Some Pendants Designs for You

 

Some Pendants Designs for You

More

A PAKISTANI PHOTOGRAPHER'S IDEA OF INDIA

Photographer and Fulbright scholar Asim Rafiqui left his homeland to chase a corporate dream when he was 18. Now, with an old film camera in tow, he discovers places in India where national identities and prejudices break down. Engaging in history can help us look ahead, if not heal, he tells





Asim Rafiqui. (Clockwise from top) A mosque in Jammu; near a shrine at Chamaliyal, Jammu; the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. All photographs are part of Rafiqui's Fulbright scholarship project in India

Paak-staan". Asim Rafiqui, writer, blogger, journalist, traveller, historian, and photographer, skips the second syllable when he speaks of his of his home country. He also breaks into fluid Hindi — the Hindi of an Urdu-speaker — and makes you sit up with his pathos while he tells stories: What? Strip-searched for six hours at Gaza? (he lived there for a year). Kali's original masjid in Balochistan? Really?
This week, the Fulbright scholar from Stockholm was at the Delhi Photo festival, an initiative of the India Habitat Centre and Nazar Foundation to create awareness about photography and initiate dialogue. Rafiqui has been in India since February and is working on a project that is "an artistic exploration of a space" which he calls 'The Idea of India'. Rafiqui takes photographs and travels to "sites where national identities break down". As a part of the project, he is writing about rituals and communities and places in India "and how they contribute to social harmony, inter-religious tolerance and resistance to separation and violence." Even now, Rafiqui uses an old-fashioned film camera — no fancy telescope lenses for him.
Sharing history
"I am trying to understand and excavate shared histories with India, but not this 'Aman ki Asha' stuff," he says. To explain these ideas, Rafiqui uses words and phrases like "polemic" this and "syncretic' that, "debilitated citizenry" and "orientalist reaction". But you get what he's saying because he follows up the doctorate phrases with translations. In doing so, he opens himself up and allows you to examine what his trip is all about.
His first stop: Ayodhya.
"Have you been to Ayodhya?" Rafiqui asks. Er, no. "You must go! It's such a beautiful place. I was very happy there." Generous as he is with imparting trivia, we now know there is such a thing as "the best hotel in Faizabad" at Rs600 a night. Rafiqui wants people to swap stories and engage history so that we, people on this side of the border, can at least begin to look ahead, if not heal. The man has his dreams, one such being of an overlapping border, of a 1,000 km-long stretch of Mughal gardens. "Well, why not?"
Chasing a passion
Rafiqui wasn't always into understanding and excavating histories. In 2001, frustrated with life, he left a career in software development. He wrote in his Fulbright essay. "The disconnect between my passions and my profession had become too vast to tolerate. Every day of the 10 years I spent in offices in Manhattan, Boston, or San Francisco writing software for clients or at classes at the business school at Columbia, I knew that there had to be a different idea to my life." Shortly after helping his last employer launch their operations in Europe, Rafiqui left to explore what this other idea of life could be.
He found it behind the viewfinder of a camera. "I don't remember why I took up the camera. But, as I stood in an Afghan refugee camp on the border of Pakistan and raised the camera to my eye for the first time, I felt my old life receding into the distance," says Rafiqui. At that moment he felt what Charles Harbutt, the American photographer, described as 'the coming together of the complete individual'.
Rafiqui left Pakistan in 1984 when he was 18. His parents are from Kashmir, a place he has visited often, written essays, taken pictures. They now live in Lahore. His maternal grandfather was an eye surgeon and paternal grandfather worked in an insurance company. His uncle was a national war hero in the Air Force. "We're a deeply nationalistic family," he says.
Pushing boundaries
As a writer and photographer, he works for the US-European media and writes not just about the subcontinent, but also about underlying prejudices. His wife is Swedish and the couple, with their young daughter, live in Stockholm. In the last eight years, he has not worked with a Swedish publication because all they want him to write about is Pakistan. "I've had it with people fixing their notion of identity on me and expecting me to only write about my faith." He's interested in other stuff and doesn't only want to write about subjects that he's assumed to be interested in because of his Muslim name.
Recently, Rafiqui claimed the Ramayan as part of his Indic heritage. "I'm not going to allow you to tell me it's not," he says. The last time he was in Pakistan (on his multiple entry visa) was in September 2010. He speaks of schools there that have textbooks with lines such as: 'The Hindus live in small dark homes.' "For Pakistan, there are no Indians, they are all Hindus. Pakistanis are raised on a deep suspicion of Hindus. I'm bored of this lack of imagination and unwillingness to confront the other side", he says.
So, Rafiqui is pushing boundaries on both sides. "There is an unresolved nature of pain of partition in 1947 and we never address that." There's anger and disappointment in his tone. "We don't live in a bubble. Pakistan is not independent of India, of Afghanistan. It's a chicken and egg thing... there is no neatly packaged story."
Read more about Asim's work on asimrafiqui.com/blog/ and asimrafiqui.photoshelter.com

Book Browser

Experiencing Tarot
Roopa Patel
Tarotologist Roopa Patel puts together a
basic guide on the art of reading tarot
cards. With illustrations of each tarot card
and detailed description of the cards, she
tries to explain the importance of tarot
card reading, and how the craft can help
us understand our strengths and weaknesses.
She also tries to explain the connection
tarot cards have with other “mystical
sciences”. Patel tries to dispel a few
myths about tarot cards — she says tarot
cards are meant to show believers a path
into their unconscious, not predict the future.
The illustrations are Indian depictions
of the cards by Indo-British artists who go
by the name ‘the Singh twins’.

The Exiles 
Ghalib Shiraz
Dhalia
Pooja and Rahul Kapoor left Kenya and
settled in Los Angeles to raise their son
Ajay. Pooja, a housewife who prides herself
on her cooking, is shocked when she finds
out that her husband and the father of her
now teenage son has fallen in love with a
Muslim man. Pooja and Rahul, who have
grown distant over the years, now have to
revisit the incidents of their past to come
to terms with Rahul’s new-found sexuality.
The concepts of homosexuality and heterosexuality
are explored through their story.
The book also explores the constructs of
desire, infidelity and faith through Hindu
mythology and Sufi poetry.

On Dreams And Dreaming
Edited by Sudhir Kakar
This compilation of essays is about the
process of dreaming: memorable and
lucid dreams, the role dreams play in
the evolution of consciousness, and
the relationship between dreaming and
waking. Dream analysts, scholars and
psychoanalysts try to explain how dreams
can be used to access the subconscious
and treat people through psychoanalysis,
how dreams help the brain develop, and
the phenomenon of nightmares. The book
also explores how dreams impact our
waking life. The writers put their views
across through case studies and
examples, some of them from years
of scientific research.

