Originally written in Marathi, this work was later translated into Hindi also. This
drama is ... Modern Valmiki of India. G. A. Kulkarni-- writer of several offbeat
books.
November 2009
A monthly magazine to promote educational, cultural and business activities amongst Marathi Deshastha Brahmins
*** Contents *** Community Zone Deshastha “Hall Of Fame” Deshastha “Wall Of Fame” Maharashtra Revisited Article Of the Month Masti Ki Pathshaala Masst Graffiti SMS Zone Some Amazing Facts... Free Lance Gadgetry Food Corner
“Deshastha Hall Of Fame” Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare Balwant Moreshwar Purandare (Born July 29, 1922, Pune), popularly known as Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare is a historian, writer and theatre personality from Maharashtra. His works are mostly based on the events related to the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He is mostly known for his popular play, Jaanta Raja.
Babasaheb Purandare has inspired many writers by his style of writings in his books. He dedicated his life in research of History of Shivaji. Many writers have taken his guidance while writing their books on history or forts. Babasaheb Purandare has also very closely studied history of a number of erstwhile royal families, which include, Chhattrapati Bhosale's of Satara and Kolhapur; Sarsenapati Dabhade's, Ghorpade's, Mohite's,Raja Khem Sawant Bhosale of Sawantwadi,Jadhavrao's; Nimbalkar's of Phaltan and Nipani; Peshwa's of Pune and Himmatbahadur Chavan. His Works Shiv Shahir Babasaheb Purandare started writing stories related to the period of Shivaji's reign at a very young age, which were later compiled and published in a book titled Thingya (Sparks). So far, Purandare has written 36 books, which include Raja Shivachattrapati, Maharaj, Purandaryanchi Daulat, Purandayancha Sarkarwada, Purandaryanchi Naubat, Purandaryanchya Burujavarun and Shilanganacha Sona and a book based on the life of Narayan Rao Peshwa. But the most well-known of his works is the drama, Jaanata Raja. This drama of tremendous mass appeal, on the life and character of Chhatrapati Shivaji was published in 1985 and was also first staged in the same year. Since then the drama has been staged over 864 times in 16 districts of Maharashtra, Agra, Delhi, Bhopal, and the United States. Originally written in Marathi, this work was later translated into Hindi also. This drama is performed by over 200 artists. The elephants, camels and horses are also used in the play. Generally the performance of this drama begins around Diwali each year. He received Kalidas Samman for 2007-08 from Madhya Pradesh state government.
Deshastha “Wall Of Fame” Modern Writers and poets Indira Sant, (Born 1914) Poet Shirish Atre-Pai--Writer, poet Raja Badhe --Poet, song writer. G D Madgulkar--poet, writer, Modern Valmiki of India. G. A. Kulkarni-- writer of several offbeat books Anant D. Adawadkar--orator on "Santa-Vangmay" Datta Raghunath Kavthekar --renowned Marathi novelist Pralhad Keshav Atre--famous editor of Maratha newspaper, writer and poet
Maharashtra Revisited Geography Of Maharashtra The word Maharashtra, the land of the Marathi speaking people, appears to be derived from Maharashtri, an old form of Prakrit. Some believe that the word indicates that it was the land of the Mahars and the Rattas, while others consider it to be a corruption of the term 'Maha Kantara' (the Great Forest), a synonym for 'Dandakaranya'. Maharashtra is the third largest state (in area) in India after Rajasthan and Madhya PradeshIt covers an area of 307,713 km2 and is bordered by the states of Madhya Pradesh to the north, Chhattisgarh to the east, Andhra Pradesh to the southeast, Karnataka to the south and Goa to the southwest. The state of Gujarat lies to the northwest, with the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli sandwiched between the borders. The Arabian Sea makes up Maharashtra's west coast. Maharashtra consists of two major relief divisions. The plateau is a part of the Deccan tableland and the Konkan coastal strip abutting on the Arabian Sea.
