More than 36 reasons to visit Chattisgarh!

Chitrackot falls , Chattisgad.
Photo Credit : Dr. Shrinivas Kelkar 

Here is a pleasant piece by Dr. Shrinivas Kelkar of Pune , India. He is a retired professor of chemistry from U. of Poona and has a great passion for travel . 

There would have been a long and shrill opposition from family and friends had I declared earlier that I want to visit Chattisgarh. So it had to be a state secret that we were on Mission "Operation Dantewada".

All Indians know that the Bastar and Dantewada districts of Chattisgarh (region of 36 forts for those who do not know Hindi) is a 'disturbed area' due to the intense Naxalite  terrorist activity. Very few think of traveling through the area, leave aside going there as tourists and staying there. However the area is rich in natural beauty and hence I thought that a visit there is a must. You need a partner to share your experience and Jeevan Chandwadkar joined agreed. Both of us were invited to give lectures at Nagpur and Raipur, the state capital of Chattisgarh, is only an overnight train ride away.

In the wee early morning hours, our taxi was waiting for us at the Raipur station and immediately we set on the 300km drive to Jagadalpur. Chattisgarh is a strange state in India. A good 80% of the population is tribal, 60% area is forest and the land is rich in minerals - Silica, iron and aluminum being the major ones. This combination would give rise to expectation of a backward state with much less infrastructure and poverty looming large and we were not different in our mindset. Once you get into this, every facility coming your way seems 5-star. And LO! Hardly we left Raipur and the car broke down! The taxi owner had to replace it and it was to our advantage as we got a bigger car for just two of us. 

The first strange thing easily noticeable was the names of towns. The state is bordered by Maharashtra, Andhra, Oddisa, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh from whihc it was carved out about 12 years ago. May be due to the predominance of the tribals, the names of towns were strange to our mind. Hardly any ending with -pur or -gaav(meaning town) and mix up of strange syllabi. Dhamtari (pronounced dhum turee), Keshkaal, Maakadi, Kaanker are to name a few. Many noticeable things on the road. The enitre 300km long route was packed with paddy fields right through. If there was no paddy then it was a very thick jungle. But it is not as monotonous as it sounds. Paddys were ready for cutting and the colour combinations could be seen right up to horizon. The housing throughout seemed to be of pukkaa type - a sight not even seen in 'advanced' states like Maharashtra. Villages looked cleaner - certainly much more than the ones in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, but even better than those in Maharashtra. Smaller and larger water tanks littered all over. The water seemed very clean (though we did not check it). We were told that each village had been having this for long time. Fish being one of the main food items of the tribals, Cooperative Fishing is one occupation in the small villages and the water after accumulation is used for it and drinking. The state government supplies excavators when required by the villagers for scooping out the mud and to deepen the tanks too.

It is a heartening site to see young boys and girls going to and returning from schools. In Chattisgarh you see it as well as each one has a bicycle provided by the state government. One can see boys and girls going 10-15 kilometers each way thanks to the scheme  'All be educated '. The students are uniformly in uniform and even on holidays you can see them wearing those! The villagers go to larger towns on their bikes. You see them in hundreds, each one having a small plastic bag hanging down from handle. Many times the women folk has collected some jungle items like resins, which could be sold in towns and cities. So the trip to city serves two purposes - man goes to job and also sells the collectables and get cash in exchange! The state government scheme for the tribals and villagers is that they get 35kg of grains per month for family at Rs.3/kg. This is usually quite adequate for the family of four. The minimum wages for the workers being about Rs 60 to 70/day, the mail folks can earn the money for monthly food supply in just a couple of days and have a lot of money left over  in the hand. Systematic efforts are on to get them off the booze too, so that they are in a 'win-win' situation. No wonder the people in general are happy with the current state government and particularly the present chief minister Dr, Raman Singh. If that is not enough most of the people do not speak good about the first chief minister of the state, a darling of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi - Mr. Ajit Jogi. Mr. Jogi is paraplegic due to an accident that happened about 10 years ago but is still has a political clout. Unfortunately there are no second rank leaders in the state for either the ruling or opposition party.

Road side restaurants are good and clean. If you are satisfied with tasty samosas and mung bondas, you can have your day. Add to that nicely aromated tea or coffee and you are ready to go along for the day. Otherwise there is no special food for Chattisgarh. The tribals prepare rice beer but we could not reach it, particularly since Jeevan is a pious man!

