Remembering Kalia ! The real Viju Khote 🙇‍♂️

Obituaries are always sad but whenever they are written, they talk about all the bigwigs of politics, industries, icons or film stars who have a larger than life image and entertain us.

But there always are some silent contributors who work tirelessly, selflessly and perform to perfection for whatever comes to their platter, irrespective of the quantum and still manage to make a place for themselves.

One such personality, the one and only ‘Kalia’, Viju Khote passed away without letting the world know that he was unwell. The silence is more saddening considering the new trend of popularity hype which all newcomers generate through reality shows and get an instant fame. 

‘Sholay’ by all means is the biggest landmark of Hindi Film Industry and is known for its talented crowd gracing the big canvas to perfection. To make a mark in the shortest of roles possible by delivering an all time memorable dialogue  “सरदार मैंने आपका नमक खाया है”, Viju Khote not only made himself immortal but also proved “ रोल बड़ा होना चाहिए लंबा नहीं”.

It’s a tough rule of life that one gets stuck in his image and to break those shackles is not easy. Viju Khote was liked and seen till almost recently and whichever the roles he had, they were worth remembering whether it was Shambhu Kaka of ‘Golmaal 3’or Shirish Appa of ‘Ventilator’ in Marathi.

I am not a big fan of movies, but some losses hurt and when a humble human being makes an exit, the emotional connect strengthens more.

Maybe Viju Khote deserved more, but whatever he gave us will always be cherished and he will remain in our memories forever.

RIP Kalia ! The real Viju Khote 🙇‍♂️ 🙇‍♀️ 

Disclaimer: The blog doesn’t talk about the film industry and its actors. It’s going back down the memory lane for one of the finest actors of Marathi and Hindi film industry. 

Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times

An enigma called Sharad Pawar!

Once upon a time, there lived a man who was young, dynamic, had a political mind and the political pundits along with aam janta of the state soon realized that it had found a protégé, enough to be called as future of progressive Maharashtra.

Maharashtra till then, was known for its leaders being tied to their ideologies, principles and bound to the election mandate.  It soon found that the young man had big political ambitions and he overturned the political platform to become the youngest Chief Minister of Maharashtra at the age of 39.

The  protégé turned into a Political Wizard. An ideal example of an able administrator, a leader who ensured his followers are taken care off and an institute was born, which became an inspiration to young aspiring leaders across political differences or ideologies.

The young leader went on to rule Maharashtra for at least 3 tenures and was central minister for a long time.

A simple equation was realized, Power is permanent ! And the leader had the key to make it work.

As the leadership grew, so did the followers. The loyalist were staunch and they never deserted. That became an example, how a leader keeps his stalk together. However, intentionally or either, the flock became vulnerable to power and political kingdoms were born.

It took 40 years to convert a simple equation into a complex one for his opposition. Once a young leader and now a grand old patriarch Sharad Pawar has found himself in a situation where he is left only with family members and close confidants and even few among them are deserting his ship leaving the Titan and Titanic in oblivion.

Reality Check ?

The most important lesson is to sustain without power. Those who stay with you in your bad times, make wonders when your time is on the upswing. That situation was never presented to the followers. Even in 2014, BJP-NCP government was almost a reality.

The basic principles for which NCP was formed opposing Sonia Gandhi took a backseat as soon as Congress led government was a reality. Alas ! An opportunity was lost to sit in the opposition on principles and power continued for followers.

If Narendra Modi was Gujarat then Sharad Pawar was Maharashtra. But that was not to be. Changing the sides all too often, proved a big bottleneck for the inspirational leader. The people in Maharashtra could never rally behind him as 'One State' on the lines of Gujarat being with Modi.

Some journeys are inspirational and so is Sharad Pawar's, albeit the road-map went haywire as it was not planned from long term gain. If Modi went by the rule-book of his party, Pawar changed the book whenever an opportunity knocked to keep his followers happy. The intentions might be to provide power to the flock but once they were out of power, they  found a new ship and what they call as 'Mega Bharti' became norm of the day.

