camilpark

Shiv Sena Sainik Marshal John Parkhe with Balasaheb Thackeray It was around 1975 that slogans like Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji were heard in our house in Shrirampur. Influenced by one of his school teachers, Marshal, my elder brother, had started playing Lazim with and Dhol Tasha and this had introduced him to Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena. I was then still studying in a secondary school. I watched Marshal leaving house early morning to sweat it out at the local municipal council’s gymnasium. There, wearing a Langot, he wrestled with others on the red soil, climbed and did many startling stunts on the Mallakhamb. After coming home, he ate the Chana dal which was soaked in water the previous night. This was all the luxury diet and nutrients he could afford after working it out hard at the gym in the morning and the lazim playing with his friends on the grounds in the evening. In June 1976, I had left my family almost for good to join the Jesuits, to be a religious priest. A couple of...

दुष्काळाच्या झळा, पण ७०च्या दशकातल्या!  https://www.aksharnama.com/client/article_detail/3283?fbclid=IwAR2QMekqS0B4VFkhimMu_Bp0CSRuNC3pEQa-bY7QCz3E2B7-6WkRfR4Xxps पडघम  - कोमविप (कोकण, मराठवाडा, विदर्भ, प.महाराष्ट्र) कामिल पारखे प्रातिनिधिक चित्र Wed , 15 May 2019 पडघम कोमविप दुष्काळ Drought मिलो Milo १९७०च्या दशकाच्या सुरुवातीच्या काही वर्षांत देशातील अनेक राज्ये कडक दुष्काळाने पोळून निघाली होती. हरित क्रांतीची फळे तोपर्यंत देशातील जनतेने चाखली नव्हती. सलग दोन वर्षे पुरेसा पाऊस न पडल्याने महाराष्ट्रातील अनेक भागांत भयाण परिस्थिती निर्माण झाली होती. मी त्या वेळी माध्यमिक शाळेत शिकत होतो. बहुधा १९७२ किंवा १९७३ असावे. दुष्काळी परिस्थितीमुळे राज्य सरकारने शाळांच्या वार्षिक परीक्षा मार्चआधीच घेण्याचे आदेश दिले होते, हे स्पष्ट आठवते. यावरून दुष्काळाच्या तीव्रतेची कल्पना यावी.  त्यावेळी आम्ही राहायचो त्या अहमदनगर जिल्ह्यातील श्रीरामपूर शहरात पाण्याची टंचाई नसायची. अहमदनगर आणि नाशिक जिल्ह्याच्या सीमेवरील अकोले तालुक्यातील भंडारदरा धर...