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Bosom Friend
Hira Bansode
Hira Bansode (1939–), one of the best-known woman Dalit poets in Marathi, brought a feminist slant to Dalit poetry along with others like Mallika Maarsheikh and Meena Gajbhiya. Born into a Mahar family, a Kamble, in a village of Pune district, she moved to Bombay as a child when her father became a municipal worker. She studied here up to ninth standard before being married at the age of 14–15. Encouraged by her husband and father-in-law, she completed SSC and then began working as a railway clerk, a job she still holds. It took thirteen years of endeavour for her to take the B.A and M.A. in Marathi.
Hirabai’s childhood love for song found expression later in verse. Her early love songs soon gave way to poetry about ...
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