Great orators vanish

Great orators vanish

CAMIL PARKHE
Sunday, July 11, 2010 AT 12:00 AM (IST)
Tags: Shivajirao Bhosale, Orator
Newspapers in Maharashtra prominently carried last week the news of Shivajirao Bhosale's death. Bhosale was a former vice-chancellor, writer and college principal for several years. But it was the orator in him that was the highlight of all the news stories, obits and editorials. Professionals like teachers, lawyers and preachers have to constantly put their oratorical skills to test and only some of them stand out as good orators. As a reporter in Aurangabad, I had covered Bhosale's week-long lecture series on
"Dnyaneshwari." The innumerable members of the audience were left spellbound each day with his oratorical skills.
Acharya Atre was undoubtedly the greatest orator among the towering personalities who led the Samyutka Maharashtra movement in the 1950s. After Atre, humorist P.L. Deshpande mesmerised the Marathi-speaking audience. I had attended a three-day lecture series delivered by this popular writer in Goa. On the first day, I had managed to secure a seat reserved for journalists in the packed hall and experienced his power of oratory. The next day, I had to hear him standing in the crowded passage that led to the rows of seats in the hall. On the last day, the hall was packed half an hour before the speech. I could only hear P.L., not see him.
Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare is among the veteran orators Maharashtra has produced. There were many other personalities whose lectures drew thousands of people in various cities. Keertankar Govindswami Aphale, editor Madhav Gadkari, writers Ram Shewalkar and Y.D. Phadke are some of persons whose oratory skill impressed masses.
As I went through the obits on Shivajirao Bhosale, I wondered who are the gen-next orators who can step into his shoes. There are scores of orators from various fields. But none can draw people in as large numbers as Atre, P.L., Bhosale or Purandare did. Of course, this is no reflection on their oratorical skills but an outcome of the changing era. In the present age of 24-hour news channels, live and reality shows, and entertainment, how many people would visit a hall and listen to a speaker for over two hours? And how can an orator hone his oratory skill without a constant feedback from the audiences? The future may bring in many popular orators but they are unlikely to reach the stature of Purandare, Bhosale, P.L. Deshapande and Atre. Titans in the field of oratory with a large following may well be a thing of the past.

http://72.78.249.126/SakaalTimesBeta/20100711/5079870340311480905.htm

Nehru the gardener was my inspiration

Nehru the gardener was my inspiration
CAMIL PARKHE
Thursday, June 24, 2010 AT 12:00 AM (IST)
Tags: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Gardening
When Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was jailed in Ahmednagar Fort during the Quit India movement, he utilised the prison term to pen his magnum opus ‘Discovery of India’ and to create a rose garden at the historic fort of Chand Bibi. Nehru had no idea as to how long the British rulers would keep him in that prison. But that did not deter him from growing a rose garden there - an act that has inspired me immensely in the past few years.
As a student in Goa, I had developed a garden on an open space near the staircase leading to our hostel. But at that time, I had not known about Nehru’s experiments in the garden.
After marriage, I moved from Deccan Gymkhana to Chinchwad. The large open area in front of our building beckoned me whenever I stood in balcony of our third floor flat. One July morning, I started cleaning the area near our housing society’s water tank. The place had vegetation tall enough to hide buffaloes which roamed there. Next week, I bought a pickaxe and other gardening equipments.
It was then that my wife asked me what I was upto. She could not imagine me cleaning up that dirty place and planning a garden there, especially when the land was not even ours. It was then that Pandit Nehru came to my rescue. “Nehru, a towering leader of his time, made a rose garden even in a prison. So what’s wrong if I develop a garden near our society’s building?” I asked her.
The Nehru example did the trick. Thereafter my wife has never objected to my gardening. Working in a garden which was not even ours was not easy. I was aware of several pairs of eyes watching me scornfully from nearby flats as I cleaned weeds, watered the plants and drove away buffaloes. It was the image of Nehru working in the prison that helped me to carry on. Soon, I developed a garden on that land with many flower plants and some tall trees.
Recently, we shifted to a new building nearby in the same colony. Here, too, the large open space near the building beckoned me. This time, there was no hesitation on my part. I have been developing a garden on this no man’s land, nurturing the saplings with my head held high - thanks to Pandit Nehru !

