Its always pleasure when new gives way to old. New blood in management gives companies new ideas, plans, energy and often lead to successes (though some negative case studies also exist, but in terms of % positive impact cases lead in nos). In 2007 world cup new blood leased life into Indian cricket taking it to inaugural ICC T20 win, test no 1, and ICC world cup. New directors are giving new dimension to bollywood, marathi film and theatre. Music has seen new stars.Only worrying aspect is marathi literature where old still rules, very few new talents have emerged. Maybe due to decline of marathi as language in education. Though some new Indian english talent has emerged. Change is constant. Thus one feels great when you pass on your legacy to new blood. I am not retiring or i dont claim to have great legacy but i am simply sharing a great experience of passing on a hobby or culture or lifestyle called as trekking to my 9 yr old daughter.
Trekking is life style. Its an addiction. Pack off your sack every weekend and head to hills. We in pune are blessed with options, accessibilty and suitable weather (except maybe 2-3 summer months when you can do night treks) Rains add new dimesion to trekking. But as they say every trekker memoir starts with climbing sinhagad. Go to any place with open view , or any high rise or a hill near pune. The big wall of sinhagad with its unique shape and TV tower is something you will see. It has omnipresence here. It challenges, it calls and you follow that. There are people who go there every week. For me last few years have been resurrection in my trekking life. Years before that due to work pressure or lack of like minded fellows, bad habits, laziness, young family chores, physical challenges, i admit to have taken urban cosmo lifestyle. The trekking lifestyle was there throughout my student and single working life. But since last few years, have found likeminded people, groups and will to complete my trekking cv. 2011 has been fantastic. Vasota, sinhagad atleast 4 times with friends. Himalayas are calling this summer/monsoon. But what i experience last sunday was amazing. Doing trek with my daugther.
In fact she was so excited to go to trek that she was wide awake till late. I had also promised her to see 4 planets visible beteen 510 t0 5 20 am for this week. I woke her up and there she was ready. we went to chandani chowk to see that. we could see only 3 as it was getting brighter. then drove towards base.
We started climbing. There was lot of encouragement from usual sunday morning crowd at sinhagad. She was bit tensed as she saw the climb and destination. she was comfortable till first met when road is wide with stones. Sun was still behind hills. It was bit chilly as last few nights in pune are very pleasant. Then we have those narrow steep climbs where she was bit sacred . But gave her solid instructions to hold my hand. we were slow but reached the final met after a stiry telling session from me to disctract her. we had water and lemon drops. That refreshed her. Final strech is narrow and bit winds through shrubs. she was comfortable then as she could see destination nearer. as we recahed she sensed the achievement when i showed her parking place. we had famous buttermilk, bhaji , guava, kairi. i gave her option to climb down by road. These days though cars are not allowed up due to raod repairs, jeeps di ply. she refused saying she wants to complete the trek.
She was slipping while cimbing down as one normally does. One has to control climb down. Same logic of hold me, story went off well. Now sun was up so we drank lime juice at one met. also we started counting no of slips as 'prasads' and who wins with most prasads. we reached parking. She then called her mom at home who was worried. My wife in typical mumbai girl. she gets scared on water and heights.
we (I) have made umpteen attempts to convince her but we could only manage ARAI hill, neelkantheshwar, karal bhaje caves, lohgad, pratapgad, panhala out of her.
As i was driving back, i could see her doze off due to early rise or exhaustion. she was claiming her legs were not aching but could sense that they were. But seeing her determination and eagerness, i was impressed. Though it does not mean much, atleast i have satisfaction to have exposed to healthy trekking lifestyle. Now its upto her to take this baton. One good thing pointed by my friend is that, now i have a trekking buddy for whole of my rest of the life. Thats something is very good news and something i look forward to. stay with this space for more such experiences.
I am sure all my dad friends and other parents will identify with my feeling. I see many such parents taking children to sinhagad or more difficult treks. So this is not big deal and i am not bragging. But idea is to share with you feeling of passing it on and getting new trekking buddy. Thats a significant moment in everyone's life
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Todays State: Lack of leaders...
