Goverdhan Bharti

Goverdhan Bharati was born at small village in Sindhi as the son of school teacher Shri Assumal Mahboobani on 13 January 1929. In Chhati [the naming ceremony held in Hindu families on the sixth day of birth] he was named as Girdhari but he become famous as Goverdhan and even in school records his name is written as Goverdhan Assumal Mahboobani. His life is living illustration of that even visible harmful happenings carries benefits hidden within them.
After passing the Matric Goverdhan got admission to a school at Hyderabad for learning skills of Dance and Drama but his health was disturbed so badly that Doctors not only advise him to remain away from Dance but also have complete bed rest. While taking bed rest at Lahore at brother’s house his Favorite time pass was the study of literature of eminent personalities like Tagore, Munshi Premchand, Sudarshan and others this has not only nourished the seedlings of literary talent hidden within him but also helped to grow as giant tree to serve Sindhi literature.
Life of Goverdhan Bharti is full of ups and downs. There was supportive environment for music and dance in his family so this was natural that even from early childhood he was finding an attraction for these fields of art. He has surprised everyone with his talent as when he was in standard first in a school function, he sung a Sufi Kalam on Yak tara – a popular musical instrument of those days. During his school days at Hyderabad, he was used to take part in Drama, though he was playing female characters but his acting was so natural that nobody even doubt that those characters are played by a boy. In 1946 when Goverdhan passed the Matric exam standing second in Sindh, his father of view that he should go for higher studies to become a Doctor or Engineer. While elder brother was in favour of opting learning skills of arts to allow his talent to flourish and become a renowned Dance or Painter.
Life of Goverdhan Bharti was not smooth even at Ajmer, coming from Sindh specially in the initial period. In those days he started working first as the School teacher and afterwards joined railway as Clerk. While in service he joined Maharishi Dayanand College and in 1953 passed B.A. [with Hindi, English, Economics and Political Science] from Agra University and in few years also passed Prabhakar from Punjab University. All this time as his health was showing constant ups and downs so he decided to remain with families of his brothers without marrying. Beside contributing to Sindhi literature by his creations in Poetry, Drama and even film script writing Goverdhan Bharti has also served as the member of Sindhi Advisory committee of Sahitya Academy and Rajasthan Sindhi Academy.
In the Sindhi literary fraternity Goverdhan Bharti is basically identified as poet with immense talent who can write Sindhi Drama and even film script also. Sahitya Academy Award for Sindhi language was bagged by him in 1990 for Shishe Jo Ghar a poetry collection. Bharati also has credit of being writer of Drama like Umar Marvi and Bigdiyal Ghar, one act plays like Toofani Raat and Izat along with directing more than twenty plays in Hindi and Sindhi Drama at various stages. Goverdhan Bharti also acted in plays and few Sindhi Film like Hojmalo and Shal Dhiur N Jaman. He Died on 22 June 2010.