Influential Indian BBC radio broadcaster in the UK during World War II public servant, Venu Dattatreye Chitle, also known as Leela Ganesh Share from Kohapur, Maharastra, India, celebrates her 111th Birthday. She was also secretary to George Orwell during the early years of the second world war. She remained an avid activist for Indian independence.

She read news and gave recipes in her Marathi her native language, while teaching British listeners vegetarian cooking skills at a time when meat was rationed during the war.

Although she maintainer her support for Britain in the second World War in tis fight against Nazism, she spoke out against British imperialism and colonialism in India, where she joined the Indian League in London.

BBC said “ Through out the Second World War, the BBC developed programmes that were intended to promote the British government’s imperial interests while also securing the support of colonised Indian peoples. In a period when the British government feared Indian sedition, representatives of the Indian diaspora such as Chitale walked a fine line between their support for British fight against fascism and their anti-imperial views about the Raj. Towards the end of 1947, after India’s independence, she returned to her home country and helped set up camps in Delhi following the partition of India. She wrote  Transit, a historical novel which follows the rise of Indian nationalism, telling the story through the lens of a Marathi family who are split between rival factions of the Indian nationalist movement.