Land Located in the north centre of Peninsular India, with a command of the Arabian Sea through its port of Mumbai, Maharashtra has a remarkable physical homogeneity, enforced by its underlying geology. The dominant physical trait of the state is its plateau character. Maharashtra is a plateau of plateaux, its western upturned rims rising to form the Sahyadri Range and its slopes gently descending towards the east and southeast. The major rivers and their master tributaries have carved the plateaux into alternating broad-river valleys and intervening higher lever interfluves, such as the Ahmednagar, Buldana, and Yavatmal plateau. The Sahyadri Range is the physical backbone of Maharashtra. Rising on an average to an elevation of 1000m. it falls in steep cliffs, to the Konkan on the west. Eastwards, the hill country falls in steps through a transitional area known as Malwa to the plateau level. The series of crowning plateaux on the crest forms a distinctive feature of the Sahyadri Range. The Konkan, lying between the Arabian Sea and the Sahyadri Range is narrow coastal lowland, barely 50 km. wide. Though mostly below 200 m., it is far from being a plain country. Highly dissected and broken, the Konkan alternates between narrow, steep-sided valleys and low laterite plateaux. The Satpuras, hills along the northern border, and the Bhamragad-Chiroli-Gaikhuri Ranges on the eastern border form physical barriers preventing easy movement, but also serve as natural limits to the state. Geology and Topography Except around Mumbai, and along the eastern limits, the State of Maharashtra presents a monotonously uniform, flat-topped skyline. This topography of the state is the outcome of its geological structure. The state area, barring the extreme eastern Vidarbha region, parts of Kolhapur and Sindhudurg, is practically co-terminous with the Deccan Traps. Roughly 60 to 90 million years ago, the outpouring of basic lava through fissures formed horizontally bedded basalt over large areas.
Variations in their composition and structure have resulted in massive, well-jointed steel-grey cliff faces alternating with structural benches of vesicular amygdaloid lava and ash layers, all of which contribute to the pyramida-shaped hills and crest-level plateaux or mesas. Earth sculpturing under the tropical climate completed the panorama-sharply defining the landform features in the semi-arid conditions, and rounding the hilltops under wetter condition. Fluvial action by the Krishna, Bhima, Godavari, Tapi-Purna and Wardha-Wainganga river systems has further aided in the compartmentalisation of the Desh into broad, open river valleys, alternating with plateau interfluves, that form the ribs of the Sahyadrian backbone. In sharp contrast, the hill torrents of the Konkan, barely a 100 km. long, tumble down as roaring streams which flow in deeply entrenched valleys to terminate in tidal estuaries. Climate The state enjoys a tropical monsoon climate; the hot scorching summer from March onwards yields to the rainy monsoon in early June. The rich green cover of the monsoon season persists during the mild winter that follows through an unpleasant October transition, but turns into a dusty, barren brown as the summer sets in again. The seasonal rains from the western sea-clouds are very heavy and the rainfall is over 400 cm., on the Sahyadrian crests. The Konkan on the windward side is also endowed with heavy rainfall, declining northwards. East of the Sahyadri, the rainfall diminishes to a meagre 70 cm. in the western plateau districts, with Solapur-Ahmednagar lying in the heart of the dry zone. The rains increase slightly, later in the season, eastwards in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions. The highly pulsatory character of the monsoon, with its short spells of rainy weather and long dry breaks, floods, as well as droughts add much to the discomfort of the rural economy. Resources Forests comprising only 17% of the state area cover the eastern region and the Sahyadri Range, while open scrub jungle dots the plateaux. If Maharashtra represented the Maha Kantara in the historic past, today little of it is left; vast sections have been denuded and stripped of the vegetal cover. The soils of Maharashtra are residual, derived from the underlying basalts. In the semi-dry plateau, the regur (black-cotton soil) is clayey, rich in iron, but poor in nitrogen and organic matter; it is moistureretentive. Where redeposited along the river valleys, those kali soils are deeper and heavier, better suited for rabi crops. Farther away, with a better mixture of lime, the morand soils form the ideal Kharif zone. The higher