| Narendra Deshpande | नरेंद्र प्रभाकर देशपांडे | 14/03/2021 |
Hobbies: Travelling, Fine dining, Reading, Gardening.
Almost everyone know him as Narya only. Soft spoken & शांत स्वभाव – it is in his blood only – He is kind hearted too – Has contributed for the society by way of handsome donations.
It was at his behest we had a wonderful get together of batchmates during 2001. Although he migrated to Australia ( now in US ) long back is still connected & has maintained relations with family & friends in India – keeps on coming to India practically every year.
He relishes food – particularly Indian dishes – खाद्य पदार्थावर ताव कसा मारावा हे त्याच्याकडुन शिकाव – This I have experienced at my place – Sucheta can vouch for it. He is good cook too . We are lucky to have such friend
Totally under control of Koknastha – with effect from 27-12-1987 (देशस्थाला शिस्त 😀)
In my case it is exactly reverse situation, Narendra says माझ्यासारखीच बाटुन आरती देशस्थ झाली आहे. I have to agree with him on this count for my peaceful future 😀😀
By the way आरती his सहचारिणी is हसतमुख व्यक्तीमत्व – a perfect match. God bless you both dear & wishing long & healthy life 🍓🍒 बहुश्रूत मित्राला सलाम
आशुतोष
Narya, Try this Indian pizza, It is good alternative to Dominos or Chicago pizzas आशुतोष
Narya,
Good friend from childhood, lives in Troy Michigan. Spent several years in Melbourne Australia working for GM Holden division. Migrated to USA from Australia around 2013. His wife Arti works in information technology. He has two daughters who both work in the US. Narya is health fanatic and walks 5 miles every day. Girish
Down the memory lane
Always remember him as soft spoken, positive approach, optimistic always happy and spreading happiness around.
He had come to my home in Pune alongwith my Bengali friend Sen and we had coffee.I last met him in Deccan Gymkhana Pune alongwith Shirish, Abhyankar and Tambe.As I remember he wanted all of us to take Ganne ka Ras (juice). However Rajiv Tambe said taking Tea is more romantic than juice.
I had also met him in his room off karve road.We tasted chiwda. He had partner by name Pande.I remember Narendra was interested in subscribing Readers Digest very popular and standard in those days.
Sanjeev Valunjkar
नरेंद्र
तुझ्या साठी ह्या नऱ्या
भावना खऱ्याखुऱ्या…
मेह’न’ती चे तत्व
हास’रें’ व्यक्तिमत्व
‘द्र’व्य तुझे मित्रभाव
सरळ शांत ना घुमाव
शिस्तप्रिय कर्मनिष्ठ
मृदुभाषी कुटुंब-इष्ट
वगैरे… वगैरे… दिनेश Bhrushundi
नरेंद्र
जे काही मिळाले हडसच्या (मित्र)वर्गांत
कदाचित
नक्कीच मिळणार नाही इंद्राच्या स्वर्गात
दिनेश Bhrushundi
नरेन्द्र देशपांडे म्हणजे एक हसर व्यक्तिमत्व.हुशार, मनमिळाऊ कोणताही माणूस समजून घेण्यासाठी शाम आकांतनी म्हटल त्याप्रमाणे त्याला वाचाव लागत सहवासानी पण आपल्याला माणसं कळू शकतात.पण नरेन्द्र मला ख-याअर्थी बराच उशीरा कळला.एकदा तो नागपुरला आला असतांना पहिल्यांदाच आमच्याकडे जेवायला आला होता.तेव्हा त्यानी प्रत्येक पदार्थाला मनापासून दिलेली दाद माझ्या अजूनही लक्षात आहे.तो जातीचा खवय्या आहे व त्याला पदार्थ बनवायला पण आवडतात.इतकी वर्ष अॅास्ट्रेलिया व नंतर आता अमेरिकेत राहिल्यानंतरही he is down to earth person.त्याची नाळ भारताशी घट्ट जुळलेली आहे अहंकार,शिष्टपणा हे तर त्याच्यापासून कित्येक कोस दूरच आहेत.आता त्याची पुरणपोळी ची फर्माइश आहे.तो जेव्हा येईल तेव्हा नक्की करीन.
आरती म्हणजे नरेन्द्रची अर्धांगिनी.एक हसर व दिलदार व्यक्तिमत्व.ती एकटी जरी नागपुरला आली तरी आमच्याकडे नक्की येते.२००१ साली आपल्या बॅचच जे get together झालं होत त्यात सगळ्यांसाठी ती ॲास्ट्रेलियाहून भेटवस्तु घेऊन आली होती.हे सगळ करायला मोठ मन लागत व ते ह्या दोघांकडे पण आहे.
