7th May :
Once again Lali & Myself did 500 km tour in a day. We were out
investigating Land stretches for our prospects. This time our focus was in and
around Karjat area. For last few years, this area is under sharp eyesight of
all builders and developers. Major projects are underway in this area. Karjat –
Murud road has being made recently, it goes through vacant stretchers of land
on both side for miles. It is kind of rare experience to drive for 10 km
without and man made structure on both sides of road, a rarity. Superb road recently completed, no traffic and clean air with
expanses of land and lot of heat. Wow.
For company we have Deepak Amar. A prospect of Landson, saw
and decided against buying land, but offered us 165 acres as he had liked Landson project concept. He is experienced guy, has worked as Security In charges, PA
of a politician cum don, Toll collection center's manager. In 9 hour journey he
told us all his life history, his struggle, his religious beliefs, his love
story. A simple man, honest, not ambitious, believes in God very strongly. We
met on 9th, and our tune in was so, that within 24 hours we were
zooming around in i20 with him, he entertaining us with his life as well as Ulhasnagar
stories. He told us stories of Srichand Hinduja, Papu Kalani, his Boss Shetty,
his father etc. He is good story teller and here is example, telling us how he
started reading Gita.
Nearly two decades back, he was
going through very rough patch of his life. His Mother had paralytic attack,
wife had continuous fever for 90 days, he was without job, as his boss was put
behind bars, he had to take care of 2 year old son all by himself. He was sad
and lost, felt like end of the world for him. One day he was whiling away his
time in local ‘mandir’, there he received Gita from a mandir’s sadhu, to sort out his problems with instructions to read and understand it.
After 3 days he was asked, ‘Have
you read it?’ ‘Yes’ he replied.
‘Have you understood anything?’
Again he said ‘Yes’.
‘How much have you understood?’
‘Full’ he replied.
The saint started laughing,
drawing attention of others sitting in the room. This same conversation and
reaction was repeated. He was confused, embarrassed, surprised, at loss. What is there to laugh about? In his
words, he had no idea, what was happening, why ‘sadhu’ was laughing like mad at
him. Finally saint saw his confused face, lost thoughts and told him, ‘I have
spent 20 years, read it again and again, and still I find I have understood
only small portion of Gita. Keep reading it again and again, you will learn
more and more every time.’
This simple incident changed his life, he started
reading Gita, very seriously and it has helped him a lot.
 |
| Day View from Living Room, with KK in center |
Sat: Climate is getting nasty, day by day. Pune heat has
started turning into humid, sticky, very hot. It keeps hovering at 40-41
degree! For days, with no respite predicted by met department. Then suddenly on Saturday night things changed. We had full family
members first dinner at 510. Lali left soon after dinner as he and Sharat are going to
Banglore, early morning. Suddenly, no movement in air turned into a breezy, thundering
‘toofan’. A light drizzle changed the situation in just few minutes. We were
planning to see old movie ‘Andaz Apna Apna’, as Amir Khan mouthed first few
words, ‘Aila, Juhi Chawla.’ We said, ‘Aila, thunders and breeze, let’s go and
sit on terrace.’ I turned off TV and we all moved to terrace.
Full family together, great
lightening show, relief from stifling heat, gentle soothing drops of bliss falling from
skies, excellent songs in back groud, and ‘sone pe suhaga’, Strawberry + Vanilla Ice cream treat. What
else you need?
by P G Dodeja
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