thakur.Sunita Thakur was an accomplished writer in her own right.

Professional life

Both P L Deshpande and his wife served as teachers in Orient High School, Mumbai. He also worked for some years as a college professor in Rani Parvati Devi College Belgaum, Karnataka and Kirti College, Mumbai. He also worked for newly founded Doordarshan, the state owned Indian TV. He was the first person to interview the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on Indian television. He was deputed to the BBC in UK for a year-long training. After which he spent some time in France and in West Germany. It was this specific period and stays in these countries that his later travelogue "Apoorvai" was to be based upon. His other travelogue include Poorvarang" and Jave tyanchya Desha

Accomplishments

Pu La Deshpande was proficient Hindustani classical musician. He went on to gain fame as author, screenplay writer, actor, director, music director and singer. During his lifetime he also participated in several philanthropist activities

Death

Deshpande died in Pune, Maharashtra on 12 June 2000 due to complications from Parkinson's disease. He was aged 80.Sunita-bai survived him. He died on the 54th anniversary of their marriage. A large public park on Sinhgad Road in his adopted home town, Pune, was named after him in commemoration.

Literary accomplishments

Pu La Deshpande was most well known for his writings as a humorist. However he was a prolific writer in all genres and produced numerous original works as well as adaptations of works from other languages into Marathi. He preferred to identify his Marathi adaptations of plays and novels in other languages as bhawanuwad (भावानुवाद), roughly meaning "translation of expressions" or "translation of feelings". Most of his writings are deeply rooted in Marathi language.

One-act plays

Plays

Children's plays

Books (Humour)

Books (Travelogues)

Books (Translations)

Biography

Books (Life Sketches)

Other Books

Humorous Essays

Popular Fictional Characters

Most of these appear in his book, Vyakti ani Walli ((English translation:sketches of personalities).

Some of the above characters first appeared in various periodicals at different times. But later all of them were combined into and released as a single book titled व्यक्ती आणी वल्ली (Vyakti ani Valli).

One-man stage shows

Books (Collection of Speeches)

Movies

Awards and recognitions

Social work

Pu La Deshpande donated and participated in several social causes. He preferred adding the name "Muktangan" to any cause he donated to. Some of his prominent philanthropic involvements are as below