Football on home turf

Football on home turf


Sakal Times

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20100617/4855837917579914042.htm

CAMIL PARKHE



Thursday, June 17, 2010 AT 04:54 AM (IST)

Tags: Football, television, sport, opinion

I was at home in the evening on my weekly off. My daughter, now in the crucial 10th standard, was also at home as her tuition teacher had given her a holiday. After long, animated chats with friends in the building, she returned and exclaimed, “What’re you doing? The entire world is going crazy over World Cup football and you haven’t switched on the TV?” Soon we were glued to the television set, watching with excitement the moves by South African and Mexican players.

I am no sports buff. I don’t understand the technical terms, rules and nuances of various sports. The other day, a junior colleague stared at me in sheer disbelief when I asked him whether a leading cricket star was a lefthander. But when world cup cricket matches or any prestigious cricket tournaments are on, the cricket fever grips me too. I find myself joining the crowds in shouting, advising some top players how they could have played the shot better and telling anybody ready to listen what the captain should do at that particular stage of the match, without really knowing anything about the game.

Now the father-daughter duo was absorbed in the football match. Suddenly I found myself on home turf. After ages, I remembered how passionately I had played football during my college days in Goa. I was a much-sought goalie when the two captains would begin selecting teams.

As the players intercepted the ball, dribbled it past a couple of rival players, passed it on or tried to head it; as they ran into the rival player rather than the ball, kicked some player with adroitness calculated to put the referee into two minds, I provided a running commentary for the benefit of my daughter. We spent the next hour enjoying the match with much excitement. It was intermingled with my expert comments, which left my daughter much impressed. To me it was a throwback to my school and college days full of fun and joyous abandonment. As I recounted those small details to my daughter, we suddenly developed a new bond. After a while, my wife returned home, interrupting her gossip session with the neighbours to find out what had excited us so much.

She too was hooked on to the game. World Cup football matches have now eliminated the unending family wrangling over the control of the TV remote. The three of us savour a common television programme, besides the CID and some popular serials.

Let West Bengal have their Didi's rule

Let West Bengal have their Didi's rule

CAMIL PARKHE
Sunday, June 06, 2010 AT 12:00 AM (IST)
Tags: West Bengal civic polls, Mamata Banerjee

http://sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20100606/4845676999552011798.htm

Earlier this week, the news channels started flashing the reports of the West Bengal civic polls and soon I grew anxious about the poll outcome. Having a keen interest in political developments, I invariably find myself glued to news channels during the counting of votes of elections to state assemblies or Lok Sabha. This time, initially I was a neutral observer and did not owe my loyalty either to firebrand Mamata Banerjee or the world's longest surviving democratically elected Left Front government.
But as the days passed, I found the pendulum of my loyalty swinging violently between the two warring groups. On Tuesday, the total picture finally emerged with Mamata didi humbling the Left Front in sizable number of civic bodies. Now the question is: Will Mamata realise her ambition of occupying the throne in the Writers' Building?
I personally have been an admirer of the Left Front government and its leader Jyoti Basu for their success in winning the hearts of the masses in the border state for three decades -- not an ordinary feat when one sees the instability in Jharkhand or Goa. Mamata Banerjee's eccentric nature, her tantrums as a minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government and now as railway minister in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government made me feel that it would be in the interests of the West Bengal public to keep the state in the trusted and well-tested safe hands of the Leftists. As the updates on the civic poll verdict came pouring in, a colleague said in a lighter vein, let Mamata rule West Bengal, the country can then have a new railway minister who can look beyond the interests of a single state.
Apparently, the image of Mamata Banerjee among the electorate of West Bengal is different than her image in the minds of people in rest of the country. Didi of course will be least bothered about what people outside West Bengal think of her as long as her tantrums in New Delhi are applauded by voters in her home state. Do we not see a similar phenomenon in the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadavs and Raj Thackerays? And so I guess we should keep our prejudices to ourselves and concede that the voters in West Bengal are the best judges to decide which political option suits them the most. If they want Mamata, so be it.

