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He writes on sports and games as effortlessly as he writes on matters religious and spiritual. This is indeed a rare thing that a creative writer and a scholar wields his pen to write on crictket and other sports and receives the 'Best Sports Journalist' award in 2004 and also bags awards for his creative writing and for social work.
A litterateur par excellence, Kumarpalbhai has been actively associated with a number of literary, educational, social and cultural organizations in India and abroad. This shows how wide-ranging his interests have been and how catholic and eclectic his taste has been ! A workaholic, Dr. Desai is no ivory tower writer or a cloistered scholar. His feet firmly planted on earth, he contributes his mite to social and humanitarian causes dear to his heart. His philosophy in this regard can be expressed in the following lines of an anonymous poet who wrote them as his epitaph:
What I gave, I have,
What I spent, I had
What I left, I lost.
As a human being, he has three important attributes -- intellect, industry and independence. The most endearing characteristic of Kumarpalbhai is his humility, his modesty. Even after being honoured with the coveted Padmashri, he mingles with one and all and chats as if he is one of you. He carries the weight of Padmashri Award so lightly ! He is one of those to whom self importance or pomposity is alient to their nature. His unfailing courtesy and gracious manners and dignified bearing are 'trademark of Kumarpalbhai, the Padmashri awardee
If asked what the mission of his life, has been, he may borrow the words of Cecil Rhodes and say : 'So little done, so much to do.' May god give him the strength and a long lease of life to finish all his unfinished tasks as inexorable time ticks away!
397 T.J. Purani