Due to time constrain we could visit only southern Chattisgarh. But this is the most dreaded area. Everybody in Maharashtrav knows Dantewada, as the terrorist killed about 20 policeman in one shot sometime ago. But the clear and danger areas are well marked. If you want to go to danger area, the mode of transport better be the public transport, as it is known that the terrorists do not trouble in the common man. Their trgets are either the goernment officials or police or defense forces. We could have been easily target as from the registration number of the car, it was clear from the state capital. The easiest way then is to take longer but safer route rather than shorter and dangerous one. So we could go to Dantewada. The days were of Durga Pooja and every village was celebrating. A pandal  was being constructed with a typical design made from two-coloured cloth. 

Nature is a very pleasant in Chattisgarh. Our resort owned by Chattisgarh Tourist Development Corporation was on the bank of Indravati hardly 200 meters from Chitrakot Water Falls. We had an exclusive total view of the falls from our balcony! Lengthwise it was like Niagara, similar in many ways - including the American and Canadian sides. The height is about 2/3 of that of Niagara and it is said that occasionally in rainy season, the whole length of about 150 meters (my guess, could be wrong by a few meters) lets out the water. The rooms were quite nice and the place quite away from maddening crowd about 40kms from nearest big town Jagdalpur. However you would have a close encounter with nature as insects of all sorts including some mosquitoes, would enter the room inspite of having wire nets on windows. Just outside (fortunately!) our big window, we could watch a big beautiful 10cm long spider in his web of about 2 meters. I thought the web was not complete and the fellow was still at it.

Another very interesting place of natural beauty are the Kutumsar caves. Situated in the thick jungles about 10 kms inside from the main tarred road and connected by a seasonal road, these are one of the rarest types in India. They have stalagmites and stalactites. The entrance is very very narrow as it was difficult for me to decide whether to enter sideways or straight-thru! through a very narrow tunnel we went 24 meters below the ground level. ducking most of the times as the height was less than 1.2 meters with slightly slippery ground and very hard rocks above. This was like going down a 8 story building but the thought of what would happen while coming up did not touch our mind. Once down, a spectacular vista was wide open in front of us. Colourful rocks, blunt stalactites were just spectacular. The cave is open up to 300 meters out of 2.5kms outwards and we did go through the entire available length. The shapes of the rocks were not marked for anything particular, but the guide pointed out to a lion, a crocodile, a titanic, face of a lady to name a few.

Diagonally across from the main road junction about 10 kms in opposit direction inside was the Tirathgarh water fall. Much smaller in breadth but about twice in height, the water cascades down half of the ay and then jumps into a gorge. May not be the best of falls, but it was quite interesting.

Overall, Chattisgarh pressed me a lot. Agreed that we went through just a small part, but it was the region we least expected to be better. In spite of the threats, the normal life was usual, people in same mood of celebrations elsewhere, all seemed content and the state on a pragmatic path.
Shriniwas KelkarTel (091)(20)2 544 0329
Cell (+91)9850902060

Resolutions : Jan 1st 2012 to Dec 30th 2012

However juvenile it may sound, but I make these resolutions every new- year evening.

World over ..the resolutions are necessarily about ‘quitting some addiction, doing some health thing or reducing body weight’. I mean ..nobody has ever resolved to …say… eat 10 Big Macs for lunch or take two patialas of Smirnoff at 8 am or something…….

After quitting nicotine consumption of every kind , I have very few vices left to quit in the resolution routine.

I have this face book addiction.

I get pretty irresistible desire to get drunk while watching third thriller in a row on HBO.

I have grown 5 something pants which won’t fit on my waist.

My memory at age 56 has begun to ditch me even in official settings and I have been left many times at the mercy of my client’s kindness. Hell, I am gonna do something about it :

Following resolutions are going to address some of the stuff I have been meaning to achieve :

1. 1. No booze or meat over next 365 dez.

2. 2. MUST get ready @/before 8 am.. like the pro in Grisham’s novel . Ready in Allen Solly casuals at my laptop in home-office .

3. 3. Not less than 5 Km daily brisk-walk or equivalent exercise before sundown.

4. 4. Not less than 25 printed-books to read ..over next 3650 hours.

