12 Facts About Arun Kolatkar

Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar was an Indian poet who wrote in both Marathi and English.

Arun Kolatkar's poems are known for expressing the humour in everyday life.

Arun Kolatkar was born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, where his father, Tatya Arun Kolatkar, worked as an officer in the education department.

Arun Kolatkar lived in a traditional Hindu extended family, along with his uncle's family.

Arun Kolatkar attended Rajaram High School in Kolhapur, where Marathi was the medium of instruction.

The marriage was opposed by both families, partly because Arun Kolatkar had yet to sell any of his paintings.

Arun Kolatkar was, in advertising jargon, a 'visualizer,' and soon became one of Mumbai's most successful art directors.

Arun Kolatkar won the prestigious CAG award for advertising six times and was admitted to the CAG Hall of Fame.

Arun Kolatkar won the Kusumagraj Puraskar given by the Marathwada Sahitya Parishad in 1991 and Bahinabai Puraskar given by Bahinabai Prathistan in 1995.

Arun Kolatkar was among a group of post-independence bilingual poets who fused the diction of their mother tongues along with international styles to break new ground in their poetic traditions; others in this group included Gopalakrishna Adiga, Raghuvir Sahay, Dilip Chitre, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, etc.

Arun Kolatkar was hesitant about bringing out his English verse, but his very first book, Jejuri, had a wide impact among fellow poets and litterateurs like Nissim Ezekiel and Salman Rushdie.

Arun Kolatkar's Collected Poems in English, edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, was published in Britain by Bloodaxe Books in 2010.