Amritlal Vegad who passed away on Friday was a noted Gujarati and Hindi language writer and painter from Jabalpur. A Condolence ceremony was organised at Bharat Bhavan here on Saturday to remember his works and contribution in literature.
Various city writers and artists attended the condolence ceremony. Vijay Bahadur Singh, Dhruv Shukla, Akhilesh Verma, Mahendra Gaggan, Devilal Patidar, HS Bhatti were present. They expressed their condolence for Amritlal Vegad and also highlighted about his life and works.
Amritlal Vegad was awarded in 2004 with Sahitya Akademi Award for his travelogue Saundaryani Nadi Narmada and also Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sahitya Award and Rashtrapati Award for his various works. He is also a recipient of the Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan award in Hindi.
He has written books on Narmada from his foot travel along the banks of Narmada, which he has been doing now for more than three decades, starting from its origin point at Amarkantak to Bharuch. His first book was Narmada River of Beauty. He started his first foot-travel along the route of river Narmada known as parikrama in 1977 and did his last parikrama of river in 1999.
His books are adorned with sketches and collages made by him personally, during the travel, which have been widely appreciated as works of art by critics by at exhibitions.
Amritlal Vegad was also an environmental activist and had raised the issues of pollution of rivers like Narmada. He was the President of Narmada Samagra, an institution working against pollution of rivers and improving the facilities of public toilet.