Maharashtra, after a long wait of years is presented by another young visionary in the current CM Devendra Fadnavis and may be we might have many Maharashtrian aspirations fulfilled by him in the future.

A key thumb rule, hopefully is not forgotten! Ideologies and parties can not be built by inorganic growth and additions would be subtractions if they are not managed based on ethics and values. One must not forget Ataljee's wait of 35 years which made 2 in 1984 to Modi's 303 in 2019 just through perseverance, commitment and belief in self ideologies and people.

Whatsoever ! Sharad Pawar will always remain an enigma of Maharashtra and National Politics and a thought will always remain, had his political trajectory taken a different path, then what would have changed for Maharashtra? 🙇‍♂️

Disclaimer: The blog is a mere observation on the current political situation of Maharashtra and does not comment and evaluate the policies or functioning of any political party.

Image Courtesy : India Today

Chandrayaan -II Mission so close and yet bit far 🙏

We Indians have always been fascinated by that astronomical body that orbits the planet and even the distance of 384,400 km from earth never made us feel that its an alien to us. It was always so close yet so far.

If mythology tells us Chand as one of the young and most good looking deities worshipped all over, the aura and love for it, has remained throughout ages even today.

चंदा मामा दूर के, पुए पकाए बूर के
आप खाए थाली मे, मुन्ने को दे प्याली मे !

The beautiful words made us connect instantly with that soothing Chandamama and the child in us could stop crying, eat instantly and could just spend many nights staring at him.

If the child in us slept instantly, Chand had an exactly opposite effect when it came to youngsters. It became a reason for them to keep awake the whole night as

रात का समा, झूमे चंद्रमा, तन मोरा नाचे रे, जैसे बिजुरियाँ
रात का समा !

to an extreme of

एक बात मान लो तुम, जो कहूँ मैं वो करो तुम
जो करो तो मेरा वादा, मैं करूँगी जो कहो तुम, तुम
तुम मुझको चाँद लाके दो !

All through the childhood to young romantic minds or religious old age, we never lost our love for that eternal Chand.

But there was one entity called ISRO, which never lost its focus on looking at Chand as an imapctful body which has capabilities to change the way mankind has lived so far. The belief by them made an attempt, what no one had done so far.

If Chandrayaan-I was about designing, developing and launching a mission to conduct scientific experiments. Chandrayaan-II was far more ambitious as it was about to demonstrate the ability to soft-land on the lunar surface and operate a robotic rover on the surface. The robot then would have studied and made us aware about the surface of the moon, minerals or test ice or water.

The moment of success was almost there and for a change 😊 kids, youngsters or oldies had the same goal for looking at that Chand and prayed for the 100% success of the mission. It was not to be ☹️. Nevertheless, being almost there has brought many success stories as well. Only 2.1 km remained out of those humongous 384,400 km.

As ISRO says, mission is 95% success and the Orbiter is already in its place which will keep the scientists continue their studies of the beloved Chand, though the communication is lost as of now. ‘Never Give Up’ mantra will keep ISRO on the job and hope they find a way to bridge that communication gap.

As they say, sometimes bad luck is more important than smooth sailing as it teaches us to be grounded, brings people closer, gives an opportunity to do better and the success what follows is always far larger than one anticipates in the first attempt.

As an Indian, let’s not forget that ISRO is those special ones amongst us who had the same childhood memories, young crush and respecting those age old customs or traditions and they will keep working hard till they achieve that eluded 5% success to be back on track.

Soon, the ISRO will make the those words real for us 🙏🙏

चौदहवीं का चाँद हो, या आफ़ताब हो
जो भी हो तुम खुदा कि क़सम, लाजवाब हो !

Image Courtesy: Geek

Disclaimer: The blog is a personal way of looking at the Chandryaan-II mission from common man’s perspective and salutes those extraordinaries amongst us. It does not comment on the mission, the technology or any individual.