Ram Ganesh Gadkari

Ram Ganesh Gadkari (May 24, 1885 - January 23, 1919) was a Marathi poet, playwright, and humorist from Maharashtra, India.

Ram Ganesh Gadkari was one of the writers the in new age transformation in Marathi literature. He wrote poetry under the pen name Govindagraj (गोविंदाग्रज) and humorous articles under the pen name Balakram (बाळकराम). He wrote plays under his legal name.

Gadkari was born on May 24, 1885 in the town of Ganadevi in Navsari district of Gujarat. He died at Savner near Nagpur on January 23, 1919.

His father died early, and poverty hindered his timely formal education. He finished his high school education at age 19 and enrolled in Pune's Fergusson College. However, flunking in the mathematics examination, he abandoned his formal education at the end of the first year in college, and took up teaching to support himself while pursuing his keen literary interests.

Till 19 years of his age, he was unable to speak Marathi. Afterwards, he read and studied Marathi, Sanskrit, and English literature extensively. He critically studied particularly the works of Sanskrit playwrights Kalidas and Bhavabhuti; modern Marathi poets of his era Keshavasuta and Shripad Krushna Kolhatkar; Marathi poets of earlier times like Dnyaneshwar and Moropant; and English writers like Shakespeare, Percy Shelley, and Mark Twain.

Gadkari was married twice.His first wife Sitabai had left him though according to some contemporaries it was he who had abandoned her. His second wife Rama was younger by some 17 years than him but this too proved to be not a very happy marriage. Gadkari was bitterly disappointed when he realized that marital bliss that he was seeking was not going to come his way.

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