5. 5. Must be on top of therapeutic (Global) frontiers and public health (Indian) matters in Malaria and AIDS.

Dr. Arvind C. Ranade , a chemistry professor passes away.

Dr. A. C. Ranade was a faculty in University of Pune , chemistry department. He passed away on Friday 27th November 2009 in Pune, India.

Dr. A. C. Ranade taught a course in Synthetic Methodology and Heterocyclic chemistry when I was a student of M. Sc ( Organic chemistry) course in this department. It was some 30 years back today. In those days, Google didn’t exist . Neither Wikipedia nor SciFinder were born. We depended completely on the notes we managed to scribble on our 200 page notebooks. The literature search was carried out in library by bicycling a steep road up to National Chemical Laboratory which was 20 bicycle-minutes away from our department. Yes, I did visit NCL library thrice on a particular day when I failed to find a reference which Ranade Sir wanted me to get. I returned twice to his ground floor office in the department reporting my failure to fish out the reference, and surely enough; I was sent back to NCL. Unfortunately I failed to find the particular reference . It was Dr. Deshpande - then Dr. Ranade ’s Ph. D student who bailed me out by swiftly scootering his way to NCL and returning with required paper.
I was not the only student who got lessons of tenacity , thoroughness, accuracy & precision from Dr. Ranade.
His research work in Germany or his Humboldt fellowships were among the myths which surrounded him in those days. Barring some exceptions , the university professors in those days never socialized with students. Dr. Ranade also was selective when it came to being too friendly with students.
What transformations we learnt in his lectures on synthetic methods, we saw them applied in the long synthetic sequences which Dr. M. S. Wadia taught us in Natural Products lecture. He carried his notes in the class room. By referring to those papers he filled the black board with heterocycles.
If I remember correctly, he was the only teacher in chemistry department in 1980 who obtained a written appraisal or a feed back from his students. That was the first time I wrote my opinion on my teacher’s ability to teach. Believe me, it was a rarity in those days in the city of Pune.
After I graduated from department , I kept in touch with him until an year back or so. We talked atleast once in a year on telephone. He used to read profusely outside of chemistry . The ‘Razer’s Edge ‘ was the book he once recommended to me as a good read. The last time in 2008 we interacted closely , he borrowed a few audio tapes from me on some training module on “Improving Personal Productivity”. He must have been past his age 75 in 2008 & yet eager to know how to build tangible progress at personal level !
I do not recollect noticing him in a ‘nostalgic mood ‘. His optimism & pragmatism were seen in all his actions. He was sort of “ connected “ in his own way with the newer happenings around him. He was one among 3 chemistry professors who deeply influenced our professional careers as organic chemists.
I represent my 1980 class of M. Sc when I bid a farewell to his soul .
Thank you Dr. Ranade and a good-Bye to you Sir.

Vidyasagar Mahajan: An Untamed Maverick

1956 - 2009

( Photo by Mr. Charudatta Vartak, Pune, India)

When majority of activities in this world are carried out as per standard procedures and things are progressed on trodden paths, the Gaussian distribution expects some folks to evolve new pathways and generate new protocols for others to follow.

Vidyasagar couldn’t have been anybody else but an untamed Maverick of art-forms in multilingual arena.


Vidyasagar left this world in early morning hours on 9th June 2009. The blood cancer (AML) showed up in him in April 2008 and after about 14 months of glorious fight, he moved on to carry out different things in different world.

He was born to a fine pair of Freedom fighters in 1956 and was educated in Pune from KG to MA. German language was his passion which he taught for 25 years and Spanish was the second love which he mastered & taught over last 10 years.

Handling different Art forms was his habit and the drama, poetry and translation were the habitats. He never left his ‘addictions’. His every New Year resolution got his students and coworkers addicted to newer forms of theatre & multilingual translations. He had unlearning disability! He seriously played with words. He coined new words in Marathi during his German/Spanish translations.

He was 53ish on the day he expired. He professionally lived and created in the midst of turbulent cultural climate of last 3 decades. Onslaught of electronic media, commercialization of every art-form and de-linking of creativity from expression have been the critical climatic changes.

He founded “Kalasakta” in 1995, an activity centered on presenting foreign literature on Marathi stage. Atul Kulkarni, Ila Bhate contributed to the stage-show: “Tikdun Aanlelya Goshti” as presenters of Marathi translations of Russian, German, Italian, Spanish & French stories. In year 1999 he started publishing a quarterly magazine Kelyane Bhashantar in which direct translations of stories / plays /poems from European languages into Marathi are published.