plateau areas have pather soils, which contain more gravel. In the rainy Konkan, and the Sahyadri Range, the same basalts give rise to the brick-red laterites productive under a forestcover, but readily stripped into a sterile varkas when the vegetation is removed. By and large, soils of Maharashtra are shallow and somewhat poor. Water is the most precious natural resource of the state, greatly in the demand, and most unevenly distributed. A large number of villages lack drinking water, especially during the summer months, even in the wet Konkan. Barely 11% of the net sown area is irrigated. Perched water tables in the basalt aquifers have contributed to increased well irrigation, which accounts for approximately 55% of the irrigable water. The granitic-gneissic terrain in the eastern hilly area of Vidarbha accounts for all tank irrigation. Tube-wells in the Tapi-Purna alluvium and shallow wells in the coastal sands are the other main sources of water. The mineral-bearing zones of Maharashtra lie beyond the area of the basalts in eastern Vidarbha, southern Kolhapur and the Sindhudurg area. The Chandrapur, Gadchirali, Bhandara and Nagpur Districts form the main mineral belt, with coal and manganese as the major minerals and iron ore and limestone as potential wealth. The Ratnagiri coast contains sizeable deposits of illimenite.
Article of the Month Background to India and Pakistan conflicts
India and Pakistan have a long and complicated history with each other. In fact, these two countries simultaneously became independent from Britain. When British India became independent, it was supposed to be divided into two parts. Areas consisting of 75% or more Muslims were to become Pakistan and the rest of the territory India (Sloan, Ismail. "Kashmir conflict- who is right, India or Pakistan." Available http://www.anusha.com/kashmir.htm). This arrangement did not include the Princely States, one of which is Kashmir (Sloan). The Princely were at liberty to determine their own future -they could join Pakistan, join India, or remain as a separate state (Sloan). The Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh Dogra, decided to preserve the state of Kashmir so he decided to join neither India nor Pakistan (Sloan). However, Pakistan sent tribal lashkars to talk to Kashmir about their decision of autonomy. The Indian government saw Pakistan's action as a sign of invasion and sent their troops to help defend the state of Kashmir. The result of the first war between India and Pakistan involving Kashmir was Pakistan controlling 37% while India controlled 63%.
Two more wars occurred between Pakistan and India. One of the wars was in 1965, which resulted in a stalemate between the two countries for Kashmir. The second war occurred in 1971 and was triggered by Pakistan trying to pacify the Bengali peasantry by confiscating Hindu land and giving it to the Muslims ("1971 India-Pakistan War: Origins of Crisis," Available at link below). This action created eight million refugees that created an immense burden on the Indian government. The Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi,
felt the only way to stop the flow of refugees was to support the Bengali freedom fighters, especially the Mukti Bahini. Pakistan then began to attack suspected Mukti Bahini camps located inside of India's territory. They later struck nine Indian airfields along the western border. India declared war on Pakistan and defeated them in two weeks, overrunning East Pakistan and taking 93,000 POWS Ten Myths About Pakistan By Mohammed Hanif, Times of India, 4 Jan 2009 Living in Pakistan and reading about it in the Indian press can sometimes be quite a disorienting experience: one wonders what place on earth they're talking about? I wouldn't be surprised if an Indian reader going through Pakistani papers has asked the same question in recent days. Here are some common assumptions about Pakistan and its citizens that I have come across in the Indian media... Pakistan controls the jihadis: Or Pakistan’s government controls the jihadis. Or Pakistan Army controls the jihadis. Or ISI controls the jihadis. Or some rogue elements from the ISI control the Jihadis. Nobody knows the whole truth but increasingly it's the tail that wags the dog. We must remember that the ISI-Jihadi alliance was a marriage of convenience, which has broken down irrevocably. Pakistan army has lost more soldiers at the hands of these jihadis than it ever did fighting India. Musharraf was in control, Zardari is not: Let's not forget that General Musharraf seized power after he was fired from his job as the army chief by an elected prime minister. Musharraf first