On Rohidas Gaekwad: Part Three- Interactions with him
Rohidas was of a medium built, dark complexioned and an ever smiling person. There was a certain degree of innocence and thoughtfulness in his looks. The moment I saw him, I was convinced that he is a very friendly person. He was working in the clerical cadre of the office. And they had to work in shifts through out the night… shifts of 8 hours each. Rohidas' shift was from 10 pm till 6 am, I was therefore, lucky in a sense.
The moment Rohidas realized that I haven’t had any food since the afternoon… he sent a message to his house to arrange something for me to eat… he then busied himself with the taking over the charge and other formalities. Meanwhile, I had a wonderful dinner, it was the first time I had Kokam Sherbet and Soul Curry… the Konkani delicacies… as I further went southwards, it became my staple eatables.
Nights in that Outpost used to be lonely, with only one person present in the office… and therefore boring too…. But Rohidas told me that he loves Night Shift because he gets a lot of free time for himself… to read and to write…
After a while, he came over and sat with me… and we started once of the most enriching conversations of my life... which had drastically altered the way I have viewed a lot of things in life
Rohidas was born and brought up in Ratnagiri... his father was a teacher... after his initial schooling and then the graduation in Ratnagiri itself, he went to Poona to study journalism and came in contact with an ex-Civil Servant Mr. Avinash Dharmadhikari… being with him, altered his entire life… he transformed from a village simpleton to a voracious reader and social thinker… and started writing for vernacular press… but one day left this job to join government because of the reasons of stability and because he wanted to come back to his roots… the village.
A word about Avinash Dharmadhikari… He was born and brought up in Maharashtra… in his youth he extensively traveled India, especially in Punjab during the time of insurgency… and wrote for newspapers, he also wrote his memoirs 'Aswastha Dashakachi Diary' (Chronicles of an Ill Decade) in which he gives details about his travels throughout India … his meeting with important people and his reflection about the country as such… he later joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1986 and worked in Maharashtra government- in 1996 he resigned from the service and started pursuing his dream of creating a new generation of youth… he started something called Chankya Mandals in various parts of Maharashtra for inculcating a sense of confidence among the rural youth… Rohidas incidentally joined the Poona chapter of this same Mandal…
Meeting Rohidas left me wondering, if a disciple of this man has such a strongly fresh thinking then what the real man would be like… I wish to meet him once in my lifetime…
We kept on talking throughout the night about the various issues of life… IIT and the brain drain… Corporate India and its responsibilities… my travels…. Villages and its economy… development in Konkan…. Maratha and Indian history…. Social reforms in Maharashtra…. Comparison of Gandhi with Ambedkar… and many more.
This was the time when I was preparing for the Civil Services Examination and was reading so many diverse topics and subjects that I was totally humbled… before that I used to think that Social Sciences do not have a dynamism… and are merely descriptive… but my first brush with Sociology left me speechless… for I realized that Descriptive Approach is just one of the dozen of approaches in Social Sciences… and actually any Social Science, howsoever rigid it may be (say for example History…considering that historical facts don’t have an ability to morph) is always in a state of flux…
Listening to Rohidas gave me a new approach, the post-modernism…way of looking into social phenomena… One simple question that he posed and which became one of my most pressing analysis point was whether an individual wants to be rich or happy… because the two are not conjoined and often work at cross purpose… today when debates about economic growth and development rages… it is essential to test our progress with this poser… are we becoming an increasingly happier society in wake of economic boom… Sadly, we are not…
Rohidas had extensively traveled Konkans during his childhood… he recalled how every Sunday, he used to cycle alone from Ratngiri to Bhatye (a small yet beautiful beach on the outskirts of Ratnagiri town) and spend hours seeing the sea…
While talking about all these things… Rohidas had a spark in his eyes… a conviction… that I haven’t seen since then…sitting in a small corner of India… he had an amazing ability to visualize entire India… and form an opinion about it…
In the dread of night, he invited me to come over for his nightly inspection… we walked along the sea shore for a while… it was the time of High Tide and I could hear the roar of the splashing waves... Resonating within me…
He told me a lot of offbeat places in the Konkans and Sahyadris… showed me the virgin beach of Jaitapur… and then at 2 in the night I went for a sleep…
In the morning at 6 am he accompanied me to such a point where I could get a conveyance for a place from where I can get a ferry for Vijaydurg…. The most formidable fort I saw during my wandering… (incidentally it was the last Maratha sea/amphibious fort to fall, Maratha Navy was indomitable under Kanhoji Angre...but after his demise...his son were made Naval chieftains- a wrong practice...much like our caste system...and they were no match for the European meritocracy...the Maratha navy perished after the mighty Kanhoji Angre)
I wish to meet Rohidas once again…. May be he is still there in Jaitapur, reading his book and helping wanderers… or may be he has moved ahead in life…
The moment Rohidas realized that I haven’t had any food since the afternoon… he sent a message to his house to arrange something for me to eat… he then busied himself with the taking over the charge and other formalities. Meanwhile, I had a wonderful dinner, it was the first time I had Kokam Sherbet and Soul Curry… the Konkani delicacies… as I further went southwards, it became my staple eatables.
