When I just about got to know him.........

A little bit about my school mate, Anil. He was always known to be a sweet person. He used to always flash a sweet all-knowing kind of a smile. I used to like that. He was chivalry personified. I remember once while leaving a restaurant he quickly walked past me and opened the door for me. It came as such a surprise for me that I thought there must be some prank involved and wouldn’t step out! In school I used to call him 'kobi' bcoz I had once seen him buying cabbage at the market. Being a shy person I used to not talk to many boys in school. But it was very easy to talk to Anil somehow. Some girls used to tease him Jaanu. We were not in touch until once in '98 I suddenly received a call from him. He wanted to meet all his old school friends. He wanted to have a get-together of our class. I liked the idea and decided to help him. I remember how we went to seek permission to use our school hall for this. We got the permission too. Then we spent quite some time finding telephone numbers and getting in touch with people. Kumar, another school friend, pitched in and said he would help organise the event too. Everything seemed to be working, when one day Anil called up to say its not going to happen. No one was showing the kind of enthusiasm he was expecting. He just wanted everyone to be there and he would organise the rest. But somehow he got the feeling that people were not interested in doing that either. He sounded very let down. I felt quite bad. We still decided to enjoy that day by going out for lunch. We remained in touch for about a year. He was in merchant navy and had travelled almost to all parts of the world. Had a lot of experiences to narrate. He used to talk about his mother and how she missed him like hell. How they both were so emotionally attached to each other. He was so frank and so easy to talk to. I had not known anything about him as much as I got to know within that year. Strange. Then sometime in the end of the year '98, he got himself a new bike. He used to travel long distances on his bike along with his other bike friends. Long distances - Mira road to Bandra. I got his call sometime after valentine's day in '99 and he was talking about how he had spent his valentine's day in a train in company of some 40 plus age group ladies. Again he was talking about his bike and told me that he will come to my office and we could go for a ride. Was probably kidding then. But he was enjoying his bike, it was pretty obvious. That week I waited for his call expecting him to come over sometime. He didn’t call. I felt why do people say things they don’t mean to do. I decided not to call him first after that. I didn’t. For a month. Then I called him on his birthday on 8th March to wish him. His brother told me 'So you don’t know. Anil met with an accident. He is no more.' I was speechless. His brother was 'Hello, hello'-ing into the phone but I couldn’t speak. Finally I managed to say I will call you later and disconnected. Later I called again and got all the details. He wasn’t wearin a helmet, his head got mowed down a truck wheel when he was taking a right turn out of his merchant navy college gate. This happened the same week when I was expecting a call from him and had decided I wont call if he didn’t. What more can I say. You cannot imagine the torture this must have been to his mother and brother. We paid a visit to their place almost a month after the incident took place but his mother was still in tears and was not feeling very well. His brother was being very brave. A beautiful life, gone, just like that. Did he experience everything he would want to have? Did he enjoy every moment of his life? Where is he now? What is he doing? Does he still flash that this end to that end kind of a smile?? Y

Ganapati Bappa Moryaa

He Lalbaug mhanje Mumbaicha. Mi lahaanpanaa pasun dar varshi ganapati visarjanaachya divshi aai barobar mama/kakanchya ghari girgaum la zaat ase. divas bhar kakanchya gharaachya balconyitna amhi sagli pora ganapatichya mirvanuki baghat. tahaan-bhuk visrun, akkha divas bhar tithe amhi khup dhamaal karaaycho. kakanchya gharaa samorcha rastaa tya divshi fakta mirvanukin saathi asaycha (C.P.Tank). divsaachya shevti amhi mama kade jevaayla ani rahaylaa jaycho. raatri 11 chya sumaraas, kuthun tari koni tari ordat jaycha 'Lalbaug cha Raja aalaa, Lalbaug cha Raja aalaa'. saglya gharaatun loka baher padaaychi. kahi ghai nasaaychi karan ha ganapati itka halu halu pudhe sarkaaycha ki sagle kuthe na kuthe tari ti mirvanuk gaathaayche. ganapati zasaa photo madhe disto tasaa mirvanukit nahi vaatat. karan toh paryanta tyachya angaavar bharpur haar ani phula jamaa zhaleli asat. khup bhavya divya asto. tyachya mukutaa varchya flood light mule ek veglach tej nirmaan hota. prasanna vaatto. pan rastya var barach zapun rahava lagta. dhakka bukki aste. aai-vadil lahaan lahaan poraana bindaast pujaryachya hataat detat, ganapati bappachya aashirwadaa saathi. chandichya chatrya, notaanche haar, zhannza ani dhol, gulaal, kaay baghaylaa nako! sakali nighalele he ganpati bappa raatri 11 vaze paryant fakta 15-20 minitaancha rasta paar karu shaktat. khup manaa paasun prarthanaa karaayshi vaatte hya Lalbaugchya Rajala. Y.