The Inner Circle
Brad Meltzer
Set in Washington DC, this thriller follows
Beecher White, a young US government
archivist. When his childhood crush
Clementine Kaye approaches him for help,
he takes her into the the National Archives
and they stumble upon a secret society
that has been around since George Washington’s
days. In trying to investigate why
the President is hiding this treasure,
Beecher and Kaye find themselves in the
middle of an international conspiracy. And
when a man dies and Beecher is on the run
to discover the truth about this mysterious
treasure, they realise that some people
believe the secret is worth killing for.

In the binary language of computers, you can either have a zero or a one, nothing in between. Perceptions about Steve Jobs too have tended to be bipolar, and Walter Isaacson's biography published soon after his death tots up the zeroes and ones in Jobs' life and work,

ZERO OR ONE?

In the binary language of computers, you can either have a zero or a one, nothing in between. Perceptions about Steve Jobs too have tended to be bipolar, and Walter Isaacson's biography published soon after his death tots up the zeroes and ones in Jobs' life and work,


One of the weird things about quantum mechanics is that an electron can be in two places at the same time, which obviously makes it a difficult subject to understand. Steve Jobs can be equally hard to pin down. One moment he seems like a hero and the next he's a zero. Reading the former Time managing editor, Walter Isaacson's journalistic, anecdote-filled biography of Jobs can keep you oscillating between the two positions, until finally an apple falls on your head and you get it — that Jobs was possibly in both places at the same time.
Jobs himself thought in binary terms, according to Isaacson — ideas were either 'great' or 'crap' and never in between; sometimes they could be 'crap' one day and 'great' the next day, when he would claim to have thought it up himself. People too were either totally amazing or complete "shitheads". Perhaps fittingly, therefore, perceptions about Jobs too have tended to be extreme over the years: was he a passionate revolutionary or a self-centred asshole, a true innovator or a cheap idea stealer, a real producer of new things or just a glib marketer?
To the credit of Isaacson, as well as Jobs for letting him do it, he does not shy away from even the most personal or damaging of stories about the ex-CEO of Apple whom he interviewed 40 times in a period of two years after accepting his invitation to write the biography. Nor did he take everything Jobs told him at face value, interviewing hundreds of people who knew Jobs or worked with him to get their versions of the stories.
Whose idea was it?
Jobs claimed for instance that it was a Microsoft engineer's bragging at a party — about a tablet PC Microsoft was developing — that provoked him to come up with the iPad. He told Isaacson, "This dinner was like the tenth time he talked to me about it, and I was so sick of it that I came home and said, 'Fuck this, let's show him what a tablet can really be.'" The next day, as he recalled it, he gathered his team and told them he wanted a touch-screen tablet PC with no keyboard or stylus.
Apple's head of design, Jony Ive, one of Jobs' blue-eyed boys, had a different recollection. He told Isaacson that his design team had begun experimenting with a touch-screen input without any prompting from Jobs. In fact, Ive did not want to show it to Jobs prematurely because he might say "this is shit" and snuff the idea. "I realised that if he pissed on this, it would be so sad, because I knew it was so important." When he was ready, he set up a private demo for Jobs, who was less likely to make a snap judgement when there was no audience, and luckily Jobs loved it.
Like a good journalist, Isaacson 'shows' us what Jobs was really like through a series of such tales which make the 630-page bio a good, easy read. The quasi-journalistic approach also serves to put a veneer of objectivity over the discourse, but you soon realise whose side the writer is on.
'Reality distortion field'
In story after story it's clear that Jobs had few scruples, lying or cheating or being manipulative whenever it suited him. But his acolytes had a euphemistic term for such behaviour — they said Jobs had a 'reality distortion field', that in his own mind he was almost convinced somebody else's idea was really his, or that something really happened in the embellished way he would put it later. Isaacson is so willing to rationalise away every inconvenient truth about Jobs that you begin to wonder if he got infected with the reality distortion field too.
This is especially apparent in the accounts of Jobs' personality, his ill-treatment of co-workers, the cheating of his co-founder Steve Wozniak, and his troubled relationships. Isaacson tries to draw some pop psychology interpretations from the fact that Steve was given up for adoption by his then unmarried biological parents, and then pretty much did as he liked growing up with his over-indulgent adoptive parents. He also attributes to him a Nietzschean belief that the ordinary rules of life did not apply to such a super-being as himself.
Folk singer Joan Baez, with whom Jobs had a romance for a few years, sums it up differently. "He was both romantic and afraid to be romantic," she said. Tina Redse, with whom he had an on-and-off relationship for the longest time before getting married, felt he had a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. "The capacity for empathy was lacking." And yet, Jobs fell in love with Laurene Powell, a graduate student at Stanford Business School, and she was with him more than two decades later when he died. More zeroes and ones.
Gets better with age
The real explanation may actually be quite simple — like most people Jobs got better at handling both his life and his work as he got older. This becomes clearer in the story of his work which forms the bulk of the book. This is where Isaacson comes into his own with his journalistic sense for detail and analysis as he presents a short history of personal technology.
One of the threads running through this aspect of the book is a comparison with that other lodestar of the personal tech revolution: Bill Gates. Apple was first off the block with the Macintosh, which had a graphical user interface (GUI) that allowed you to click on icons with a mouse instead of typing out esoteric commands like 'md c:test' on a black screen.
But Jobs would allow the Apple software to run only on the Mac. This left the door open for Microsoft to develop its own GUI-based Windows operating system for all other PCs. "Windows has won. It beat the Mac... An inferior product won," was Steve Jobs' typically ungracious admission after the release of Windows 95.
It wasn't as if nobody at Apple had anticipated this. Co-founder Steve Wozniak wanted to license the Mac OS to other vendors from the very beginning, like Microsoft later licensed Windows. "We had the most beautiful operating system," he told Isaacson. "But to get it you had to buy our hardware at twice the price. That was a mistake."
Closed versus open
The rivalry between Gates and Jobs went beyond personal ego and business. As Isaacson notes, it represented two diametrically opposite approaches to personal technology. Jobs believed in a closed environment where hardware and software would be integrated with little scope for tinkering by third parties or users. Gates produced standard software that would run on machines from different makers, making them interoperable with each other. At a forum in Cambridge, when the design advantage of Jobs' approach was pointed out to him, Gates was dismissive: "If you want, I'll get you a can of paint (to have your computer in a colour you like)," he sneered.
And yet, ironically, in his second innings at Apple, this same end-to-end integration proved to be the formula for success in the iPod which turned around the fortunes of both Apple and Jobs. In 2002, the digital music domain was a mess — the record companies were struggling with rampant piracy, and at the same time their subscription models in partnership with companies like Sony, where users could only stream their music and not download them, just did not appeal to consumers.
Along came Jobs with a seamless solution: an iTunes store where record companies could sell their songs for 99 cents a download (29 of which went to Apple), iTunes software that was user-friendly, and a sleek, white iPod at the other end. Belying the sceptics who predicted that nobody would pay for digital music, one million songs were bought in the first six days.
Bill Gates' acknowledgement
Isaacson quotes Bill Gates himself, from an email he sent to colleagues at Microsoft after the launch of iTunes, to put a finger on what really made Jobs click time and again: "Steve Jobs's ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right, and market things as revolutionary are amazing things... I think we need some plan to prove that, even though Jobs has us a bit flat footed again, we can move quick and both match and do stuff better."
But Jobs went on to show with the iPhone and then the iPad that he had an intuitive sense of what consumers needed and a unique end-to-end integrated vehicle to deliver exactly what they needed. Isaacson's conclusion is that Jobs may have lost the battle with Windows earlier but he won the war in the end as Apple became the world's most valuable company.
He may be right but it's too early to tell. Google's open-ended Android may currently be too fragmented with different versions running on different mobile phones and tablet PCs. But who can predict that it will not eventually become the standard on all non-Apple phones and tablets, just like Windows did on PCs?
Maybe, for a really good biography you need a period of reflection after a person dies, rather than rushing to print. And so the true legacy of Jobs for the time being will have to be in two places at the same time, in the slot for zero as well as the one for hero. As Jobs told Isaacson in one of his last interviews: "I like to think that something survives after you die... But on the other hand, perhaps it's like an on-off switch. Click! And you're gone."

