Contributor - Dr Pravin Darji

Introduction

Dr. Pravin Darji
Born	23 August,1944
Birth Place	Mahelol Dist. Lunawada
Residence	Dr. Pravin Darji Near fuwara chok Lunawada
Contact Details	02674-253925 9825356551 drpravindarji@gmail.com
Field	Literature & Social Services
Qualification	SSC-1961 1965- B.A. with Gujarati & Sanskrit 1967- M.A. 1973- Ph.D.
Occupation	1965-1967 à Professor in B.A. College, Modasa 1967 onwards à  Professor in B.A. College, Lunawada
His life at a Glance	·         Knows Gujarati, Hindi, Sanskrit, English, Bangali & Marathi languages ·         ‘ચીસ’ કાવ્યસંગ્રહ - His first published book ·         His many articles has been published in magazine “અભ્યાસ” ·         He was known as “Moving Library” because of his knowledge during his excellent student life ·         He rejected the position of THE PRINCIPAL because of his love for literature ·         Managing publication of magazine “અરવરવ” ·         He has given speeches on TV & Radio ·         He is writing articles in “શબ્દસૃષ્ટિ”
Hobbies	To enjoy various types of art such as Music, Painting, Dance etc.
Creations	Total 113 books કવિતા - ચીસ, ઉત્સેધ નિબંધ - અડખેપડખે,  લીલાં પર્ણ, ડાળ એક પંખી બે ચરિત્ર - ચંદનના વૃક્ષ સંશોધન – નિબંધ - સ્વરૂપ અને વિકાસ વિવેચન - સ્પંદ, ચર્વણા, દયારામ, પ્રત્યગ્ર, પશ્ચાત્, નવલકથા સ્વરૂપ, લલિત નિબંધ સંપાદન -  ગુજરાતી ભાષાની કેટલીક વિશિષ્ટ વાર્તાઓ, શબ્દશ્રી
Social Compliments	More than 15 awards such as વિઠ્ઠલભાઇ પટેલ સુવર્ણચંદ્રક કાકાસાહેબ કાલેલકર પારિતોષિક સંસ્કાર એવોર્ડ હરિ ૐ આશ્રમનું પારિતોષિક પદ્મશ્રી- ૨૬, જાન્યુઆરી, ૨૦૧૧

 Interview Questions

1.           Tell us something about your childhood and education.

@    I was born on 23^rd august of 1944 at village Mahelol of district Lunawada. I studied up to 7^th standard in a school of my village. The school was having very old building. But the teachers of our school were very kind and loving.

@     When I completed my primary education, the higher secondary department was introduced in our village. I joined that school. The school was facing problem of availability of permanent teachers.

@    After 9^th standard, I joined school at the Vejalpur city for further study (older matric system). Vejalpur was 8km far from Mahelol. I used a bicycle to travel from Mahelol to Vejalpur for my study. My family income was very less. To save money, I learned cycle repairing, electrical work and I did all that stuff on my own.

@    The teachers of school of Vejalpur were very kind and loving. They personally taught me and helped a lot in my studies. In this way, I completed my higher secondary education.

@    After that, I joined course of B.A. at ART College at Vejalpur. At college also I got tremendous support from my teachers. All the teachers helped a lot in my B.A. also.

@    When I was in 3^rd year of B.A., I solved all the papers of last year also. So in the last year I concentrated on writing. I learned how to write in that year. My learning during last year of B.A. has helped a lot during my journey of writing.

@    I finished B.A. with gold medal. After that I joined the same college for M.A. In M.A. also, I got a gold medal.

@     At one occasion, my principal introduced me to Mr Umashankar Joshi. When he came to know about me, he told me to do Ph.D. on ESSAY. During that time, very few writers were writing essay. I accepted his suggestion. I completed my Ph.D. in four years and my thesis on ESSAY is one of the most well-known theses in the field of literature even today.    

2.    You have written lots of books. How did you start writing? What is your inspiration source?

@    During my school days, I was a brilliant student. Teachers were very impressed with my command over languages. Many times, the essays written by me were used by the teachers as a guideline for other students.

@    When I was in 7^th standard, I wrote my first poem for a competition. After that, I kept on writing. My teachers told me to publish my creations as a book. At that time, I decided to join this field and started writing.

@    When I was in 9^th standard, I wrote a poem in English. That poem was very much appreciated by teachers. So, I can say I am in this field because of the inspiration from my teachers only. I am thankful to all my teachers for their support.

3.           Tell us about your work experience.

@    After completion of M.A., I was offered a job as a Professor by many universities. One day my father told me that you should accept job at village so that you can educate poor students of village instead of going to any city. I really felt that now it’s a time for me to work for the village. So, I joined ART College, Lunawada as a professor. I was the youngest professor in the college.

@    I was being invited for giving speech at various occasions. I gave lectures at many different places but I always gave priority to my college and my students.