Review of Book on Fr Jacquier, MSFS

Faith and humanity

Sakaal Times
Monday, May 17, 2010 AT 12:00 AM (IST)
Tags: Literature, book, Camil Parkhe,  missionary

Journalist Camil Parkhe has retraced the journey of Fr Gurien Jacquier — a French missionary, who arrived over a century ago in Ghogargaon, Auranagabad, to sow the first seeds of Christianity there in the book Fr Gurien Jacquier of Ghogargaon. The revered missionary made that place his home and did his best to uplift the downtrodden in the region.
Parkhe offers anecdotes about the missionary’s early life and how his contemporaries portrayed him. There are also chapters on missionaries, like Fr Forel and Archbishop Doering. Along with some rare photographs of the missionaries and places, the book tells us how Fr Jacquier dealt with the prevalent social malaises in Marathwada — the exploitation of the tamasha artistes, and the humiliation of the dalits. In all, it is an interesting book about faith, humanity and a noble soul.

Fr Gurien Jacquier of Ghogargaon
By: Camil Parkhe
Publisher: SFS Publications, Bangalore, 2009
Pages: 144

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20100517/4974060955087910067.htm

Marathi monthly 'Niropya' enters 100th year

Marathi monthly Niropya enters 100th year


Times of India

Camil Parkhe, TNN, Dec 26, 2002, 10.37pm IST

http://maillogout.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Marathi-monthly-Niropya-enters-100th-year/articleshow/32495109.cms

PUNE: Niropya, a Marathi monthly launched by a German Jesuit priest in an obscure village in Ahmednagar district in 1903, has today earned a distinct position among Marathi periodicals.

The monthly, presently being published from ‘Snehsadan’ in the city, is among the handful of Marathi periodicals which have reached the century mark. Niropya (Marathi word for messenger) was launched at the Walan-Kendal village in April 1903 by Fr Henry Doering, who later rose to become the vicar apostolic of Hiroshima in Japan and the archbishop of Pune.

The monthly, owned by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), has grown from its initial four-page bulletin form to its present 32-page format. The magazine now boasts of a circulation of 20,000 copies.

Most of its subscribers are its third, fourth or even fifth generation readers — a feat rivalled by few other Marathi periodicals. The history of Marathi journalism begins with the publication of Darpan, a periodical launched by Balshastri Jambhekar in 1832.

Monthly Dnyanodaya, published from Ahmednagar since 1842, is the oldest surviving Marathi periodical, followed by daily Kesari, published from Pune since 1881.

Doering shifted Niropya’s publication to Pune when he was appointed the second bishop of Pune diocese in 1907. During the First World War, the British government declared bishop Doering, a German national, as persona non grata. His monthly was also banned.

The Holy See then shifted Doering as vicar apostolic of Hiroshima in 1921. After the end of hostilities, Doering returned to Pune in 1927. Soon after his return, the archbishop resurrected his baby in 1927 and since then, Niropya is being published without a break.

Doering, who died in 1951, was interred at St Patrick’s Cathedral in the city. The inscriptions on his grave, which highlight his contributions to various fields are, however, silent on the archbishop’s role as the founder editor of Niropya, or his contribution to the history of the Marathi press.

During the last 100 years, the monthly has been published from Sangamner, Shrirampur, Panchgani, Karad, Aajra and Nasik, based on postings of its Jesuit priest-editors.

“Niropya has played an important role in creating social awareness among Catholics”, says Fr Joe Pithekar, the monthly’s executive editor.

Routine Oct 19 for these ( Missionaries of Charity) nuns

Times of India , Pune


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Routine-Oct-19-for-these-nuns/articleshow/237444.cms


Routine Oct 19 for these nuns

Camil Parkhe, TNN, Oct 17, 2003, 12.56am IST


PUNE: It will be “business as usual” for the local nuns of the Missionaries of Charity (MC) on October 19, when churches in the country and abroad celebrate the beatification of their founder, Mother Teresa.
Beatification is a step prior to the declaration of sainthood. The Pope has chosen October 19 — the day he celebrates the silver jubilee of his own Pontificate — for Mother Teresa’s beatification.

The Catholic church all over the country has arranged many programmes to commemorate the beatification of Mother Teresa on Sunday. But the nuns from the MC’s two city houses will — as always — be busy on that day, attending to their 200-odd sick and dying destitute inmates.

The “Mother Teresa sisters” — as the MC nuns are popularly called — personally look after the needs of the destitute at their homes. A group of eight nuns at the Tadiwala road home attends to the needs of over 120 female destitutes, while six others take care of over 100 male destitutes at the MC’s home in Chinchwad.

A visit to these homes will testify the selfless service offered by these nuns to people belonging to all castes and religions.