Namita Waikar and PARI GSP Team

Author

Binaifer Bharucha

Photo Editor

Sinchita Parbat

Video Editor

large_HP-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

medium_HP-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

small_HP-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

thumbnail_HP-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

HP-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

“I would like to continue working on ovi translations.”Ashatai was already in her late-eighties when she said this. She was recovering from a fall and found it cumbersome to use a laptop. So, we moved to handwritten translations -- she would write down the translations on a printout carrying 80 to 100 couplets. Once that batch was done, she worked on the next one.Jitendra Maid worked closely with her on these translations and updated them into the database.“A librarian is a serious person who takes care of books – that was my understanding until my college days. But in 1996 when I met Ashatai Ogale in Hematai Rairkar’s home, this [narrow] understanding vanished,” says Jitendra Maid. He worked with Asha tai on translating grindmill songs for nearly three decades -- from 1996 until her last days.

Asha Ogale held an M.A. in French and a diploma in Library Science. She had a long association and experience in translating Marathi and French to English. After her graduation in 1963, she worked as an intern at the Liverpool Public Library, and the Mauritius University Library from 1972 to 1979. In 1981, she worked as a Documentation Officer and Librarian at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, until her retirement in 1996. From 1983 to 2008 she conducted editorial and translation work for the Centre for Cooperative Research in Social Sciences, in close collaboration with Guy Poitevin and Hema Rairkar.Asha Ogale passed away on September 13, 2025 at the age of 89.As caring as a mother, Asha tai spoke with everyone with affection and enquired after their family. “Asha tai was an encyclopaedia for me. Every time I met her, I would learn something new,” says Jitendra.Her work was comprehensive, detailed and neat. She classified the large collection of books and made a library at the Rairkar Bungalow – residence of Dr. Guy Poitevin and Hema Rairkar, co-founders of the Grindmill Songs Project (GSP).

“It was very difficult for me to say my last goodbye to her. She was a strong person, never bowed down to anyone, and faced every life’s challenge boldly and with full confidence. This personality trait was an inspiration for me. Today she has moved on to a different journey. Yet, I feel her presence around me. Her thoughts will always shine light and will stay with me throughout my lifetime,” says Jitendra Maid.In Asha tai we have lost an invaluable colleague and friend. One whose contribution to GSP has been immense. While translating the couplets, Asha tai would discuss the intricacies of the subject, her take on the literal meaning of an ovi, and the thought in a woman’s mind when creating that particular song.Asha tai was a voracious reader – she read the works of thinkers and intellectuals, investigative essays across a range of subjects. This lent the depth of thought in her words and writing.Her video interview by Medha Kale reinforces the fact that her life and work are an inspiration for her colleagues at PARI, for all translators, and are an excellent source of learning for women and society.

Asha Ogale: 1936 - 2025 

ఆశా ఓగ్లే: 1936 - 2025

অদম্য সাহস-অনুপ্ৰেৰণাৰ স্ৰোত আশা ওগলে: ১৯৩৬ - ২০২৫ 

آشا اوگلے: ۱۹۳۶-۲۰۲۵

आशा ओगले : १९३६ - २०२५

આશા ઓગલે: 1936-2025

ଆଶା ଓଗଲେ: 1936-2025

ಆಶಾ ಓಗಲೆ: 1936 – 2025

ਆਸ਼ਾ ਓਗਲੇ:1936 ਤੋਂ 2025

 অদম্য অনুবাদক আশা ওগালে: ১৯৩৬-২০২৫

ஆஷா ஓகலே: 1936-2025

आशा ओगले: 1936–2025

आशा ओगाले: 1936 – 2025 

 ആശ ഒഗളെ: 1936-2025

आशा ओगाले: 82,000 गीत अनुवाद करे वाली ताई

Pune

medium_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

small_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

thumbnail_MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

MOBILE-COVER-IMAGE-NW and PARI GSP-Asha Ogale-1936 - 2025.jpg

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


हमारी दुनिया की झलक

पारी पर आपका स्वागत है

पाठकों के लिए हमारा सभी कॉन्टेंट मुफ़्त उपलब्ध है. अगर आपको हमारा काम पसंद है, तो आप हमारे लिए वालंटियर कर सकते हैं या हमारी आर्थिक मदद कर सकते हैं, ताकि हम अपना काम जारी रख सकें.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

Asha Ogale: 1936 - 2025

PARI’s Grindmill Songs Project (GSP) owes much to the inspirational Asha tai, who translated thousands of ovis (couplets) that women in Maharashtra sing while grinding grain. On International Translation’s Day we bring a video of this remarkable translator who went above and beyond

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit