By K.M. Nair article A dream writer, Haramel Kapoor was a dreamer, a dreamers poet, a legend.
Kapoor’s last book, Dawn of a Dreams, was a novel of dreams, a collection of dream stories set against the backdrop of the Indian Independence movement.
He died at 84.
Kapur was born in 1881 in the western Indian city of Kolkata, where his father was a shopkeeper and his mother a domestic helper.
He studied at the English College of Calcutta and the Hindu University of Calicut, before settling in Calcutt.
In 1911, he won a fellowship to write in Bengali.
He became the first Indian to be appointed a member of the National Literary Society, and the first to be a member to be inducted into the British Academy.
He won the prestigious Jodhpur Prize in 1939, and in the same year was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1949, he published the first volume of his work The Indian Fairy Tales, a set of more than 2,000 fairy tales in the traditional Bengali language, with the name “Dawn” for the story of the young princess Rama.
The title was chosen after his wife, the poet and poetess Harpal, suggested that the name be changed to “Daw-i-nada” (Dreams of the Narrow World), after the narrow, narrow country where she was born.
Kapurs life was marked by the freedom to express himself, and his writing had an impact on Indian society and culture.
The first of many books that he wrote for the Penguin Books, which he also co-founded, was called “The Great Man” and featured poems by Pushkar, Jatinder Singh, Ravi Shankar and Kalidasa.
It was a great success, and it was followed by many more books, including the famous “Nath Baba”, about a Buddhist monk who came to India to lead a reform movement and eventually become a great yogi.
He was born on March 7, 1917, in Bengal, India, and died on June 16, 2019 in Calicut.
In his later years, he became a famous author and translator, as well as a popular lecturer.
He is survived by his wife Harpal and their two children, Gopi and Aakash.
His first novel, “The Garden of Eden”, was published in 1932.
His other books include “Das Gedanken der Niedersachsen” (The Garden at Dawn), a children’s story, and “Aesop’s Fables” (Aesops Garden of Dreams), a collection set against a backdrop of Mahatma Gandhi’s life.
“Dusk”, an adaptation of the classic fairy tale, was released in 1968.
His most recent novel, The Sun in the House, was published this year.
Kapoir died in Califf, Calcutte, where he had lived for nearly 30 years.
His wife and children had a private funeral on April 17.