सेतू माधवराव पगडींनी सहासष्ट ग्रंथांची निर्मिती करून सुमारे बावीस हजार पृष्ठसंख्येइतके अक्षरधन जमा केले आहे.

पगडींचा प्रचंड शब्दसेतू! (विश्‍वास पाटील)

विश्‍वास पाटील (author@esakal.com)

सेतू माधवराव पगडींनी सहासष्ट ग्रंथांची निर्मिती करून सुमारे बावीस हजार पृष्ठसंख्येइतके अक्षरधन जमा केले आहे. "बचेंगे तो और भी लिखेंगे' या बाण्याने हा तपस्वी वयाच्या पंचाऐंशीव्या वर्षापर्यंत लिहीतच राहिला. मराठ्यांच्या स्फूर्तिदायी इतिहासाचे साक्षेपी संशोधन आणि लेखन अनेक उर्दू-फारसी काव्य व इतिहासग्रंथांची उत्तम भाषांतरे, अनेक जिल्ह्यांच्या गॅझेटिअरचे संपादन, अशा दीर्घोद्योगाचे त्यांनी डोंगर उभे केले. पगडींच्या शताब्दीच्या निमित्ताने हैदराबादच्या मराठी साहित्य परिषदेने त्यांच्या समग्र वाङ्‌मयाचे आठ बलदंड खंड प्रकाशित केले आहेत. महाराष्ट्रानेही या अमूल्य ठेव्याचे घराघरांत जतन करून ठेवायला हवे. .....सांगताहेत कादंबरीकार विश्‍वास पाटील

संभाजीराजांच्या निर्घृण हत्येनंतर काही वर्षांनी औरंगजेबाने पुणे शहरात प्रवेश केला, तेव्हा त्याने पुण्याचे नाव बदलून ते मुहियाबाद असे ठेवले, तर खेडचे नामांतर मसुदाबाद, अकलूजचे असदनगर आणि नाशिकचे नामकरण गुलशनाबाद असे केले होते. औरंगजेबाच्या महाआक्रमणाविरोधात संभाजी आणि महाराणी ताराबाईंच्या झेंड्याखाली मराठे एक होऊन झुंजले नसते अन्‌ दुर्दैवाने औरंगजेबाची कपटी दक्षिणनीती आणि त्याचे असहिष्णू धोरण यशस्वी झाले असते तर आज दक्षिण भारताचे रूपांतर इराण आणि इराकसारख्या राष्ट्रांत निश्‍चितच झाले असते. मराठी संस्कृती लोप पावली असतीच आणि मराठी भाषाही गोंडवनातल्या एखाद्या पहाडी भाषेसारखी विस्मृतीच्या वळचणीला जाऊन बसली असती.

मराठी अस्मितेचे उच्चाटन करण्यासाठी बाराव्या शतकापासून ते एकोणिसाव्या शतकापर्यंत दिल्लीपतींनी जंग जंग पछाडले. त्या दिल्लीश्‍वरांशी मराठ्यांनी सातत्याने सात शतके केलेला निकराचा मुकाबला आणि परचक्राविरोधी पेटवलेला संघर्षाचा भडाग्नी म्हणजेच या मातीचा गौरवी इतिहास आहे! मराठवाड्याच्या मातीत जन्मलेले सेतू माधवराव पगडी यांनी सलग साठ वर्षे आपली तेजस्वी लेखणी एखाद्या पट्टीच्या तलवारबाजासारखी गाजवली. आपल्या लेखणी, वाणी, उक्ती आणि कृतीतून शिवरायांच्या आदर्श तत्त्वांचा सातत्याने शोध घेतला. एकूण सहासष्ट मराठी-इंग्रजी ग्रंथांची निर्मिती केली. क्राऊन साइजमध्ये हिशेब मांडायचा तर पगडींनी सुमारे बावीस ते पंचवीस हजार पृष्ठांचे अक्षरधन निर्माण केले आहे.