We completed 51 yrs of Maharashtra state. When we were young and studying outside the state, all other state residents were envious about our state esp those from north and east. Country has been glamoured by Mumbai mainly out of bollywood, cricket, share market, business headquartered in south mumbai, taj oberoi, bandra, juhu, its lifestyle. They did not know much about rest of maharashtra. They knew about Pune mainly due to its young, hep crowd, weather, defence establishments (where many chose to retire). Beyond that they had only heard about nagpur oranges/rss headquarters, kolhapuri chappals and mirchis... period... Now that was the outside image of state.
Those inside has various things that constituted meaning of maharashtra. We were immemnsely proud about our heritage. Be it saints like dynaneshwar, tukaram or be it history mainly with shivaji, peshwas, holkars , shindes. We were leaders in cooperative movement with prosper farmers esp in western maharahstra. We in Pune had rich social service heritage with Tilaks, Agarkars, ranades, gokhales. We were also ahead in empowering neglected sections helped by some great leaders like Phule, Ambedkar, shahu maharaj. We had great literature and talent like that of Atre, Kusumagraj, PL, Vinda just to name a very few. We had good drama movement. Indian Film industry was born here and had great names like Phalke, prabhat, bhalji, raja paranjpe etc leading from front. Cricket culture in mumbai (and to some extent Nagpur)is folklore. Wrestlers in Kolhapur made name. Pune led in education. We had good universities for agriculture and engineering. we had great industrial belts like Thane, chinhwad and many more.Only problem with maharashtra was lack of good political leadership . We never had leader of national stature. In fact that was the problem of all leaders south of Vindhya. Some shrewd leaders from south gained top spots due to dynastic vacuum or sheer luck. Also another breed of regional leaders got away with good deals due to coalition politics. But maharashtra never had such gutsy politicians who bargained for state inspite state being highest contributor to party headquarters or towards govt exchequer. all and sundry in congress felt highest achievement to be confidant of Gandhi nehru clan. Last leader of national stature was dr B R Ambedkar. There was no real opposition to congress except during emergency when all intellegenisia and committed thought leaders (socialists) and opportunist (pawar and co) united to form an alternative. That dismatled in early 80s.But to form real alternative it took last decade 0f 20th century as traditional base of jansangh /rss got polarsised by Babri movement (arised out of congress misleadership), and urban , son of land politics by shivsena combined and formed govt in last half of nineties.
But again due to dirty politics of congress and due to failed opportunities of sharad pawar, congress came back and we now are where we are. First decade of naughties have taken us back 20 years. Nothing new is happening. Even in non related areas like music and drama we tend to rely upon past laurels than new work. cimena exception to this. some attribute decline conveniently to shivsena bjp govt when surplus budget got into deficit. But one has also to ackowledge work on mumbai flyovers, expressways, golden quadrilaterals etc . Congress cannot claim a single achievement except making alcohol double costly and further distressing families wrongly aligned with that disctraction. Jaitapur is another distant dream but wrongly managed. Industry has declined with every industrial land owner dreaming of a mall or office complex on his land. IT which started in SEEPZ Mumbai, is now only restricted to hinjewadi pune. Pune has done well thanks to educational institutes to create supply of labour for IT but now will lose advantage due to builder/leader nexus to escalate costs.
so whats maharashtra known for today esp by outsiders: Raj Thakrey and bal Thakrey have gained notoriety due to pariochal politics, Bombay is Mumbai now and there is fashion amongst cosmo english speaking media to hate Thakrey politics both sides. But moment you have sympathisers for both clans, one needs to understand that there is thought process which fet denied and thus the support. But both clans need to understand that there needs more than just posturing to make policies and do things of substance but you need to give them benifit of doubt that they were in power for only 5 yrs againts congress corruption for 46 yrs. also we should all unite against our common evil: both congress and not family egos. That is also another problem.
