MUMBAI, 13 JULY: Eighty-six year old veteran Marathi poetess Indira Sant passed away on Wednesday (July 12) midnight at her residence in Belgaum. Her death comes exactly a month after the demise of Marathi litterateur P L Deshpande, who died on June 12.Sant, a stalwart of the Marathi literary world, had been unwell for the past one year.For a long time, she had served as the principal of the Training college in Belgaon. She was a teacher at heart. She was a very popular writer, especially because of the simplicity of her poetic imagery, and choice of an original idiom. Little wonder that her fans crowded her residence today when news of her demise spread. She was more known to the masses as Akka.She had received the Sahitya Akademi award for her anthology Garbhareshim, whereas the collection titled Mrigjal won the Maharashtra state government award. The first Janasthan Puraskar, instituted by the Kusumagraj Pratishthan, was given to Sant. Although she was more known as a poetess, her criticism, short stories and other prose writings also received critical acclaim.
