Chintaman Vinayak Joshi is one of the most prolific humor story writer in Marathi. He was born in Pune in 1892. He completed his primary and middle school education from Nutan Marathi Vidyalay, Pune. He did his B.A and M.A from Ferguson College.
Chintaman Vinayak alias C.V. Joshi is a famous humorist and writer of humorous stories and sketches in Marathi. He created a new tradition of light humorous writing in Marathi literature through his writing that common people would understand and enjoy. Following the humorous tradition of Chintamanrao Kolhatkar and Ram Ganesh Gadkari, C.V.Joshi went a step further by creating verbal humour, pointing out incongruity and absurdity implicit in human nature, writing in simple language that people would always relate to and showing comic situations in everyday life. His humour was a gift to Marathi in that he presented close observation of Marathi middle class society, their families and their culture. His famous creation, the character of Chimanrao, became immortal in Marathi literature. He was also known as a great scholar of Pali. In addition, he had a command over Hindi and Gujrati languages.
Joshi was born at Pune. He studied up to second grade in Practising School in Huzurpaga. Later he studied in Nutan Marathi Vidyalaya up to matriculation. He got his degree in Philosophy from Fergusson College in 1913. Within two years, he completed his Masters in Pali and English from Mumbai University. Immediately after, he started teaching Pali in three schools: New English School, Native Institution and St John’s School, Pune. Later on he taught at Amaravati and Ratnagiri too. In 1920, he was appointed Professor of Pali, English and Marathi in a college at Baroda. Owing to his interest in historical research, he got a chance to work as Head of the Baroda State Department of Archeology. He worked at Baroda till his retirement and afterwards shifted to and settled at Pune.
Though famous as a humorous writer, he also wrote on different topics: biography, children’s book and historical research. His research in Pali language is considered significant even today. It was his father who was the driving force in making Joshi so versatile. His father, Vinayak Ramchandra Joshi, was editor of newspaper “Sudhaarak.” Though the conventional people did not approve of this paper, intellectuals and reformists supported it. Eminent people used to gather in the office of “Sudharak” to discuss social issues of the times. C.V.Joshi too got the chance to participate in their discussion. His personality was shaped by the discussion and the same was reflected in his writings later.
bori_babhali_cv_joshi.jpg C.V. Joshi started his writing career publishing a short story in V.G. Apte’s ‘Anand’ magazine. In addition to humorous tales, he also wrote in it seriously emotional stories like “Kakuche Dev.” He wrote letters in a newspaper called ‘Vividhvrutta’ in which he exhibited the art of critically pinching others, apparently retaining the guise of being a simpleton. Though famous for his humorous stories and articles, Joshi expressed his opinions seriously on various issues. Many of his serious studies of contemporary social problems had been published in papers. He wrote against the propriety of giving Capital Punishment in ‘Manorajan’ and about the social system of untouchability in ‘Udyan’ magazine in order to create social awareness amongst people. He had also written a few articles on the need for Hindu-Muslim friendship and cooperation.
Being a scholar of Pali, Joshi had studied ancient Buddhism and the contemporary ancient society. His writing on the subject is useful to scholars even today. His scholarly books indicate the quality of research he had done. The titles include Manual of Pali, Jaatakatil Nivdak Goshthi, Shakyamuni Gautam, Buddha Sampraday va Shikavan, Adich Hazar Varshapoorvicha Samaj, Ingraji Shishtaachar, Sanshayaache Jaale.
Joshi’s potential for conscious observation is clearly
One of the best comedies in Marathi. This book takes on the topic of Gods with a comic angle. Gods playing cricket, getting haircuts and doing circus tricks. A must read for all ages.