Veteran journalist-poet Krishna Dhar passes away in Kolkata

The Kolkata Press Club has expressed deep sorrow on the passing away of the veteran writer-journalist.

Born on Feb 1, 1928, Dhar started writing poetry alongside verse drama, nonfictional prose of varied nature and journalistic columns in the mid-1940s.

Dhar spent his formative years as a child at the then East Bengal's Kamalpur where he took his primary education at a village school. For his high school education, he shifted to his father's workplace in Bajitpur. After his matriculation in 1943, Dhar went on to study at Scottish Church College in Kolkata.

He subsequently got his master's degree in Bengali literature in 1949 from Calcutta University, where he used to teach in the journalism department as a visiting lecturer in later years. 

Dhar started his professional career by teaching undergraduate students at Deshbandhu Girls' College, Kolkata while simultaneously writing features for Bengali newspapers.

In 1950-51 he quit his teaching position to join Jugantar, a Bengali daily in 1952 as sub-editor and subsequently became the assistant editor of the daily.

He continued in Jugantar for the next 35 years and in 1990, he joined Dainik Basumati, another Bengali daily, as editor until his retirement in 1992.

In this period Dhar also had numerous teaching assignments, focusing primarily on journalism, at Surendranath College, Burdwan University, and Calcutta University.

On the literary front, Dhar published his first poetry book 'Angikar' in 1948.

Spanning over a period of seventy-five years, his socially sensitive, humanist and aesthetic poems, verse dramas, and prolific prose continue to appeal to and enthral his readers.