महाराष्ट्राचा संशोधनात्मक इतिहास, उर्दू काव्य आणि फारसी महाकाव्यांची भाषांतरे, अव्वल इंग्रजीत लिहिलेले शिवचरित्र, मराठवाड्याचा इतिहास असे अनेक विषयांनी आणि समृद्ध आशयाने भरलेले सेतू माधवराव पगडींच्या वाङ्‌मयाचे अष्टखंडात्मक साहित्य गेल्या वर्षी प्रकाशित करण्यात आले. अशा कष्टप्रद, जिकिरीच्या आणि तरीही अभिमानी कार्याच्या उभारणीसाठी महाराष्ट्रातील मंडळी पुढे सरसावली नाहीत. मात्र हैदराबादच्या मराठी साहित्य परिषदेच्या जागृत मंडळींनी पुढाकार घेऊन ही अत्यंत मोलाची कामगिरी बिनचूक पार पाडली आहे. मात्र दुर्दैवाने या अमूल्य ग्रंथनिर्मितीकडे शासनासह इथली विद्यापीठे, महाविद्यालये, वृत्तपत्रे आणि सामान्य वाचकांनीही दुर्लक्ष केले आहे. ऊठसूट आपल्या इतिहासातील महापुरुषांच्या नावे पताका नाचवणाऱ्या उत्साही वीरांनी, तसेच पुरोगामी समाजसुधारकांच्या तसबिरींना हार घालणाऱ्या समाजधुरीणांनीही या प्रकल्पाकडे अक्षम्य दुर्लक्ष केले आहे. ही बाब अत्यंत नामुष्कीची असून, ती महाराष्ट्रधर्माला शोभा देणारी नव्हे. सेतू माधवरावांना पंचाऐंशी वर्षांचे आयुष्य लाभले. पैकी आपल्या आयुष्याची सलग साठ-सत्तर वर्षे त्यांनी सातत्याने वाचन, लेखन आणि संशोधनाच्या दीर्घोद्योगासाठी सार्थकी लावली. विसाव्या शतकाच्या पहिल्या अर्धशतकात वि. का. राजवाडे आणि रियासतकार सरदेसाई यांनी असा प्रचंड उद्योग करून ठेवला होता, तर 1950 नंतर सेतू माधवरावांसारखा असा प्रचंड संशोधन आणि ग्रंथलेखनाचा शब्दसेतू क्वचितच कोणी उभारला असावा. हे अविरत लेखन सेवाभावी वृत्तीने, स्वयंभाषेच्या अभिमानातून आणि स्वयंप्रेरणेतून घडले आहे. ते साहित्य संमेलनाच्या अध्यक्षपदावर डोळा ठेवून किंवा राज्यसभेवर वर्णी लागावी, अशा काही नियोजनबद्ध, अंतःस्थ हेतूतून घडलेले नाही. त्यामुळेच ते धवल आहे.

आजकाल एखाददुसऱ्या पुस्तकाच्या यशाने अर्ध्या हळकुंडाने पिवळे व्हायचेच दिवस अधिक झाले आहेत. अशा पार्श्‍वभूमीवर आठ-दहा भाषा आत्मसात करणे, महाराष्ट्रातील अनेक जिल्ह्यांचे गॅझेटियर्स संपादित करणे, संपूर्ण गालीब, दाग, जीके आणि इक्‍बाल अशा उत्तमोत्तम उर्दू कवींच्या काव्यांचा मराठीत सुबोध अनुवाद करणे, गोंडी-कोलामसारख्या बोलीभाषांचे व्याकरण आणि शब्दकोश तयार करणे आणि सुमारे सत्तर ग्रंथांची निर्मिती, ही कामे एकांड्या शिलेदाराची असूच शकत नाहीत. त्यासाठी सेतू माधवरावांसारख्या शब्दसरदाराच्याच ऐतिहासिक कामगिरीची जरुरी भासते.

पगडीसाहेबांचे जीवन म्हणजे "आमच्यापुढे आदर्श नाहीत' अशी खोटी कोल्हेकुई करणाऱ्या तरुणांसाठी कर्तृत्वाचा प्रेरणादायी शिलालेख ठरावा. पहिल्या खंडात त्यांचे "जीवनसेतू' नावाचे आत्मचरित्र येते. 27 ऑगस्ट 1910 ला निलंगा, जिल्हा उस्मानाबाद (आजचा लातूर) येथे त्यांचा जन्म झाला. पगडींचे मूळचे घराणे विजापूरचे. प्राथमिक शिक्षण गुलबर्ग्यात झाले. हैदराबादेत निजाम कॉलेजातील आपले शिक्षण त्यांना घरच्या गरिबीमुळे अर्धवट सोडावे लागले; पण अंतरीची उच्च शिक्षणाची तळमळ त्यांना स्वस्थ बसू देत नव्हती. त्यांनी गुपचूप त्या काळी बनारसला पलायन केले. तेथे अन्नछत्रात भोजन करत 1930 मध्ये ते बी.ए.च्या परीक्षेत पहिल्या वर्गात पहिले आले. पुढे हैदराबाद राज्यात तहसीलदार, औरंगाबादचे जिल्हाधिकारी आणि राज्यपुनर्रचनेनंतर मुंबईत मंत्रालयात उपसचिव, साहित्य संस्कृती मंडळाचे सलग आठ वर्षे सचिव अशी भरघोस कामगिरी या कर्मयोग्याने पार पाडली आहे. 1969 मध्ये निवृत्त झाल्यावर चार वर्षांच्या मेहनतीने त्यांनी इंग्रजी शिवचरित्र लेखनाचीही कामगिरी पार पाडली आहे.

पगडीसाहेबांच्या मते, अठरावे शतक हे मराठी माणसाच्या यशाचे आणि अस्मितेचे होते. तेव्हा भारताचे नेतृत्व मराठ्यांनी केले होते. ते भाग्य भारतातील कोणत्याही अन्य राजाला वा तिथल्या लोकांना लाभले नव्हते. पगडी वाङ्‌मयाचे गलेलठ्ठ दुसरे आणि तिसरे खंड याच अठराव्या शतकावर आधारलेले आहेत. तो काळ मराठ्यांच्या धामधुमीचा, अतुल पराक्रमाचा आणि यशस्वी गिरिशिखरांचा होता. 1700 मध्ये कृष्णाजी सावंताने प्रथम आपली घोडी नर्मदापार दामटली. 1706 मध्ये धनाजी जाधवाने गुजरातमध्ये रतनपूरची लढाई जिंकली आणि दिल्लीकर मोगलांना दूर पिटाळून लावले. 1731 मध्ये मराठ्यांनी बुंदेलखंड पादाक्रांत केला, तर 1751 मध्ये ओरिसामध्ये जाऊन जरीपटका नाचवला. बघता बघता दूर, गंगा-यमुनेपार नैनिताल आणि अलमोड्यांच्या रानात मराठ्यांची बेदरकार घोडी घुसली.

11 एप्रिल 1758 हा मराठ्यांच्या इतिहासातील एक महन्मंगल शुभदिन आहे. आजची पाकिस्तानची राजधानी असलेल्या लाहोर शहरात मराठ्यांची एक लाख फौज घुसली. ऐन चैत्रमासात पेशवे आणि होळकरांच्या फौजांनी लाहोरात विजयाची दसरा-दिवाळी साजरी केली. त्याचदरम्यान मराठ्यांनी अफगाण अहमदशहा अब्दालीला ठणकावून सांगितले, "इकडे पंजाबात कुठे घुसू पाहता? तुमची सीमा सिंधू नदीच्या पल्याड आहे.' याच प्राणतत्त्वासाठी एक लाख मराठा पानिपताच्या महासंग्रामात पावन झाला. 1784 मध्ये महादजी शिंद्यांनी दिल्ली काबीज केली. 1784 पासून ते 1803 पर्यंत म्हणजे सलग एकोणीस वर्षे दिल्लीच्या लाल किल्ल्यावर मराठ्यांचा भगवा झेंडा मोठ्या डौलाने फडकत राहिला होता. त्यानंतर राजकीय यशाच्या इतक्‍या उत्तुंग उंचीपर्यंत मराठे कधीही पोचू शकलेले नाहीत.

