His father, Dr Rajaram Kelekar, was a physician who later became renowned for his Portuguese translation of the Bhagwad Gita.

Afterwards he returned to Goa for his further studies .While still a student at the Lyceum High School in Panaji, Kelekar joined the Goa liberation movement in 1946,which brought him in close contact with several local and national leaders, including Ram Manohar Lohia, under whose influence he was able to recognise the power of language to mobilise the local populace.

Kelekar stayed under Kalelkar's tutelage until 1955, when he was appointed librarian of the Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi.

With a mission to reconnect the Goan diaspora all over the world, he started the weekly, Gomant Bharati (1956–60),[13] published in the Latin script in Bombay.

After Goa's independence, Kelekar took to literary activism, getting his native tongue, Konkani, recognized as a distinct language (rather than a dialect of Marathi).

[16] The struggle ended in 1992, when Konkani was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as an official language.

[8] On 26 February 1975, the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, recognised Konkani as an independent language.

[citation needed] The first Sahitya Akademi Award for a work in Konkani was won by Kelekar for his travelogue, Himalayant, in 1977.

The Casa Dos Kelekars, as it is formally known, is now seen as exemplary of a typical Goan community home.

[1] His father, Dr Rajaram Kelekar, was a physician who later became renowned for his Portuguese translation of the Bhagwad Gita.

[7] While still a student at the Lyceum High School in Panaji, Kelekar joined the Goa liberation movement in 1946.

Kelekar stayed under Kalelkar's tutelage until 1955, when he was appointed librarian of the Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi.

With a mission to reconnect the Goan diaspora all over the world, he started the weekly, Gomant Bharati (1956–60),[12] published in the Latin script in Bombay.

[15] The struggle ended in 1992, when Konkani was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as an official language.

[7] On 26 February 1975, the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, recognised Konkani as an independent language.

[citation needed] The first Sahitya Akademi Award for a work in Konkani was won by Kelekar for his travelogue, Himalayant, in 1977.