नरेन्द्र व आरती तुमचा दोघांचा एकत्र प्रवास असाच सुखकर होवो व तो पुढील अनेक वर्ष तुमचा आनंद द्विगुणित करो!! सुचेता भालेराव -चितळे
Pamya
Sucheta has passed on baton to you to write on Narendra which u missed b 4 (so also she earlier) but rectified now 🙏
Ashutosh
मित्रांनो तुमचे मेसेजेस वाचुन डोळ्यात पाणी आले, Dinya Girya संजीव आशु आणि सर्व मित्रपरिवार सगळ्यांचे आभार . Our get together in Nagpur VCA and at Sushya’s house in my last trip were the most memorable events of my last trip to India.
Special dhanyawad to Sucheta. Very touching and expressive write up.
Narendra
My inspiration:
My mother’s paternal grandfather- Laxman Ramchandra Kulkarni. He retired as a Sanskrit teacher from Patwardhan High School at the age of 60. Then started Department of Pali and Prakrit languages in Nagpur university and retired again at the age of 85. Started working on PhD after second retirement and was awarded in Aug 1974 when he was 89. This made a news at that time in most of the Nagpur papers although not on front page. Don’t know the exact topic but it jade something to do with ancient kingdom in Nagpur region of a king called Waakaatak. He passed away following a brief illness at 92.
Narendra
Cultures in various continents as I see
If you say jump to your subordinates then this is the reaction you get:
In India- kal jump karenge sir, aaj Somwar hai abhi hafte me aur kaafi din hai.
In Australia: why the fxxx should I jump mate. There is no need. Let’s sit down and have beer. It’s Friday mate.
In Asia (Korea, Thailand, Japan, China, Vietnam Etc): How high?
Germany: it’s not my job. Mr Mueller is the official jumper and for your information he has jumped already before you asking.
In Central Asia: I am already jumping can you not see.
In North America: Do you have proper instructions for jumping? More over we need to do safety review to make sure there are no risks and also let me know if my jump is covered by insurance.😁😁
Narendra
Journey of Nagpur 1959 To 2022:-
I came into this world, like many of you in Nagpur. My first recollection is of our rented house in Gandhinagar when I was little over two years old. It was on a corner block with curved frontage. I distinctly remember a mother pig and her many piglets living behind the house. The house is still there except it now has another floor. We left Nagpur for 3 years 1963 – 66, and came back to newly settled Yashwant Nagar colony. Since then to 1980, the so called formative years were spent in Nagpur. Since then although I visited regularly, my memories are predominantly from that era. So I would like to take stock of what is missing from Nagpur as I knew it.
कावडीने पाणी वितरण – When we moved in Yashwant Nagar, there was no water connection. So water used to be delivery by भोइ. That trade died many decades ago.
लाकडाची वखार – Most of you will remember गरम पाण्याचा बंब which needed कांडी कोळसा किंव्हा लाकडं. Such shops have been wiped out of existence.
उकडलेले बोरं and/or बोरकुट – I went to corporation school in Gandhi Nagar in 3rd and 4th grade. Although I was not allowed to, some of the other kids let us share these treats. The school still stands there. I don’t think today’s kids would have a foggiest idea of what these treats meant to us.
लग्न घर – Weddings typically took place in summer and the relatives came two months before to prepare everything. It used to start with धान्य निवडणे, पापड, कुर्डया बनवणे, रुखवताची सजावट इत्यादि. Such events have now been relegated to history books. Now the family engagement is limited to 1 or 2 days.
बाबला किंव्हा योगेश ठक्कर चा आर्केस्ट्रा – The prestige of सार्वजनिक गणपती was based on whose orchestra played in your मंडळ. I was in Nagpur last year during Ganapati, after 42 year. But there were no movies, no cultural programs and no Babla or Yogesh Takkar equivalent. Again something that only our generation enjoyed.
सळाक खुपसणी – This is another fun game of monsoon season, that has died. Hope it has been captured by Pradeep Sahasrabuddhe in his book.
I am led to believe that कंचे and भोवरे are still alive. Since they can be played in any season, someone needs to confirm.
घरासमोर रस्त्यावर गप्पा – We collected a lot of world wisdom through this process and critically evaluated everyone from Prime Minister to the Drawing Teacher and everything from sanitary system to world economy. Don’t believe this time tested exchange bureau is functioning any longer. Truth be told, last year September when we were in Nagpur, I did indulge in this since a few of my buddies from the colony were visiting and extemporaneously we stood outside the house and chatted.
