Bakor Patel is children's literature character created by Hariprasad Vyas for funny animal stories published by Gandiv, a children's biweekly in Gujarati language published by Gandiv Sahitya Mandir, Surat, Gujarat, India. The humorous stories about Bakor Patel written by Vyas which first appeared in 1936 and continued till 1955. The stories include other anthropomorphic characters including his wife, Shakri Patlani. The stories were accompanied with an illustration and title printed in typical typography which were drawn by two Surat based artist brothers, Tansukh and Mansukh. The character became the icon of Gujarati children's literature and was adapted into a children's play.
Characters and story
Bakor Patel is a goat depicted as middle aged businessman living in Bombay with his goat wife Shakri Patlani. He has no siblings and children. There is no information regarding his parents. He has business firm in Bombay trading with firms in Japan. He lives upper middle class life in 1940-50s and owns bungalow and car. His friends include other anthropomorphic animals like a tiger as lawyer, Vaghjibhai Vakil; an elephant, Hathibhai Dhamdhamiya; a camel as doctor, Untadiya Doctor; a pundit, Timu Pandit; Jiraf Joshi; Bankubhai and several others. Sometimes spouses of the characters and some female characters like Khushaldoshi are depicted. The stories take places in Bombay of 1940s and 1950s. Bakor Patel is depicted as social family person who travels for business and enjoy his time with family and friends back home. He has mature relationship with his wife, Shakri Patlani. He seeks small adventures in his regular life and tries and experiences things which mostly go wrong in the end. He still joyfully accepts failures of his adventures and continues the next. His family and friends accompany in his adventures and shares the delight.
Style and history
The Gandiv, a children's biweekly in Gujarati language published by Gandiv Sahitya Mandir, Surat was started in August 1925 by Natwarlal Malvi. The biweekly continued till 1973. Hariprasad Vyas wrote these light humorous stories on suggestion of Natwarlal Malvi which first appeared in 1936 and continued till 1955. The chief characters Bakor Patel was named after Bakor Mukhi from his maternal family and Shakri Patlani was modified from his wife Bakri. He visualised the characters as goat and subsequently other characters were inspired by other animals with their usual characteristics. Natwarlal Malvi had discussed with Vyas about children's stories from the Russian literature which are satire on human society. Malvi had known this from Red Virtue by British journalistElla Winter. The stories are social in nature and depicted commons social life of upper middle class in the cities of that time. The stories were printed in big types accompanied with an illustration mostly in black and white and title printed in typical typography which were drawn by two Surat based artist brothers, Tansukh and Mansukh. Later the stories were reprinted in large formatchildren's books accompanied with drawings in colors. When the illustration were redrawn by V. Ramanuj for new editions, they were slightly different from the original art. The stories selected by Mahendra Meghani and translated in English by Piyush Joshi were published by the National Book Trust in 2009.
Reception and influence
The stories were popular among children as well as admired by adults when they were first appeared in biweekly. They are still popular across Gujarat and is considered as an icon of children's literature in Gujarati language. The success of the stories resulted in several other stories appearing in Gujarati children's literature with anthropomorphic characters like Galbo Shiyal by Ramanlal Soni. The stories influenced writers like Taarak Mehta whose humorous weekly column Duniya ne Oondha Chashma has similar social background.
