I have grown LAZY.
And probably for the same reasons I have neither being neither traveling nor writing for long. Probably this lazy IT culture is taking a toll over me. Today, fortunately I have some time and mood to write. So here it goes.
Aga Khan Palace, though being is the heart of the city, is hardly visited. Off the busy Pune-Ahmednagar Highway, as you move into the compound, you will feel like being taken back good 50-60 years in history. Strangely the entry gate of the palace is locked and you will be entering from the Exit. It is a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon and the place is occupied by few lovebirds, a family out on a picnic and me.
As you move close to the palace and you carry some sense of architecture, you will surely be scratching your head as to under which architecture to place it. The pillars are typical English-Roman type, the roofs have dooms giving it an Islamic touch. As you walk a little closer around and look around, you might spot a Rajputana style fountain, making you more confused. Anyhow I and my confused mind moved into the palace and were greeted with this information that Aga Khan Palace was an act of charity by the Sultan Muhammed Shah who wanted to help the poor in the neighboring areas of Pune who were drastically hit by the famine.
I smile spread over my face appreciating the fact that the city which today feed people from almost all part of India, didn’t had enough to feed its own people some 120 years back. Well this is life for you. There are only three rooms made to display for public. Rest all are out of bound for commoners. The first two rooms stations some of the poorly managed photographs and hand scripts of Gandhiji. The frames were missing, there were whitewash stains over the photos. It was a total mess here. Arguably it is a national heritage structure. Thankfully there was a photo exhibition by Maharashtra Tourism Board which saved the day for me.
The third room had some of the personal belongings of Gandhiji and Ba. One thing that kept with me was a hand weaved saree of Ba. The amount of dedication, hard work and believe that must gone into it was so very clearly visible in every thread of the saree. I actually stood for a good 5 min just looking at it. This was the best part of my visit to this place.
Leaving all this aside I moved toward the Samadhi Sthal and paid my homage to Ba and Mahadev Desai who breathed their last here. The campus today holds a Khadi Gram Udyoug Kerndra and a play school, all to help poor and needful women around the city.
The campus has some really spacious and well maintained lawns (a good place for a family outing). It’s been more than 3 hours around, and I’m seating on a wooden bench outside stupidly staring at the building. The sun will soon call it a day and streetlights will take over. It seems like I have moved into a third world, where life still runs at a pace it should. Allow me to take one last deep breathe of this world before I move back to my “World”.
has a very old history. Vedic texts mention so called Gram Sabha and Nagar Sabha in which every citizen was member, and these Sabha had procedure to expel Village and Town chiefs. RTR was widely used in Greece 2500 years ago — the towns had procedure to expel kings and they also had Juries of 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 to decide crimes against officers. More senior the officer, bigger the Jury.
Social activist Anna Hazre against corruption has not only galvanized the entire nation against this scourge but has also proved the might of people's voice. One of the most important outcome of this movement is the awakening generated among the youth of this country for active participation in national issues. So far this vital section of the nation had adopted a passive attitude towards national issues.