Suresh Parshottamdas Dalal was a Gujarati poet, essayist, litterateur and editor who won the 2005 Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati Language for his poem Akhand Zalar Vage.
Dalal was born in Thane. He did his B.A. in Gujarati in 1953, M.A. in 1955 and Ph.D. in 1969. As an academic, he served as the Head of the Gujarati Department at SNDT Women’s University; Vice-chancellor at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda; and a “National Lecturer” for the UGC. He was also a member of the Advisory Board of Gujarati Sahitya Academy from 1983 to 1987, and also the editor of the Gujarati poetry journal Kavita and literary quarterly Vivecana. He was awarded with several other awards including the Gujarat Government Award 5 times.
Suresh Dalal died on August 10, 2012, in Mumbai, of a heart attack, aged 79. Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, tweeted “The demise of legendary Gujarati writer Suresh Dalal is very unfortunate. Today, every single word of the Gujarati language is in tears.”
Here, we present a Showcase of some of his poetry recited at an event to mark his birthday in 2012.