leading to corruption, maharashtra's identitity now is pawars, chavans, kalmadis involved in multi crores of scams with no respite in form of punishment etc. Nothing new happening in literature thanks to lack of marathi support by marathi parents. In education, no pioneering work exept minting money by private operators. In industry we lack behind well meaning gujarat. Load shedding and farmer suicides being common place, we cannot claim to be developed society. Thanks to all our leaders for this plight. So let me conclude that afer 51 yrs of formation of maharashtra we dont have leaders to lead us. Much proven case for false leaders like yours truly
Those inside has various things that constituted meaning of maharashtra. We were immemnsely proud about our heritage. Be it saints like dynaneshwar, tukaram or be it history mainly with shivaji, peshwas, holkars , shindes. We were leaders in cooperative movement with prosper farmers esp in western maharahstra. We in Pune had rich social service heritage with Tilaks, Agarkars, ranades, gokhales. We were also ahead in empowering neglected sections helped by some great leaders like Phule, Ambedkar, shahu maharaj. We had great literature and talent like that of Atre, Kusumagraj, PL, Vinda just to name a very few. We had good drama movement. Indian Film industry was born here and had great names like Phalke, prabhat, bhalji, raja paranjpe etc leading from front. Cricket culture in mumbai (and to some extent Nagpur)is folklore. Wrestlers in Kolhapur made name. Pune led in education. We had good universities for agriculture and engineering. we had great industrial belts like Thane, chinhwad and many more.Only problem with maharashtra was lack of good political leadership . We never had leader of national stature. In fact that was the problem of all leaders south of Vindhya. Some shrewd leaders from south gained top spots due to dynastic vacuum or sheer luck. Also another breed of regional leaders got away with good deals due to coalition politics. But maharashtra never had such gutsy politicians who bargained for state inspite state being highest contributor to party headquarters or towards govt exchequer. all and sundry in congress felt highest achievement to be confidant of Gandhi nehru clan. Last leader of national stature was dr B R Ambedkar. There was no real opposition to congress except during emergency when all intellegenisia and committed thought leaders (socialists) and opportunist (pawar and co) united to form an alternative. That dismatled in early 80s.But to form real alternative it took last decade 0f 20th century as traditional base of jansangh /rss got polarsised by Babri movement (arised out of congress misleadership), and urban , son of land politics by shivsena combined and formed govt in last half of nineties.
But again due to dirty politics of congress and due to failed opportunities of sharad pawar, congress came back and we now are where we are. First decade of naughties have taken us back 20 years. Nothing new is happening. Even in non related areas like music and drama we tend to rely upon past laurels than new work. cimena exception to this. some attribute decline conveniently to shivsena bjp govt when surplus budget got into deficit. But one has also to ackowledge work on mumbai flyovers, expressways, golden quadrilaterals etc . Congress cannot claim a single achievement except making alcohol double costly and further distressing families wrongly aligned with that disctraction. Jaitapur is another distant dream but wrongly managed. Industry has declined with every industrial land owner dreaming of a mall or office complex on his land. IT which started in SEEPZ Mumbai, is now only restricted to hinjewadi pune. Pune has done well thanks to educational institutes to create supply of labour for IT but now will lose advantage due to builder/leader nexus to escalate costs.
so whats maharashtra known for today esp by outsiders: Raj Thakrey and bal Thakrey have gained notoriety due to pariochal politics, Bombay is Mumbai now and there is fashion amongst cosmo english speaking media to hate Thakrey politics both sides. But moment you have sympathisers for both clans, one needs to understand that there is thought process which fet denied and thus the support. But both clans need to understand that there needs more than just posturing to make policies and do things of substance but you need to give them benifit of doubt that they were in power for only 5 yrs againts congress corruption for 46 yrs. also we should all unite against our common evil: both congress and not family egos. That is also another problem.
leading to corruption, maharashtra's identitity now is pawars, chavans, kalmadis involved in multi crores of scams with no respite in form of punishment etc. Nothing new happening in literature thanks to lack of marathi support by marathi parents. In education, no pioneering work exept minting money by private operators. In industry we lack behind well meaning gujarat. Load shedding and farmer suicides being common place, we cannot claim to be developed society. Thanks to all our leaders for this plight. So let me conclude that afer 51 yrs of formation of maharashtra we dont have leaders to lead us. Much proven case for false leaders like yours truly
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