@    After few years, I became a member of “The Textbook Committee” of The Gujarat Educational Board. I designed a format of textbooks of languages which was appreciated a lot by the teachers and students. I have designed textbook of “GUJARATI” language of 7^th, 9^th, 11^th and 12^th   standard of GUJARATI MEDIUM.

@    When I designed the textbook of 12^th standard, Mr Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister of India. He was trying to change the education system of the nation. He was so much impressed by the format created by me that he ordered all the educational boards of each state to adopt that format as a format of textbook.

@    In our days, people were used to watch dramas instead of films. I also joined a committee whose task was to analyse and approve the script of dramas before performing the dramas anywhere.

@    I was also the member of NRI board and NRG board established by The Government of Gujarat. The Birla industries started “District board” and I represented Gujarat state there also.

@    During all these activities, my work of writing books was going on hand to hand with other activities. Till now I have written 113 books out of which around 15 books has been adopted as a textbook for B.A. and M.A. by various universities. Many lessons are included in textbooks of primary and secondary education of Gujarat State also.

@    I served as the chairman of “The University Book Production Board” managed by the state government for many years.

@    In 1984, I became the vice president of “The Rotary Club” and worked a lot for to help society in many ways.

4.           How did your work contribute to the welfare of the society?

@    I always believe that each and every person must work for the welfare of the society. I have always thought of the society. I think the creation of format for textbook was my best activity which may have helped lots of students.

@    When I was vice president of “The Rotary Club”, we organized lots of youth camps. The aim of such camp was to teach the values of honesty and to realise them their responsibilities towards the society.

@    When I was appointed as the chairman of “The University Book Production Board”, it was in a big financial loss. The production was halted and the students stopped getting good guide books.

@    The major problem was the scarcity of employees in the committee. Other state boards were having staff of 70 members while I had only 7 people to manage the whole work.

@    I analysed the complete situation of the board and prepared a plan to overcome the problems just in 15 days. I started publishing a monthly magazine and invited well known writers to write inspirational articles in that magazine.

@    The prices of books were around 150 INR which was very high. I decided to reduce the cost and started to find a reason of such a high cost. When I investigated about this, I found that the whole system was corrupted. Many people involved in the committee were involved in corruption. I took strict actions against them immediately.

@    I published advertisement of tender of paper in newspaper and invited all the vendors/suppliers of papers with the tender. To avoid any type of corruption and to build trusty relationships with them, I opened tenders in front of all the venders only. By applying this method, paper costed me around 250 INR compared to 600 INR earlier. In this way, finally I was able to sale the books in much less and affordable prices. I was very happy that now the students from poor family were able to purchase books at lower prices.

@    I would like to share another interesting incident of my life. One day a man showed up in my office and gave me 40,000 INR. When I asked him the reason, he told me that it was my commission for renewing the contract and they were just continuing the usual tradition. I was very surprised with this and I did not accept bribe from them.

@    I told them to give money as a donation to the committee and I decided to use that amount for some good activity. I arranged a seminar in which brilliant students and creative writers from various fields were called. With the students, we discussed about their expectations from the books. We understood their point of view and requested writers to modify their methods to meet the requirement of new generation people.

@    After this meeting, we published many inspirational books which become very popular among the youngsters at that time. In this way, I tried to provide guidance in the way they wanted.

5.           What were reactions from the society when you were appreciated by the government with “PADMSHREE AWARD”?

@    When the announcement about padmshree award was done, I was delivering a speech at one university. People gave standing ovation there. After few minutes, Mr Morarji Desai called and congratulated me.

@    After that, I had to attend so many calls that in a week I suffered from throat infection. I got lots of letters all around the world. After two weeks, I replied to all the letters individually.

@    I felt that I should also thank society for lots of love. For this, I arranged a lunch for all the people and I thanked all of them for blessing me. Without love and support from society, I could have never achieved this.  

6.           What is your message for the youngsters of our country?

@    I have found that the youth power of India has got the capabilities of changing the world. I request all the youngsters to always remember that you have gained a lot from the society. Wherever you go, keep in mind that you have to repay to the society. Work in such a way that each activity of yours, must contribute to the progress of the society.

 My Personal View On His Life

I am very much inspired by his life story. He is very kind-hearted and a humble person. His way of thinking about the life is really unique. He is strictly against the act of corruption. Whenever opportunities invited, he has never left a stone unturned to fight against corruption. He is selfless - giving priority to society instead of his personal life. His aim is to serve the society in any and every possible way. He has dedicated his life for the welfare of the society. He is dedicated and sincere towards his work. He thinks about others each and every moment, which is the best part of him.

Apart from being a great vigilant writer, as per me, he is the real contributor in our society. I will also try my best to learn and adopt his qualities in my life. I believe that if the youngsters of our country adopt his way of thinking, then our country will be developing at rocket speed.