Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar (1932-2004) is one of the most important and influential poets in the post Independence Indian poetry. He was born on 1 November 1932 at Kolhapur, Maharastra. He had his education as a fine artist from JJ School of Arts and he worked as an art director and graphic designer in many reputed advertising agencies like Lintas. He wrote in Marathi and English. November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... Kolhapur is a beautiful city, situated in the south west corner of Maharashtra, India. ... Maharashtra (महाराष्ट्र) is a state in west-central India. ... Marathi is one of the widely spoken languages of India, and has a long literary history. ...

His Marathi poetry collections include:

• Arun Kolatkarcha Kavita (1977)
• Chirimiri (2004)
• Bhijki Vahi (2004)
• Droan (2004)

His collection of English poems include Jejuri (1976) which won the prestigious Commonwealth Prize in 1977. His other collections of English poetry are Kala Ghoda Poems and Sarpasatra (2004). He won the Kusumagraj Puraskar given by the Marathwada Sahitya Parishad in 1993 and Bahinabai Puraskar given by Bahinabai Prathistan in 1995. He has also won the prestigious CAG award given in the field of advertising for six times and consequently was admitted to the CAG Hall of Fame. 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... CAG has several meanings: CAG is the acronym used in the United States Navy for Commander, Air Group. ...

His poetry is something of a trendsetter in both the languages. In Marathi, his poetry is the quintessence of the modernist movement as manifested in the `Little Magazine Movement’ in the 1950s and 60s. His early Marathi poetry was radically experimental and it displayed the influences of the European avant-garde poetry like surrealism, expressionism and the Beat generation poetry. These poems are oblique, whimsical and at the same time dark, sinister, and exceedingly funny. Some of these characteristics can be seen in Jejuri and Kala Ghoda Poems in English, but his early Marathi poems are far more radical, dark and humorous then his English poems. His early Marathi poetry is far more audacious and takes great amounts of liberties with the language of poetry. However, in his later Marathi poetry, the poetic language is more accessible and less radical compared to earlier works. His later works Chirimiri, Bhijki Vahi and Droan are less introverted and less nightmarish. They show a greater social awareness and his satire become more direct. 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... Surrealism is an artistic movement and an aesthetic philosophy that aims for the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative powers of the unconscious. ... On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ...

Sarpa Satra is an `English version’ of a poem by similar name in Bhijki Vahi. It is a typical Kolatkar narrative poem like Droan, mixing myth, allegory, and contemporary history. Altough Kolatkar was never famous as a social commentator, his narrative poems tend to just that. Many poems in Bhijki Vahi contain plenty of comments on the contemporary history. However, these are not politicians’ comments but a poet's, and hence he avoids the typical Dalit-Leftist-Feminist rhetoric. What is significant here is the shift in the poet’s attitude and technique. A myth is often thought to be a lesson in story form which has deep explanatory or symbolic resonance for preliterate cultures, who preserve and cherish the wisdom of their elders through oral traditions by the use of skilled story tellers. ... An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal. ... Dalit may have the following meanings. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ...

While Jejuri was about the agonized relationship of a modern sensitive individual with the indigenous culture, the Kala Ghoda poems are about the dark underside of Mumbai’s underbelly. The bewilderingly heterogeneous megapolis is envisioned in various oblique and whimsical perspectives of an underdog. Like Jejuri, Kala Ghoda is also `a place poem’ exploring the myth, history, geography, and ethos of the place in a typical Kolatkaresqe style. While Jejuri, a very popular place for pilgrimage to a pastoral god, could never become Kolatkar’s home, Kala Ghoda is about exploring the baffling complexities of the great metropolis. While Jejuri can be considered as an example of searching for a belonging, which happens to be the major fixation of the previous generation of Indian poets in English, Kala Ghoda poems do not betray any anxieties and agonies of `belonging’. With Kala Ghoda Poems, Indian poetry in English seems to have grown up, shedding adolescent `identity crises’ and goose pimples. The remarkable maturity of poetic vision embodied in the Kala Ghoda Poems makes it something of a milestone in Indian Poetry in English. Megacity, megapolis, or megalopolis is a general term for cities together with their suburbs or recognized metropolitan areas usually with a total population in excess of 10 million people. ... Ethos is a Greek word corresponding roughly to Modern Englishs ethics. ...