appeased jihadis, then bombed them, and then appeased them again. The country he left behind has become a very dangerous place, above all for its own citizens. There is a latent hankering in sections of the Indian middle class for a strongman. Give Manmohan Singh a military uniform, put all the armed forces under his direct command, make his word the law of the land, and he too will go around thumping his chest saying that it's his destiny to save India from Indians . Zardari will never have the kind of control that Musharraf had. But Pakistanis do not want another Musharraf. Pakistan, which Pakistan? For a small country, Pakistan is very diverse, not only ethnically but politically as well. General Musharraf's government bombed Pashtuns in the north for being Islamists and close to the Taliban and at the same time it bombed Balochs in the South for NOT being Islamists and for subscribing to some kind of retro-socialist, anti Taliban ethos. You have probably heard the joke about other countries having armies but Pakistan’s army having a country. Nobody in Pakistan finds it funny. Pakistan and its loose nukes: Pakistan’s nuclear programme is under a sophisticated command and control system, no more under threat than India or Israel's nuclear assets are threatened by Hindu or Jewish extremists. For a long time Pakistan’s security establishments other strategic asset was jihadi organizations, which in the last couple of years have become its biggest liability. Pakistan is a failed state: If it is, then Pakistanis have not noticed. Or they have lived in it for such a long time that they have become used to its dysfunctional aspects. Trains are late but they turn up, there are more VJs, DJs, theatre festivals, melas, and fashion models than a failed state can accommodate. To borrow a phrase from President Zardari, there are lots of non-state actors like Abdul Sattar Edhi who provide emergency health services, orphanages and shelters for sick animals. It is a deeply religious country: Every half-decent election in this country has proved otherwise. Religious parties have never won more than a fraction of popular vote. Last year Pakistan witnessed the largest civil rights movements in the history of this region. It was spontaneous, secular and entirely peaceful. But since people weren't raising anti-India or anti-America slogans, nobody outside Pakistan took much notice.
All Pakistanis hate India : Three out of four provinces in Pakistan - Sindh, Baluchistan , NWFP - have never had any popular anti-India sentiment ever. Punjabis who did impose India as enemy-in-chief on Pakistan are now more interested in selling potatoes to India than destroying it. There is a new breed of al-Qaida inspired jihadis who hate a woman walking on the streets of Karachi as much as they hate a woman driving a car on the streets of Delhi. In fact there is not much that they do not hate: they hate America , Denmark , China CDs, barbers, DVDs , television, even football. Imran Khan recently said that these jihadis will never attack a cricket match but nobody takes him seriously. Training camps: There are militant sanctuaries in the tribal areas of Pakistan but definitely not in Muzaffarabad or Muridke, two favourite targets for Indian journalists, probably because those are the cities they have ever been allowed to visit. After all how much training do you need if you are going to shoot at random civilians or blow yourself up in a crowded bazaar? So if anyone thinks a few missiles targeted at Muzaffarabad will teach anyone a lesson, they should switch off their TV and try to locate it on the map. RAW would never do what ISI does: Both the agencies have had a brilliant record of creating mayhem in the neighboring countries. Both have a dismal record when it comes to protecting their own people. There is a simple reason that ISI is a bigger, more notorious brand name: It was CIA's franchise during the jihad against the Soviets. And now it's busy doing jihad against those very jihadis. Pakistan is poor, India is rich: Pakistanis visiting India till the mid-eighties came back very smug. They told us about India 's slums, and that there was nothing to buy except handicrafts and saris. Then Pakistanis could say with justifiable pride that nobody slept hungry in their country. But now, not only do people sleep hungry in both the countries; they also commit suicide because they see nothing but a lifetime of hunger ahead. A debt-ridden farmer contemplating suicide in Maharashtra and a mother who abandons her children in Karachi because she can't feed them: this is what we have achieved in our mutual desire to teach each other a lesson.
