Venu Chitale
Venu Chitale | |
---|---|
Born | 28 December 1912 Shirol, Kolhapur, Kolhapur State (present-day Maharashtra, India) |
Died | 1 January 1995 (aged 82) Mumbai, India |
Pen name | Weenoo |
Occupation | BBC Radio broadcaster, secretary to George Orwell |
Language | English, Hindustani, Marathi |
Education |
|
Notable works | In Transit (1950) |
Venu Dattatreye Chitale, also known as Leela Ganesh Khare (28 December 1912 – 1 January 1995), was an Indian writer, BBC Radio broadcaster, and secretary to George Orwell during the early years of the Second World War.
Chitale was born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India, and was in England between 1934 and late 1947. In 1940, after assisting with volunteer work in a local air raid precaution unit in Oxford, she moved to London to work with Orwell, then BBC Radio's talks producer. She became a broadcaster for both the India section of the BBC's Eastern Service, where she read news and gave recipes in Marathi, and the BBC Home Service, where she taught British listeners vegetarian cooking at a time when meat was rationed and in short supply.
Around 1944, Chitale began working for
Chitale's life is recorded in a chapter in Vijaya Deo's Sakhe Soyare, a book in Marathi. In 2017, the BBC produced a video about her.
Early life and education
Venu Chitale was born in
Chitale and Du Preez travelled to England together after an astrologer had predicted family troubles should Chitale marry.
Early career
BBC Radio
In 1940, at the request of
In 1941, in one programme titled "The kitchen in wartime: some suggestions for doing without meat", Chitale gave her suggestion of a vegetarian alternative to sausage and mash and spoke of what she thought an Indian housewife might do in Britain with the limited availability of ingredients and fuel;[9] in another, she talked of "appetising curries".[10] In 1942 she approached Orwell's wife, Eileen Blair, with a request to help out with Blair's In the Kitchen series on the BBC Home Service.[6][11] Chitale also talked to a British audience on the cooking series The Kitchen Front and taught listeners vegetarian cooking at a time when meat was rationed.[1][12][13] In addition she broadcast recipes to Indians in India in the programme In Your Kitchen.[12][14]
In 1943, Chitale contributed the chapter on the European refugee children's exhibition in
India League
Around 1944, Chitale began working for
In 1945 she visited India to attend the eighteenth All India Women's Conference in Hyderabad, held 28 December 1945 to 1 January 1946.[20] There, she was introduced by Sarojini Naidu and spoke of the little interest in India she found in England; she suggested to Indians to learn as many Indian languages as possible to encourage more unity.[1][20] Chitale later recounted her time in England:[1][21]
I was in England for fourteen years, fourteen precious young healthy years of my life. I lived in a cottage full of dainty flowers, and more full of wonderful books... I dined on nuts and fruit and on the most luscious greens and vegetables that any fastidious naturopath could prescribe. And I did this in company of English friends who lived for ideals, whether they were humble or elevated did not matter.
Later career
Chitale left Liverpool for Bombay on 4 December 1947, on the RMS Empress of Australia.[22] That year she assisted Pandit with refugee women and children in the camps set up in Delhi following India's Partition.[1]
She published her first novel,
Death and legacy
Chitale died on 1 January 1995, aged 82.[24] Her life is recorded in a chapter in Sakhe Soyare, a book in Marathi authored by Vijaya Deo.[1] In 2017, the BBC produced a video about her.[1] On 28 December 2023, a Google Doodle was made celebrating her 111th birthday.[25]
Selected works
- In Transit. Bombay: Hind Kitabs. 1950.
See also
Footnotes
- ^ The Sahitya Akademi incorrectly give the publication date of her first novel, In Transit, as 1951.[3][4]
- ^ Du Preez was already a BBC announcer, according to her death certificate (1948) issued in Cape Town.[1]
- ^ The India Section worked at first from 55 Portland Place, near Broadcasting House, and moved to 200 Oxford Street sometime before October 1942.[17]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Kumar, Anu. "The Indian woman who braved World War II bombing to chart an unconventional life for herself". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
- ^ a b "1939 England and Wales Register". Borough- Oxford. 1939. p. 12. Retrieved 21 August 2022 – via ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ a b Who's Who Of Indian Writers. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. 1961. p. 165.
- ^ ISBN 81-7017-199-7.
- ^ a b Sutaria, Sejal. "Walking the Line: Venu Chitale". www.bbc.com. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Rodrigues, Abha Sharma (1994). "George Orwell, the B.B.C. and India: a critical study". Edinburgh University. p. 105. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
This thesis focuses attention on the two years that George Orwell spent, between August 1941 and November 1943, at the Indian Section of the B.B.C., producing propaganda talks for listeners in India and elsewhere.
- ISBN 978-962-937-590-4.
- ISBN 978-0-241-25347-2.
- ^ Chitale, Venu (1941). "The kitchen in wartime: some suggestions for doing without meat" (PDF). BBC Home Service.
- ^ "Tomorrow". Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail. 10 February 1941. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ISBN 978-0-19-873576-2.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78352-750-2.
- ISBN 978-0-19-289852-4.
- ^ "Todays highlights". Civil & Military Gazette. Lahore. 17 February 1943. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ Talking To India. 1943. p. 128.
- ^ OCLC 1245625342.
- ISBN 978-0-87140-462-6.
- ^ "First day's session of All India Conference". Civil & Military Gazette. Lahore. 30 December 1945. p. 5 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ a b "Story". The 1928 Institute. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
- ^ a b The All India Womens Conference Vol Xviii. Hyderabad. 1946. pp. 87–89.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Khare, Leela G. (1963). "Contemporary trends in English literature". Careers and courses(July-Dec)1963. N.A. pp. 694–698.
- ^ "UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890–1960". Canadian Pacific Steamships. 1947. p. 3. Retrieved 25 August 2022 – via ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ "First day's session of All India Conference". Civil & Military Gazette. Lahore. 22 February 1951. p. 7 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Venu Chitale | Making Britain". www.open.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
- ^ "Venu Chitale's 111st Birthday Doodle". Google Doodles. Archived from the original on 28 December 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
Further reading
- De Souza, Eunice; Pereira, Lindsay (2004). Women's voices: selections from nineteenth and early-twentieth century Indian writing in English. Oxford University Press. OCLC 55005746.
- Morse, Daniel Ryan (2020). Radio Empire: The BBC's Eastern Service and the Emergence of the Global Anglophone Novel. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-55259-2.
- Through eastern eyes: the hand that rocks the cradle, then and now. Eastern transmission (1 January 1942)