Gujarati writer Dhiruben Patel dies

AHMEDABAD: Renowned Gujarati writer Dhiruben Patel passed away on Friday after a short illness. She was 96.
Patel successfully tried her hand in different formats - novels, plays, poetry and even film writing. She had many pieces of literature to her credit that were very well received and left indelible impression on the next generations of writers.
She was born in Vadodara and grew up in Mumbai.She was a teacher of English, an editor of a famous magazine 'Sudha', which provided a platform to budding women writers. In her later years, she shifted to Ahmedabad and contributed to Vishwakosh.
Patel was one of the first writers, who took the issue of credit very seriously. According to Manishi Jani, one of the founders of Gujarati Lekhak Mandal, Patel had served a legal notice to film director Ketan Mehta after the English translation of script did not bear her name. "She wrote the script and songs of Bhav ni Bhavai. After it won international awards, the script was translated and published in English, but the book did not give credit to Dhiruben. This was not acceptable to her," Jani recollects, added, "She was the first president of our writer's association because our group used to strive for author's rights."
Patel was the president of Gujarat Sahitya Parishad for a brief period, and she received all awards considered to be the highest ones in Gujarati literature. While working at Vishwakosh, she undertook a campaign against publishers who began publishing children's literature after getting stories rewritten, thereby denying credits and royalty to the original authors.
Gujarati writer Himanshi Shelat remembers her as a "cheerful personality and a source of inspiration for many women writers".