Noted litterateur Nanda Khare passes away in Pune

Staff Reporter

Nagpur-based eminent engineer-turned-author Anant Yashwant Khare, popularly known by his pen-name Nanda Khare, breathed his last on Friday at his son’s residence in Pune. He was 76. He leaves behind his wife Vidyagauri, son Amitabh, and daughter Narmada to mourn his loss.

It’s a strange coincidence that on another Friday (March 12) last year, Sahitya Akademi Award was announced to him for his Marathi novel ‘Udya’ (Tomorrow). Khare, who was a resident of Shivaji Nagar in Nagpur, had said ‘no’ to accepting the Sahitya Akademi Award as he had decided in 2017 not to accept any award. “Since then, I have been saying no to various organisations. If I accept the award now, it would be like insulting them. Hence, I politely refuse to accept the award. Already society has given me so much. I do not need anything more,” Khare had told ‘The Hitavada’ then.

Nanda Khare was son of Yashwant Anant Khare and Sumati Khare. His father founded the highly reputed company ‘Khare and Tarkunde’. Born in 1946, Nanda Khare got educated at New English School and Saraswati Vidyalaya. He earned engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay in 1967. For 34 years, he was Partner/Managing Director of ‘Khare and Tarkunde’.

In 2001, he took retirement from the company. Much before his retirement from the company, Nanda Khare had started recording his reflections on political, economic, and other spheres of life as also construction sector. Those later bloomed into books. Between 1981 and 1992, he was an active member of Marathi Vidnyan Parishad and conducted programmes in schools to spread awareness about Science. From 1998 to 2017, he served on the Editorial Board of the publication ‘Aajcha Sudharak’ of which he was Editor-in-Chief from 2000 to 2011. Some of the best known and acclaimed works of Nanda Khare include ‘Antajichi Bakhar’, ‘Kahani Manavpranyachi’, ‘Jeevotpatti... Aani Nantar’, ‘Bakhar Antakalachi’, ‘Waarulpuraan’, ‘2050’, ‘Samprati’ etc. His autobiography ‘Evaji’ came in 2018 and was received with great enthusiasm in literary circles. He had written the novel ‘Udya’ in 2012 but it was published in 2014. Commenting upon his journey from an engineer to an acclaimed author, Khare had told ‘The Hitavada’ last year, “Engineering and writing both are parts of life.”

Noted litterateur and critic Dr Shripad Bhalchandra Joshi expressed shock and grief over demise of Nanda Khare. “In his death, we have lost a renowned novelist, progressive thinker with scientific temperament. The world of Marathi literature has suffered a massive loss,” stated Dr Joshi in a condolence message on behalf of Maharashtra Sanskrutik Aghadi.