तिसऱ्या खंडात आठ मूळ साधनग्रंथांचा अनुवाद करून सेतू माधवरावांनी आमच्या इतिहासावर मोठे उपकार केले आहेत. ईश्‍वरदास नागर हा औरंगजेब दरबारी आठ वर्षे कारकुनी करत होता. त्याने लिहिलेला "फत्तुहाते आलमगिरी' हा पारसी ग्रंथ, तसेच "खुतुते शिवाजी' या लंडनच्या एशियाटिक सोसायटीतील मूळ फारसी हस्तलिखिताचे भाषांतर पगडींनी मराठीत आणले आहे. औरंगजेबाने जेव्हा समस्त हिंदू धर्मीयांवर जीझिया कर बसवला तेव्हा शिवाजीराजांनी त्याला लिहिलेल्या सडेतोड पत्राचा या ग्रंथात समावेश आहे. दक्षिणेच्या मोहिमेवर असताना मिर्झाराजा जयसिंगाने आपल्या धन्याला औरंगजेबाला लिहिलेली महत्त्वपूर्ण पत्रे या खंडात आहेतच. शिवाय औरंगजेबाच्या सोबत दक्षिणेत मोहिमेवर असलेल्या खाफीखानाने जो ग्रंथ लिहिला आहे तोही लक्षणीय आहे. त्यात संभाजीराजे आणि ताराबाईंच्या कालखंडाचे दर्शन घडते. खाफीखानाने आपल्या ग्रंथात मराठ्यांच्या नावे इरसाल शिव्या मोजल्या आहेत. मात्र त्या शिव्यांच्या पोटातूनही मराठ्यांच्या अजोड पराक्रमाबद्दल त्याने नकळत गायिलेल्या शाब्बासकीच्या ओव्याही त्याला लपवता आलेल्या नाहीत. मोगलांच्या दीर्घकाळ सेवेत असणाऱ्या भीमसेन सक्‍सेना याने "तारीखे दिल्कुशा' नावाचा ग्रंथ लिहिला आहे. आपल्या औरंगाबादेच्या मुक्कामात त्याने छत्रपती शिवरायांना प्रत्यक्ष पाहिले होते. बहाद्दूर गडावर संभाजीराजांची बेछूट निर्भर्त्सना करणारी जी दुर्दैवी धिंड निघाली होती, त्या घटनेचाही तो प्रत्यक्ष साक्षीदार होता. कैलास पर्वतासारख्या उंच असणाऱ्या रायगडाच्या शंभुराजाचे ते अनन्वित हाल पाहून मोगली इतिहासकारांच्या पोटातसुद्धा कसे ढवळून आले होत,ह्हिी वर्णने मुळातूनच वाचायला हवीत.

या खंडात मोगल दरबारातील अस्सल बातमीपत्रांचा, तसेच औरंगजेबाच्या अनेक आज्ञापत्रांचा (ऑफिशियल ऑर्डर्स) समावेश आहेच. शिवाय साकी मुस्तैदखानाचा "मासिरे आलमगिरी' हा ग्रंथ म्हणजे तत्कालीन दक्षिणेची आबोहवा रेखाटणारे उत्तम लेखन आहे. दिल्लीकर औरंगजेब बादशहाला दक्षिणेतल्या निसर्गानेही कसे भंडावून सोडले होते! विशाळगड, मलकापूर भागात पडलेला प्रचंड पाऊस, त्याने औरंगजेब पातशहाची उडवलेली दाणादाण... त्या प्रचंड पर्जन्यधारेत बादशहाची फौज आणि तंबू- सामान भिजून लिबलिबीत झाले होते. औरंगजेबाच्या परिवाराला पावसात कसाबसा उभे राहण्यापुरता आडोसा मिळाला होता. चिखल इतका भयंकर होता, की मोठाले हत्ती त्यामध्ये गाढवाप्रमाणे रुतून पडले होते. बेलगाम सुटलेल्या वारूसारखा धो-धो पाऊस वाहत होता. राजगड परिसराचे सुंदर वर्णन करताना हे मोगली इतिहासकार लिहितात, की इकडची राने निबिड आणि दिुरास्पद. इकडच्या डोंगरांच्या, दऱ्याखोऱ्यांतून आणि घनघोर अरण्यातून वाऱ्याशिवाय दुसरे काही फिरवू शकत नाही. इथल्या गिरिकंदरात फक्त पर्जन्यालाच वाट मिळू शकते.

मराठ्यांच्या इतिहासातील अनेक रहस्यमय घटनांचा पगडी साक्षेपी मागोवा घेतात. आग्र्याला औरंगजेबाच्या हातावर तुरी देऊन शिवराय सटकले; पण त्यांच्या परतीचा मार्ग कोणता होता? वाराणसीहून बुंदेलखंडाजवळच्या बघेलखंडातून म्हणजेच आजच्या रिवा जिल्ह्याच्या परिसरातून ते दक्षिणेत आले असावेत, असे पगडी अनुमान काढतात. शिवरायांचे जन्मस्थळ म्हणजे शिवनेरी. आमच्या जीवनात स्वातंत्र्याची पहाट आणणारे शिवाजीराजे इथे जन्मले खरे; पण शिवकाळात ही पवित्र भूमी दुर्दैवाने कायमच परक्‍यांच्या ताब्यात होती. ती 1757 मध्ये खूप उशिरा मराठ्यांच्या ताब्यात आली. संभाजी राजांच्या द्वितीय पत्नी दुर्गादेवी या पुढे हयातभर औरंगजेबाच्या कैदेत होत्या. त्या रुस्तुमराव जाधवांच्या कन्या असल्याचे अनुमान पगडी काढतात. रियासतकारांनी चुकीने येसूबाईंनाच औरंगजेबाच्या छावणीत नेले आहे आणि पुढे पुरुषी वेष परिधान करून त्यांची सुटकाही घडवली आहे. पण ते पूर्ण असत्य आहे. ताराबाईकालीन कागदपत्रांत अरजोजी यादवाचे स्पष्ट पत्र आहे. औरंगजेबाच्या तळावर आपण मातुःश्री दुर्गादेवींना भेटल्याचा त्यात स्पष्ट उल्लेख आहे. शिवकाळात उदगीर, परांडा यासारखी नगरे कशी होती; रामशेजचा किल्ला, चंद्रपूर आणि बागलाणाचा निसर्गरम्य प्रदेश, अशा अनेक ठाण्यांचा आणि ठिकाणांचा पगडी अनेक स्वतंत्र लेख लिहून विस्तृत वेध घेतात. एकूणच, पगडी वाङ्‌मयाचा दुसरा आणि तिसरा खंड प्रत्येक मराठी माणसाने ज्ञानेश्‍वरी आणि तुकारामगाथेच्या बरोबरीने देव्हाऱ्यावर ठेवावेत, पुनःपुन्हा वाचावेत, अशा मोलाचे आहेत.

