Book Overview

Snehal Bhatkar was born on 17th July 1917 in Mumbai. His real name was Vasudev Gangaram Bhatkar. A village name Bhatye located in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra was the hometown of Snehal Bhatkar. The sirname Bhatkar is derived from the village bhatye. He was brought up at Palkhiwadi located at Dadar in Mumbai. Unfortunately he lost his father when he was one and a half year old. Snehal′s father had one brother also. All were living in one house. His mother Sakhubai was a school teacher. She did hard work and nourished family members. Snehal′s mother and grandmother used to sing devotional songs also. Vasudev got inspiration of singing bhajans from his mother. Once Snehal′s maternal uncle came to his house with harmonium. He started playing harmonium. Snehal in his childhood used to watch his maternal uncle playing harmonium. He started trying his hand on harmonium and started learning it. No one in the house came to know about this. One day his mother saw snehal playing harmonium. She encouraged Snehal for his fondness. Slowly and steadily Snehal started learning other musical instuments. He started helping his mother to sing bhajans. Snehal Bhatkar studied upto vernacular final (school education was termed as vernacular at that time). He did not clear matric exam.