I am sure there are many more things that have disappeared but still Nagpuri ‘अगत्य, अघळपघळ स्वभाव, मनापासुन स्वागत, आपुलकी are still alive and kicking.
That being said there was something I saw this time that was beyond my ability to digest – girls buying cigarettes and smoking at पानठेला. Upon investigating, I was led to believe that many kids from outside states come to Nagpur for engineering colleges and they the ones for spoiling the culture. Anyway such is life.
I wanted to write this in Marathi but that would have taken long time, then I thought of the old trick of writing on paper and taking picture but that would have upset Girya. So here we are a bit of a खिचडी of Marathi and English. 😁
Naendra
Wow Narya
What a beautiful reminiscences of Golden days in life माणुस लहानपण व भुतकाळात रमतो हे जरी खर असल तरी your write up speaks about your strong bonding with motherland & Nagpur in particular I feel proud of you. Keep on writing. God bless you with long & healthy life
Ashutosh
Narya got full toss and he used his best skill.. to throw the ball outside the stadium. Bravo 👏👏 When Narya is in form, every ball is full toss. – Ashutosh
Narya… I appreciate and agree your views, every generation has its own idols and ideals.
Vishwas
Life Story:
Friends here it is. My life journey after leaving school. This is part 1. Part 2 will come in a few days.
This diagram shows all the education, jobs and countries I lived in. Whoever can decipher will get a certificate. 😎 I assure you Google cannot help here.
Narendra
Here is the second part of the life story I wanted to share.
Coming out of the gates of HHS after11th, I cannot remember what we felt like, but I think I knew that hard work is going to be my best friend. Many of our classmates mentioned in their life story that they narrowly missed certain admissions and opportunities. I am happy to report that I missed many opportunities by miles. So, I don’t have hard feelings about missed opportunities. For example I missed the 1 st rank by miles, missed admission to IIT after 11th by miles, missed admission for PhD to MIT by miles. , . But I did not let that dampen the spirit.
Till I left India in 1986, I always had company of one or more of our classmates. In VRCE Tillya and Dinya kept the company, then at IIT it was Girya, Pamya, Tatya and Arvind. I thought I was done with school mates when I joined Telco only to find that Tatya was going to keep company along with Rajiv Tambe.
Then after the gap of almost 20 years, the draught was broken when Shantanu moved to Melbourne. Finally, in Michigan I have Girya’s company and all of you through WA. Most of what I did after school sums up as 5 x 5: 1. Five degrees 2. Five currencies earning 3. Five different jobs 4. Five relocations across continents 5. Five languages Also, by the way, I don’t feel like I am done yet , at least in theory.
Not sure how many of you remember Marathi textbook for the 7th grade (Saraswat Pathmala, part 3) had a poem called “Yashashri payichi dasi”, which was the very last chapter in the book. It was all about hard work. I used to like that poem very much. So much so that I had ripped those pages out of the book and had kept it with me till recently, during all the
relocations to different countries.
One more thing I kept was “Shuddhalekhanaache Niyam” by Mule guruji. Unfortunately, I lost both of these documents somewhere during move to the US. Any way I still recall many lines of this poem, which ended up acting as motivator during hard times. Reconnecting with the school friends has been a real treat. Particularly interesting to see how we walked on different paths and yet our lives converge to similar reality, went through life with similar struggles and we still share the same values, more or less. Let us continue to bond without judgments but do not fail to pull each other legs since only then we can say “boys will be boys”.
कविता मनापासुन आवडणारे काही असतात , काही कविता जगतात… कवितेला जगवणारा एकच.. अशा नरेन्द्रास..🙏🙏🙏 विश्वास
Story of my forced 24 hours of hunger :-
Over the summer of 1986-87, I was I a shared accommodation with 6 other University students in Melbourne. Other than me all others were locals. They all went home on December 24th in the afternoon. Some of them warned me that I every thing will be closed for the next 48 hours so I needed to make sure to buy some food that afternoon. I kind of ignored the advice thinking surely I can find something. I had some leftovers for dinner. Then I decided to check if there was anything in the house for the next day. I realized I had consumed the last slice of bread and remaining pasta. It then dawned on me that the warning I got was real. It was past 8 pm by this time. Being summer in Australia there was plenty of daylight still…
My one time boss John Lindell used to say “all women are beautiful, some are more so”. 😁
नरेंद्र
Many schools in Michigan started today after summer break. That made me recall how I felt about going back to school. I never felt sad but first few days used to be difficult. I remember the first three days used to be morning school, so it was only half a day of pain. But after that once the routine began, holidays were totally forgotten. Wonder how you guys felt about coming back to school after summer vacation.😊
Narendra
Leave a Reply