मराठवाड्याची माती, रामदासांचे नेमके योगदान, स्वातंत्र्यपूर्व काळातील मराठवाड्यातील क्रांतिकारकांची बंडे, उठाव यांचा लेखाजोखाही त्यांनी उत्तम रीतीने मांडला आहे. स्वतः जिल्हाधिकारी या नात्याने काम केलेल्या औरंगाबाद शहरावर "मराठवाड्याची मनोरमा' नावाचा सुंदर लेखही लिहिला आहे. एकूणच पगडीसाहेबांचे सर्वच खंड प्रेरक आणि दीपस्तंभासारखे मार्गदर्शक आहेत. काही वर्षांपूर्वी पगडीसाहेबांनी "लोकराज्य'च्या अंकात संभाजीराजांवर एक छोटेखानी पण उत्तम लेख लिहिला होता. तो वाचून तेव्हाच संभाजी कादंबरीचे बीजारोपण माझ्या मनात झाले होते, ही वस्तुस्थिती आहे. अर्थात लेखनाचा विस्तार पुढे बऱ्याच कालांतराने झाला.

अशा तपस्वी संशोधकास इतिहासप्रेमी आणि राष्ट्राभिमानी खंद्या साहित्यिकास भेटायचा मी दोन-तीन वेळा प्रयत्न केला होता. दुर्दैवाने थोडक्‍यात चुकामुकीचेच प्रसंग घडले. मात्र सुदैवाने मी माझ्या विद्यार्थिदशेत पगडीसाहेबांची मराठ्यांच्या इतिहासावरची काही व्याख्याने ऐकलेली आहेत. साधी, सोपी, मधाळ आणि गोष्टीवेल्हाळ अशी त्यांची चित्रमय शैली. ते सहज श्रोत्यांना मंत्रमुग्ध करून सोडायचे. त्यांची शरीरयष्टीही एखाद्या पुराणपुरुषासारखी धट्टीकट्टी होती. त्यामुळे त्यांचे व्याख्यान ऐकताना शिवकाळातला शिवरायांचा एखादा सहकारीच काळाच्या पोटातून पुढे चालून आला आहे, आपल्या मराठमातीची महती गातो आहे, असा रसिक श्रोत्यांना भास व्हायचा.

अखंड संशोधन आणि सातत्यपूर्ण लेखन हा जणू सेतू माधवरावांचा श्‍वास आणि उच्छ्वास होता. "बचेंगे तो और भी लिखेंगे' या बाण्याने वयाच्या पंचाऐंशीव्या वर्षापर्यंत त्यांचा भाग्यदायी हात अखंड लिहिता राहिला. शेवटी आपल्या शरीरातील श्‍वासाबरोबरच त्यांनी लेखणी बाजूला ठेवली. पगडीसाहेब आपल्या इष्टमित्रांना अभिमानाने सांगत असत, ""मरेंगे हम किताबोंपर, वरक होंगे कफन अपना.'' (आम्ही ग्रंथासाठी आमच्या प्राणांचे मोल देऊ, पुस्तकांची पाने म्हणजेच आमचे कफन.) सेतू माधवराव हे निष्कलंक चारित्र्याचे, साध्या राहणीचे आणि प्रेमळ स्वभावाचे सद्‌गृहस्थ होते. हा भला गृहस्थ मायमराठीचा निस्सीम भक्त होता. अष्टखंडांच्या प्रकाशनावेळी त्यांचे चिरंजीव अरुणकुमार यांनी आपल्या पित्याची एक वेधक आठवण सांगितली. साठ-पासष्ट वर्षांपूर्वी पगडी हैदराबाद संस्थानात नोकरी करायचे. दूर कचेरीत सायकलरिक्षाने जायचे. तेव्हा पगार आजच्यासारखे भरघोस नव्हते. पंचवीस तारखेला चिरंजीव अरुण यांनी सायन्स विषयासाठी वडिलांकडे काही रसायने मागितली. मातुःश्रींकडूनही वशिला लावला. सेतू माधवरावांनी परिस्थिती नसतानाही मुलाचा हट्ट पुरवला. पण तेवढ्या पैशाची बचत करण्यासाठी पुढे आठवडाभर ते दूरवरचे अंतर तुडवत आपल्या कार्यालयात पायी चालत जात होते.

हैदराबादेतील मराठीप्रेमी मंडळी मोठ्या कष्टाने मराठी साहित्य परिषद चालवीत आहेत. मध्ये तेलगू देसमच्या वावटळीत या परिषदेच्या अस्तित्वावरच गंडांतर आले होते. तरी चिकाटीने त्यांनी मराठीच्या संवर्धनाचे व संगोपनाचे काम नेटाने चालवले आहे. सेतू माधवरावांच्या जन्मशताब्दीच्या निमित्ताने त्यांनी आपसांत पैसे जमा करून, पदरमोड करून, कर्जे उभारून सुमारे चाळीस लाख रुपयांचा खर्च केला. लाटकरांकडून उत्तम छपाई करून घेतली. या अष्टखंडाच्या प्रकाशनाला माजी मुख्यमंत्री अशोक चव्हाण उपस्थित होते. त्यांनी दहा लाखांचा चेक महाराष्ट्र शासनामार्फत दिला आणि आणखी दहा लाख द्यावयाचे जाहीर केले; मात्र ते मुख्यमंत्रिपदावरून दूर झाले आणि जाहीर केलेले धन संस्थेला आतापर्यंत पोचलेले नाही. त्याचप्रमाणे मराठी वाचकांनी व अन्य संस्थांनीही या प्रकल्पाकडे दुर्दैवाने दुर्लक्ष केले आहे. आज दूरवाहिन्यांपासून ते प्रत्येक गावातील मंडळांपर्यंत दर आठवड्याला कोणाला तरी "महाराष्ट्राचा गौरव' आणि "महाराष्ट्राची शान' ठरवण्याची बालिशगिरी सुरू आहे. टी.आर.पी.च्या फंदासाठी चालविलेल्या छंदामध्ये सेतू माधवरावांसारखे महाराष्ट्राचे खरेखुरे गौरव बाजूलाच राहतात. मराठीइतकेच सेतू माधवांचे कानडीवरही प्रभुत्व होते. त्यांनी आपला शब्दसंसार कानडीत थाटला असता तर? अन्‌ इतके प्रचंड मूलगामी लेखन तिकडे केले असते तर? आजवर म्हैसूर आणि बंगळुरातून त्यांच्या हत्तीवरून कित्येकदा मिरवणुका निघाल्या असत्या! या अमूल्य अशा आठ खंडांची किंमत दहा हजार रुपये आहे. या मातीतून उद्या खऱ्याखुऱ्या मूर्ती घडवायच्या असतील तर असे स्फूर्तिदायी वाङ्‌मय प्रत्येक अभिमानी मराठी माणसाच्या घरात असायलाच हवे. मी स्वतः हे खंड खरेदी केलेले आहेत. महाराष्ट्रातील प्रत्येक वाङ्‌मयप्रेमी आणि इतिहासप्रेमी वाचकांनी, तसेच प्रत्येक महाविद्यालय, शाळा व संस्थांनी ते खरेदी करणे हे आपले कर्तव्यच मानायला हवे.