Masti Ki Pathshaala Masst Graffiti
SMS Zone A good wife always forgives her husband when she`s wrong.
Sometimes in life we run so fast that we don`t notice anyone running with us. We notice only, when we fall and they stop to pick us up. They are friends!
When you want someone to understand your feelings, Remember a person can`t know something you have not expressed! Unsaid words become unheard
Q: In India, we have only postmen, but no postwomen, why? A: Because, they take 9 months for delivery.
A tragic love story: A Pig fell in love with a Hen. One day they kissed each other. The next day the Pig died of Bird Flu and the Hen died of Swine Flu. Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani!
Annoyed husband: Today is Sunday and I have to enjoy it. So I bought 3 movie tickets. Wife: Why three? Annoyed husband: For you and your parents.
When I open my eyes every morning I pray to God that everyone should have a friend like you. Why should only I suffer?
Some Amazing Facts!!!
In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi. The increased electricity used by modern appliance parts is causing a shift in the Earth's magnetic field. By the year 2327, the North Pole will be located in midKansas, while the South Pole will be just off the coast of East Africa. Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of the Toledo PostDispatch. Smearing a small amount of dog feces on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling. The Boeing 747 is capable of flying upside-down if it weren't for the fact that the wings would shear off when trying to roll it over. The trucking company Elvis Presley worked at as a young man was owned by Frank Sinatra. The only golf course on the island of Tonga has 15 holes, and there's no penalty if a monkey steals your golf ball.
Gadgetry Extreme Performance Gamer PC The Systemax X58 Extreme Performance Gamer PC puts the entertainment back into computing!
Gamers and the everyday computing user will surely appreciate the Systemax X58 Extreme Performance Gamer PC. This PC comes with an efficient 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 920 processor, a huge 1TB hard drive and large 12GB of DDR3 memory expandable to 24GB using a 64-bit operating system. Store all of your important data, videos and games on the vast 1TB hard drive. Have fun with Web chats, karaoke and more with the two onboard microphone jacks. The Systemax X58 Extreme Performance Gamer PC delivers amazing graphics for your games and other media with its two NVIDIA GTX 260 graphics cards. Outstanding Features: 1TB hard drive at 7200RPM Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit operating system 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 920 processor 12GB of DDR3 memory expandable up to 24GB 2 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB PCI-Express video cards Solutions For Every Need: A handy 9-in-1 media reader gives you the flexibility to use a wide variety of cards for the ultimate in compatibility Connect all of your devices using the 8 USB ports Two 6-pin FireWire ports provides you high-performance connectivity when using your compatible devices Rip through DirectX 10 games at blistering frame rates with help from the GeForce GTX 260 graphics card, which renders realistic physical motion and destructible environments with NVIDIA's new PhysX technology
FOOD CORNER Chocolate Cherry Cake
Ingredients 6 Eggs White 1 Chocolate Cake Mix 21 oz Cherry Pie Mix For Frosting: 2 Eggs White 1 1/2 cup Sugar 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar 1/3 cup Water 1 tsp Vanilla Essence Method In a bowl mix egg whites, chocolate cake mix, cherry pie filling. Grease 9" X 13" pan and make a layer of flour on it. Pour the batter into the pan. In a preheated oven bake the pan for 35 - 40 minutes till the toothpick comes out clean. Take the cake out and cool it. To make the frosting, mix all the frosting ingredients and pour in a double boiler and with a beater, beat for 1 minute. Then place this boiler on boiling water and again beat for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and beat for 2 minutes on high speed. Frost the cool cake with this mixture.
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