Arvind Kumar

Arvind Kumar (17 January 1930 – 26 April 2021) was an Indian journalist, art-drama-film critic, short story writer, translator, and lexicographer.

His autobiography, ShabdVedh, was published in 2016 and released at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Early life and career Arvind Kumar was born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh on 17 January 1930.

Over the next ten years, he worked in almost every department of the press as a compositor, machine man, binder, block maker, cashier, typist and proofreader and completed his BA (1953) and MA English (1955) from Panjab University. It taught its readers to appreciate every aspect of film making as well as world cinema and regional cinema.

Arvind also launched Sarvottam, the Hindi edition of the international magazine Reader’s Digest, from Delhi (1980-1985). to fulfil his dream of making a thesaurus in Hindi and spent 20 years researching, authoring and compiling the first-ever thesaurus in Hindi Samantar Kosh which was published by the National Book Trust India in 1996.

Arvind with his wife Kusum presented the first copy of Samantar Kosh to the President of India, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma on 13 December 1996. Published in India’s Golden Jubilee year of Independence, Samantar Kosh has been reprinted six times and has sold more than 20,000 copies. The Hindu described Samantar Kosh as "vastly inclusive, user friendly and a golden dot on Hindi’s forehead."

Published works Lexical works by Arvind Kumar (in order of publication) Samantar Kosh: thesaurus of Hindi words and expressions, published by National Book Trust 1996 Shabdeshwari: thesaurus of Indian mythological names, published by Rajkamal Prakashan 1999 Arvind Sahaj Samantar Kosh ]: alphabetical thesaurus in Hindi, published by Rajkamal Prakashan 2005 The Penguin English-Hindi/Hindi-English Thesaurus and Dictionary: bilingual thesaurus and dictionary in Hindi and English, published by Penguin India 2007; Arvind Linguistics LLP 2011 Brihat Samantar Kosh: Comprehensive India-centric International Hindi Thesaurus, published by National Book Trust 2013 Arvind Word Power: English-Hindi: An alphabetical dictionary cum thesaurus, published by Arvind Linguistics LLP 2015 Arvind Tukant Kosh: A pocketbook of 57,000 rhyming words, published by Arvind Linguistics LLP 2015 Arvind Lexicon Online: a bilingual Hindi-English-Hindi thesaurus, with a choice of using Hindi in Roman script (for those who can’t read or type Hindi) A Hindi verse adaptation of Julius Caesar set in the background of Indus Valley civilization. Published by National School of Drama 1998 English-Hindi Julius Caesar: A Hindi prose translation of the Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta. Published by Radhakrishna Prakashan 2000 Faust Ek Traasadi: A Hindi verse translation from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s original. Published by Bhartiya Jnanpith 2002 ShabdVedh: Vishwa Hindi Samman (10th Vishwa Hindi Sammelan) 2015 Parampara Vishisht Rituraj Samman (Sahitya Sanstha Parampara) 2015 Shalaka Samman (Hindi Academy, Delhi) 2011 Rashtrabhasha Gaurav Samman (Sansadiya Hindi Parishad) 2006 Subramanya Bharti Award (Kendriya Hindi Sansthan) 1999 Dr Hardev Bahri Samman (Hindi Sahitya Sammelan) 1999 Akhil Bharti Hindi Seva Puraskar (Hindi Academy, Maharashtra) 1998