Nights in that Outpost used to be lonely, with only one person present in the office… and therefore boring too…. But Rohidas told me that he loves Night Shift because he gets a lot of free time for himself… to read and to write…
After a while, he came over and sat with me… and we started once of the most enriching conversations of my life... which had drastically altered the way I have viewed a lot of things in life
Rohidas was born and brought up in Ratnagiri... his father was a teacher... after his initial schooling and then the graduation in Ratnagiri itself, he went to Poona to study journalism and came in contact with an ex-Civil Servant Mr. Avinash Dharmadhikari… being with him, altered his entire life… he transformed from a village simpleton to a voracious reader and social thinker… and started writing for vernacular press… but one day left this job to join government because of the reasons of stability and because he wanted to come back to his roots… the village.
A word about Avinash Dharmadhikari… He was born and brought up in Maharashtra… in his youth he extensively traveled India, especially in Punjab during the time of insurgency… and wrote for newspapers, he also wrote his memoirs 'Aswastha Dashakachi Diary' (Chronicles of an Ill Decade) in which he gives details about his travels throughout India … his meeting with important people and his reflection about the country as such… he later joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1986 and worked in Maharashtra government- in 1996 he resigned from the service and started pursuing his dream of creating a new generation of youth… he started something called Chankya Mandals in various parts of Maharashtra for inculcating a sense of confidence among the rural youth… Rohidas incidentally joined the Poona chapter of this same Mandal…
Meeting Rohidas left me wondering, if a disciple of this man has such a strongly fresh thinking then what the real man would be like… I wish to meet him once in my lifetime…
We kept on talking throughout the night about the various issues of life… IIT and the brain drain… Corporate India and its responsibilities… my travels…. Villages and its economy… development in Konkan…. Maratha and Indian history…. Social reforms in Maharashtra…. Comparison of Gandhi with Ambedkar… and many more.
This was the time when I was preparing for the Civil Services Examination and was reading so many diverse topics and subjects that I was totally humbled… before that I used to think that Social Sciences do not have a dynamism… and are merely descriptive… but my first brush with Sociology left me speechless… for I realized that Descriptive Approach is just one of the dozen of approaches in Social Sciences… and actually any Social Science, howsoever rigid it may be (say for example History…considering that historical facts don’t have an ability to morph) is always in a state of flux…
Listening to Rohidas gave me a new approach, the post-modernism…way of looking into social phenomena… One simple question that he posed and which became one of my most pressing analysis point was whether an individual wants to be rich or happy… because the two are not conjoined and often work at cross purpose… today when debates about economic growth and development rages… it is essential to test our progress with this poser… are we becoming an increasingly happier society in wake of economic boom… Sadly, we are not…
Rohidas had extensively traveled Konkans during his childhood… he recalled how every Sunday, he used to cycle alone from Ratngiri to Bhatye (a small yet beautiful beach on the outskirts of Ratnagiri town) and spend hours seeing the sea…
While talking about all these things… Rohidas had a spark in his eyes… a conviction… that I haven’t seen since then…sitting in a small corner of India… he had an amazing ability to visualize entire India… and form an opinion about it…
In the dread of night, he invited me to come over for his nightly inspection… we walked along the sea shore for a while… it was the time of High Tide and I could hear the roar of the splashing waves... Resonating within me…
He told me a lot of offbeat places in the Konkans and Sahyadris… showed me the virgin beach of Jaitapur… and then at 2 in the night I went for a sleep…
In the morning at 6 am he accompanied me to such a point where I could get a conveyance for a place from where I can get a ferry for Vijaydurg…. The most formidable fort I saw during my wandering… (incidentally it was the last Maratha sea/amphibious fort to fall, Maratha Navy was indomitable under Kanhoji Angre...but after his demise...his son were made Naval chieftains- a wrong practice...much like our caste system...and they were no match for the European meritocracy...the Maratha navy perished after the mighty Kanhoji Angre)
I wish to meet Rohidas once again…. May be he is still there in Jaitapur, reading his book and helping wanderers… or may be he has moved ahead in life…
Today the government is constructing a Nuclear Power Plant in Jaitapur.... I am reminded of the words of Rohidas...
"when a bus from city comes to a village, it brings hope but in the barter takes away the innocence".....
"when a bus from city comes to a village, it brings hope but in the barter takes away the innocence".....
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