It was a fitting last journey for Vinod Bhatt, a man who made Gujaratis laugh with his writings and one-liners. True to his lifelong attributes, Bhatt's final procession was accompanied with 'band-baja'. Bhatt passed away on Wednesday in Ahmedabad after a prolonged illness. Bhatt's body was donated to a city hospital as per his wish.
Bhatt was born on January 14, 1938 in Nandol village in Dehgam, now in Gandhinagar district. Having graduated in 1961 from HL Commerce College in Ahmedabad, he passed his LLB in 1964 and began practising as a sales tax consultant.
With a passion of writing, Bhatt came into limelight because of his articles 'Vinodni Najare' in 'Kumar' magazine during the tenure of Bachubhai Rawat, said Manish Pathak, founder of Om Communication, which regularly organises events and lectures to preserve and promote Gujarati literature. The series of articles was later compiled as a book under the same name in 1979. His other notable works include 'Amdavad Etle Amdavad', 'Vinod Vimarsh', 'Hasyopchar', 'Vinodkatha'. He wrote his autobiography 'Eva Re Ame Eva' and also wrote biographies of Charlie Chaplin, Narmad, Kanaiyalal Munshi, Jyotindra Dave, George Bernard Shaw and Anton Chekov. He was the first humour writer to head Gujarati Sahitya Parishad.
Many of his books have been translated in Hindi, Marathi, Kannad, Udiya and English.
He was awarded with Ranjitram Surnachandrak, Kumarchandrak and Ramanlal Neelkanth Hasyaparitoshik. He was the author of 'Idam Trutiyam', a weekly column in leading Gujarati dailies. The column was extremely popular with the readers.
Lately, Bhatt suffered from kidney disease and was undergoing dialysis. He passed away on Wednesday and his body was donated to Sardar Patel Hospital in Maninagar area of the city.
His Passion
With a passion of writing, Bhatt came into limelight because of his articles ‘Vinodni Najare’ in ‘Kumar’ magazine during the tenure of Bachubhai Rawat
