Tuesday 17 January 2012

Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan 18-January

“Mitti Ka Tan, Masti Ka Man aur Kshan Bhar Jeean” these are the lines given by an eminent Hindi poet, Mr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan for his introduction. He was the poet of Chhyavaad literary movement which means Romantic Upsurge. He was best known for his work named 'Madhushaala'.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan"]Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan[/caption]

He was a proud father of Shahenshah of Bollywood Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. He was born in a Kayasath family to Pratap Narayan Shrivastav and Saraswati Devvi. He did his formal schooling from a municipal school and took forward the tradition of family by going to Kayasath Paathshaala for Urdu training. He later pursued his higher studies at Allahbaad University and Banaras Hindu University. During this period he came under influence of Independence Movement, then came under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. After realizing that this is not his forte he went back to college and taught in English Department of Allahbad University, followed by doctoral thesis on W. B. Yeats at Cambridge University. His thesis got him PhD at Cambridge.

In 1926, at the age of 19, Bachchan married his first wife, Shyama, who was then 14 years old. However she died ten years later in 1936 after a long spell of tuberculosis and then married Teji Suri in 1941. They have two sons Amitabh and Ajitabh. In 1955, Harivanshrai shifted to Delhi to join the External Affairs Ministry as an officer on special duty and during the period of 10 years that he served he was also associated with the evolution of Hindi as the official language. He also enriched Hindi through his translations of major writings. As a poet he is famous for his poem Madhushala (a bar selling alcoholic drinks). Besides Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, he will also be remembered for his Hindi translations of Shakespeare's Macbeth and Othello and also the 'Bhagvad Gita'. However in Nov 1984 he wrote his last poem 'Ek November1984' on Indira Gandhi's assassination

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