संपर्कासाठी पत्ता पुढीलप्रमाणे आहे ः डॉ. विद्या देवधर, कार्यवाह, मराठी साहित्य परिषद (आं. प्र.), इसामिया बाजार, हैदराबाद 500 027. फोन ः 040 - 24657063 शिवाय वहरपरपक्षरूर्ज्ञीश्रज्ञरीपळ5ऽसारळश्र.लो या अमूल्य अष्टखंडाच्या निर्मितीच्या संपादनाची कामगिरी पार पाडल्याबद्दल डॉ. डी. बी. देगलूरकर, प्रा. द. पं. जोशी, डॉ. उषा जोशी, डॉ. विद्या देवधर, प्रा. धनंजय कुलकर्णी, डॉ. राजा दीक्षित, प्रा. निशिकांत ठकार आणि प्रा. अब्दुस सत्तार दळवी ही मंडळी अभिनंदनास पात्र आहेत. छत्रपती शिवरायांच्या कार्याचे नेमके आकलन, मराठ्यांचे औरंगजेबाविरुद्धचे स्वातंत्र्ययुद्ध, पानिपतावरचा महापराक्रम, अठराव्या शतकात मराठ्यांनी हिंदुस्थानभर नाचवलेला जरीपटका, तंजावरचे आमच्या इतिहासातील सांस्कृतिक योगदान, आंध्रातील काकतिय राजे, इक्‍बाल, मीर, दागसारखे उर्दू महाकवी, फिरदोशीसारखे फारसी महाकवी, कोलामी आणि गोंडी भाषेचे व्याकरण, सूफी संप्रदाय अशा इतिहास, वाङ्‌मय आणि भाषांच्या शाखा-उपशाखांचा वेध घ्यायचा असेल तर सेतू माधवरावांच्या या अतुलनीय शब्दसेतूला टाळून पुढे जाता येणार नाही.

भारताचे राष्ट्रपती डॉ. बाबू राजेंद्रप्रसाद खुलताबादच्या भेटीवर आले होते. तेव्हा त्यांना सेतू माधवराव आपल्या अस्खलित उर्दूमध्ये एक तासभर सूफी संप्रदायाची महत्ता ऐकवत होते. त्यांच्या ज्ञानाने भारावून गेलेल्या राजेंद्रबाबूंनी "द मोस्ट लर्नेड मॅन' अशा गौरवी शब्दांत सेतू माधवांची पाठ थोपटली होती. "शहानामा' या फारसी महाकाव्याचे इथे सेतू माधवांनी भाषांतर केले आहे. त्या महाकाव्याचा कर्ता फिर्दोसिनी लिहितो, की "आज उभे असलेले हे उत्तुंग राजवाडे एक दिवस उन्हाच्या झळांनी करपून जातील, पावसाने नष्ट पावतील; पण मी निर्मिलेला काव्यप्रासाद पावसाच्या प्रपातातून आणि तुफानी वादळाच्या तडाख्यातूनही सुरक्षित राहतील.' खऱ्या संशोधनाची आणि वाङ्‌मयाची महता अशीच अमूल्य आणि अमर असते. आज रुपयाचे झालेले अवमूल्यन, मित्रांसोबत बऱ्यापैकी हॉटेलात घेतलेली भोजने यांच्या मानाने दहा हजार रुपयांची किंमत ती काय! मात्र आमच्या इतिहासाचा, साहित्य आणि संस्कृतीचा पगडींनी महाराष्ट्राला दिलेला हा अनमोल ठेवा प्रत्येकाने स्वतःजवळ ठेवायलाच हवा, असा बावनकशी आहे. त्यात फिर्दोसिनीने कथन केलेल्या मांगल्याचाही निश्‍चित सूर आहे.

Travelling unlimited in the BEST' s non-AC buses using daily passes has got costlier.

BEST does away with Rs. 25-pass


Travelling unlimited in the BEST' s non-AC buses using daily passes has got costlier.
The BEST discontinued issuing passes worth Rs25 from November 1. Commuters will now have to pay Rs40 if they want to travel longer distances and also carry identity cards issued by the BEST Undertaking by paying an additional amount.
The BEST administration said the reason to discontinue the Rs25 passes was that the daily unlimited passes were being misused, leading to heavy financial losses.
Corporators from the opposition parties who are part of the BEST committee condemned the move.
"The identity card concept was implemented on daily bus passes to curb misuse. In spite of introducing ID cards, the administration is going ahead with its decision despite the opposition," said Ravi Raja, senior Congress corporator.
BEST general manager Om Prakash Gupta defended the move saying it was an unavoidable decision. "The issue was discussed and only then a decision was taken. Financial losses and misuse were the two most serious reasons for us to discontinue issuing the pass," he said.

