personal profile
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I was born in India in 1952, but lived abroad for many years before returning to India in 1984. I was educated in India, Africa, and then largely in Canada where I graduated with a degree in Biophysics (1975) from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. I followed this with post-graduate studies in biostatistics, public health, and business management at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1978. Till 1997 I worked in various capacities for scientific instrument companies in Canada, U.S.A., Britain and India.
My hobbies and interests include music, science & technology, literature, philosophy, photography (landscapes fascinate me) and graphics. Singing, and climbing the hills in and around Pune are equally strong passions. I’ve had formal training in both Western instrumental music (I played trumpet in a high school band for five years) and Indian music (Hindustani classical singing), and have also written music reviews and criticism.
For more than a decade I was involved in translating into English selected Marathi fiction by the following writers: Dilip Chitre, Bhau Padhye and Baburao Bagul—but focused on Chitre and Padhye. These translations have been published in India (in Sahitya Akademi's journal Indian Literature; in the magazine Gentleman) and abroad (Toronto Review). My English translation of Chitre’s four-part Marathi novel “Chaturang” (The Bombay Quartet) has been published by PAPERWALL (2013). My translation of two Marathi plays by Makarand Sathe (a playwright in Pune) was published by Seagull Books, Calcutta in 1998.
Since 2002 I contributed to the Mumbai-based quarterly, New Quest and was on its editorial board. I was later its Assistant Editor till Dec 2010.
I’ve also written and published features on a freelance basis since 1998. They have appeared in the Times of India (including Pune Times), The Hindu, Gentleman (a literary monthly), Citadel (Pune’s monthly magazine) and City Beat (a now-defunct Pune weekly). Many of these have been posted on my websites:
Cerebral Fodder https://jayant-ideas.tripod.com/ (devoted to Ideas, issues, reflections & comment) In addition, I write occasional features especially for this site.
JD's Blog https://www.angelfire.com/blog2/jayant-deshpande/index.htm which also links to a different theme: https://www.angelfire.com/blog2/jayant-deshpande/Aphorism/index.htm
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