Memories Triggered

 

Memories Triggered

 

Nikhil (my nephew) had shared a post and this is what I wrote to him:                                                                                                               Your forward, a tribute paid to Music Director and singer Bappi Lahiri, by late Nandu Bhende’s  wife ( her husband and Bappida were born on the same day, as mentioned in her post) brought back sweet memories of my childhood, आठवणी पुन्हा जिवंत झाल्या. Memories flashed before my eyes as though they had had happened just yesterday.

I had met Nandu for the first time when he must have been around five or six and I was 12 – 13 years,  I was going with Amber mama and Jaini mami (Amber & Saroj Kothare) to Gholvad. This was not my first time to go to Gholvad with them. But this time, the whole troupe or फड as you would say in Marathi (if not everyone from their team, many were there) of झोपी गेलेला जागा झाला'  ( I don’t know under what banner they would stage it.) had joined. We all taken the from VT station.

 Mahesh and I had watched this drama several times, sometimes with the other audience but mostly from the Wing. टुमदार घर नाटकातील सारी पत्रे आणि त्यांतील बहुसंख्या नटांची नावे माझी तोंडपाठ झाली होती.

 Nandu was almost of the same as Mahesh, year or two here and there. We kids, Nandu, Purnima, his sister , Mahesh, Mahesh’s cousin, Balam, who passed away recently and I, sat together abit away from the elders. But Mukund uncle (Mukund Kothate, who also played  the character of Mukund Kothare himself  in झोपी गेलेला जागा झाला), preffered to sit with us. I remember asking him, “ Mukund uncle, how can you keep on laughing for such a long time? Or is some prompter doing it from the Wing?”

“Ha, ha, ha! You are Mahesh’s cousin, बरोबर ?  आमच्या  नाटकाच्या प्रयोगांना तुम्ही दोघे येत असतात . अरे बाळा हसणं अगदी सोपे असते. हे असे”, so saying he started laughing.

In between those bursts of laughters,  he cracked jokes and  told us  and funny stories., and in between, suddenly he would say, “हे मुलांनो माझे नाव काय ? त्या दिनेजलालने माझ्या डोक्याचे हे काय केले ! मी सारखे हसत सुटतो का ? माहित नाही . माझे नाव काय ? हा ,हा !“  Suddendly pointing at Mahesh, he would say, “हाच तो दिनेजलाल !    मैं हूँ दिनेज...! Mahesh, I know that you do it quite well, common Mahesh!"

This would be invitation enough for Mahesh and he would burst out, "मैं हूँ दिनेजलाल, काम मेरा बेमिसाल   मेरे आँखोमे देख ..”  नट'महेश कोठारे बनण्याची ही नांदी असावी .

All this intermittent laughing, punctuated by jokes and stories, of Mukund uncle  continued till we reached Gholvad. 

In Gholvad, Jaini mami had a nice one storeyed , a small bungalow type, you could call it बांगलाच. It was actually जैनी मामीच्या माहेरचे घर.- a neat little , टुमदार घर. It was surrounded by many flowerin and fruit trees, of these these two chikoo trees,I distinctly remember.  Outside the house there was a big well and we, Mahesh and I, enjoyed bathing in the open while a maid or some servant poured buckets of cold water on us.

On the ground floor, in front was a nice verandah which opened into several rooms, including a kitchen and there was a passage at the end of which was a door which opened into a hall where the furniture, consisting of sofa set, a teepoy, and a cupboard,  all arranged in a semicircular manner.  Aadjasant,  समीप  to the passage door, on the right, was a staircase which took you to the upper floor, which had a bigger hall and some rooms. The ground floor hall with all the arrangements, resembled exactly  the one in the set of झोपी गेलेला जागा झाला. Baban Prabhu  would go around the entire furniture,  whenever he came down the stair case, and wanted to go in the ground floor passage, just as the way he did in his role in  the drama. He was king of farce, no doubt. झोपी गेलेला जागा झाला' हा फार्स बबन प्रभूंनी लिहिण्याअगोदर मराठी रंगभूमीवर 'फार्स' हा प्रकार रूळलेला नव्हता, तरीही त्याआधी फार्स लिहिले-केले गेलेच नव्हते, असं नाही. If you haven't watched the original one, you have missed something big in life. Subsequently many remakes have been made, even a movie, but they are all rubbish!  Both Baban Prabhu and Atmaram Bhende had great tunning. Their farcical enacting was fantastic, a treat to watch.  Even Asha Bhende was quite good actress and was also good in farcical acting,, but I did not know she was a good actress and was also good in farcical acting,, but I did not know she was a good singer. Later on I came to know that had Jewish lineage and her brother was a famous writer and poet.

Nandu did come to Gholvad, may be twice or thrice subsequently. I did learn that his real name was Sadanand.  But our childhood friendship never blossomed. As grew I did come to know that  he was  famously known for his rock, pop, soul and blue rock music genres in music.  On many occasions  I have attended  film line  with Soparkar (Vasant Soparkar, my brother in law) and met Mr Atmaram Bhende twice or thrice. Both, he and his wife were were such nice couple and very humble people.

Coming back to Gholvad, I also remember how Mahesh and I would run bare feet on those beautiful beaches of Gholvad, into the waters jumping on the rocks covered with live colonies of mussels and oysters.  At times, we would have cuts on our feets because of those sharp edges of rocks full of oysters (कालवांचे खडक), collect  those tiny crabs crawling on the beaches and feed these live creatures to stray dogs on the way back home.  It was such a fun.

Thanks for sharing the post.

Vinay Trilokekar