Prevent illegal slaughter: HC l Precautionary measures before Bakri-Eid

Prevent illegal slaughter: HC

Precautionary measures before Bakri-Eid

The Bombay High court on Friday directed the Mumbai Police Commissioner to inform the police stations and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), to ensure that there is no illegal slaughtering of animals in the city during Bakri-Eid, scheduled to be on Monday.
The vacation bench of Justices Roshan Dalvi and A Sayyed directed Bhartiya Gauvansh Rakshan Samvardhan Parishad, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), to approach the police commissioner and the BMC to apprise them of the state's two circulars issued in October banning illegal slaughtering.
As per the circular of October 20, issued by the home department, the police commissioner and the district collector, were asked to ensure that there is no illegal slaughtering in their jurisdiction and senior police inspectors were instructed to provide necessary protection to the BMC officials.
According to the circular of October 13, the authorities have to appoint an experienced officer at the abattoirs, who will check the animals before giving them a certificate and ensure that no ill or below-age animal is allowed to be slaughtered.
According to the petitioners in areas like Agripada and Nagpada, a large number of live stock has been brought for slaughter in the by-lanes during Eid. The petitioners had approached the concerned police stations but got no positive response. They had moved the Mazgaon metropolitan court, which had ordered the police to seize and seal all the illegal animals in the court's jurisdiction.
However, since the order was for a limited area the NGO had moved the high court for implementation of the circular throughout the city. The bench thus in their orders informed the NGO to move the police commissioner and the BMC, informing about the state governments circular and comply with them

Kerala festival to come alive at Thane Elephant fest a bridge to facilitate cultural exchange between Maharashtra and Kerala

Kerala festival to come alive at Thane

Elephant fest a bridge to facilitate cultural exchange between Maharashtra and Kerala

Though the Thrissur Pooram, to held in Dombivli, will 500 musicians and other artists and five elephants from Kerala, it won't have the elephants that are an important part of the festival

One of Kerala's most spectacular festivals, the Thrissur Pooram, will be replicated next month in the city. But since elephants that are an important part of the festivals cannot be brought to Mumbai, the event will be held in Dombivli, Thane.
The event will be held on November 11, 12 and 13.
The event in Thrissur involves over 10 temples, hundreds of musicians and over 50 bedecked elephants. The elaborate head ornaments and colourful parasols on the elephants are among the festival's features. The organisers of the local event are bringing 500 musicians and other artists and five elephants from Kerala.
The original idea was to organise the festival in the city but the injunction against bringing elephants to Mumbai meant that they had to settle for Thane.
Bhupesh Babu of Mumbai Pooram Foundation said the event will showcase the culture of Kerala and Maharashtra. Young people will be able to hear traditional music like Panchavadhyam, Melam, Kudamaattam and 35 other traditional art forms of Kerala.
A similar festival was organised in 2004 but it failed to take off as an annual event.
"We lost a lot of money and could not organise it next year. This time we are better prepared and organised," said Babu.
Babu said the event will be a bridge to facilitate cultural exchange between Maharashtra and Kerala. Besides art forms from Kerala, the festival will display cultural traditions of god's own country. A food festival, fireworks and exhibitions will be part of the event.

Looking for a nanny? Recruitment agencies may fleece you for nothing

Looking for a nanny? Recruitment agencies may fleece you for nothing

When she decided to get back to work after her maternity leave, Afsari Karol had not expected that finding a nanny for her son would be an uphill task. Having heard horror stories about domestic help stealing or murdering employers, the Saki Naka resident approached a registered agency in Mulund that promised a background check and an assurance that they would find a replacement if the maid quit within a year.
"The agency made tall claims about their services. I realised that they were frauds as soon as I paid a commission of Rs 5,000. Several weeks and numerous phone calls later, they sent me someone who left within a month. Now, six months, later I still am waiting for a replacement," said Karol, who works as a quality control officer at a pharmaceutical company in Vikhroli.
For an increasing number of working parents with young children and no support network in the city, finding reliable domestic help is only getting harder. There is also a risk of being conned by fraudulent agencies and individuals.
"I thought approaching a manpower consultancy would be a better idea than hiring a maid through word-of-mouth. But I was wrong," lamented Sion resident Yusuf Munshi, who contacted three different agencies across the city but was duped every time.
"One of the agencies said the maids don't want to work for people of a certain community while another kept me on hold for nearly a year, after which they expected me to pay more money if I wanted to continue with their non-existent services," complained the BPO employee, who has a young daughter, a working wife and an ailing mother at home. In the end, none of the agencies could find a maid for Munshi and they refused to refund the money he had paid as commission.
Agencies that claim to provide full-time housemaids, nannies or nurses have mushroomed across Mumbai in the last few years. They demand anything between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 for their services that include recruiting, training, counselling and doing background checks on the domestic help. Disgruntled customers all over the city reveal that though the agencies promise several things, none of them fulfil their obligations. Some are even known to change telephone numbers and shut shop after collecting commission from unsuspecting clients.
"It's not easy finding and recruiting unskilled labour. There are costs of running an office. Sometimes, we end up not delivering what we promise. But we try our best to match the domestic help with the requirements of the employer," admitted Kinnari Shah, an executive of a Kandivali-based agency.

Walkway to address Shirdi Saibaba devotees' woes Travelator, attached to temple road, to allow 25,000 people to get darshan at a time

Walkway to address Sai devotees' woes

Travelator, attached to temple road, to allow 25,000 people to get darshan at a time



In order to ferry devotees to the Sai Baba shrine at the Shirdi temple with ease, the Shri Sai Sansthan Trust (SSST) has decided to install a moving walkway or travelator worth Rs60 crore. The walkway is slated to be ready for use in a year's time.
Renowned architect Hafeez Contractor has prepared the design for the moving walkway, which is generally used at airports.
The proposed travelator will be attached to the temple road and will allow 25,000 devotees at one time to stand on the automated walkway and take darshan. Devotees can choose between either using the walkway or walk to the shrine.
During festival season, the crowd of devotees arriving at the shrine often becomes unmanageable, leading to chaos. To resolve this issue, the authorities were forced to install a temporary shed for devotees. Devotees breaching the queue is a matter taken quite seriously. "The travelator will help lower the chances of a stampede and rescue operations will be carried out much faster in case of a fire. The physically-challenged will find this to be a major relief since they always struggle for a darshan on the crowded premises. We will able to provide all the basic amenities, such as water and toilets," said Contractor, adding that the proposal is still in the primary stage.
The Sai Baba temple in Shirdi is the second richest temple in India. Over 1 lakh devotees visit the Sai shrine every day. On holidays and during the weekends, this number soars up to five lakh and on festivals, it reaches almost eight lakh. Most of the devotees are from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The shrine has been attracting devotees from abroad as well.
Jayant Sasane, chairman, SSST, said, "On almost 100 days of the entire year, people have to wait in the queue for six to eight hours for a darshan of the deity. Devotees include the physically-challenged, children and senior citizens, pregnant women and the ailing. For them it's a very difficult to stand in the queue for a long time. The proposed travelator will resolve this issue."