For such activities, no templates existed. No grant money was “budgeted, sanctioned & available to be spent”. Nevertheless, he attracted enthusiastic support from many persons of repute with honest desire to walk the un-trodden path along side him. His passion for making things work in their finest, perfect form motivated several students, colleagues and even mentors.

If others had any apprehensions about longevity of these activities, he didn’t notice them.

He taught German in National Defense Academy, Pune. He often traveled to Europe to learn nascent trends in Dramatics, Translation & teaching methods. He created viable relationships with reputed European publishing houses in connection with copyright formalities. He has one Marathi book –Dusrya Jodidarachya Shodhat on his name which is a translation of the German Novel by Eva Heller which depicts the moral and social fabric of contemporary Germany. The German title of the original novel means “With the new man, every thing will be different”.

About his “Tikdun Aanlelya Goshti” show, he was never worried about its media coverage on TV or news papers. As and when the art-form shall reach its finest destination, a need shall emerge for its wider publicity – he firmly believed.

The flexibility of presentation and emphasis on creativity attracted talented artists, writers and translators to his activities.

He stayed away from the cheap and sinister facets of performing or presenting the art and hence collected no baggage for which to secretly repent.

He has left behind a legacy of good clean creative expression, a couple of “validated Protocols” for trans-cultural studies and many blueprints on which multi linguistic art forms can be pursued, learnt and presented.

He was hard to tame since no bait worked for him. I wish him a jolly good time wherever he has checked-in now. So long Buddy!

Aaha! Draupadi in decision crisis for the first time

© Uday Gokhale

Of course she wasn’t the first time around. But then Sanskruti Rakshaks were yet to born and the grounds were in making for roman mythological scripts which would see furious revisions.

Version 1 : Enter the third century catholic priest St. Valentine in the times of Roman emperor Claudius II. Emperor didn’t want young couples to marry. He wanna catch them young & enlist in the army. St. Valentine was all for marriages though. No wonder he was sent back to heaven on Feb 14th.

Version 2 : Enter a prisoner called Valentine who loves the Jailor's daughter (now that is the definition of GUTS !). He signs his love letter as ‘Your Valentine’. Guess the Jailor would be reborn as 21st century Sanskruti Rakshak .

Heck, rest is history alias culture. Yes I am referring to Valentine Day brouhaha in India. By design or by default, Draupadi indeed was making templates. Boy, some templates! Her one fifth husband had the monopoly of diving into decision crises every now & then. Great Lord Krishna had to come out with fancy justifications and pep talks.

Whichever version you subscribe to, Valentine Day is here to stay. Any Junior KG attempts to ‘bar’ the so called western ideas will get plenty empty attention. The notions of some things being non-existent in ‘our’ culture are naïve at best; at worst one can put Draupadi in decision crisis: Which husband to talk to in Public? Let alone ‘to friends’ of her times.

Why Draupadi, I am in decision crisis too. Which font to use: Times New Roman or Bookman Old!

Now if I say that the journalists and column writers have a larger role to play, you can’t invoke supposedly primary function of ‘reporting the events occurring North East West South’.
Such Valentine commotions are excellent occasions to address the widespread myths & memes about our ‘culture’ which comprises Draupadi , Savitri and Meerabai. The hunts for homogeneity in primordial (or contemparary) cultures will hit many blind alleys & will be lost in unlit tunnels.

So what do we do? Just sit back & ignore? Nope, we address the events on the back drop of ever spreading plethora of Memes. It is time we begun exploring Memes of our time. But then that is another subject.
So long, Your valentine :-)

Yes, I actually told my daughter not to tell a lie

I may not be the first parent to tell his (and of course her) daughter never to lie. But plausibly I may be the first one to tell this even after realising that Truth is the most violent event.

I have had friends who were expert in lying on the spot. I have had foes who never pretended to be truthful but many times they were ruthlessly so. I have been forced or coaxed into lying, only to have been left alone to keep track of own lies.

I do not remember when I resolved not to lie , it may be 2 years back. I slowly learnt to enjoy the fun of being truthful. Thing is that you won’t need to undergo Norco test or sit on a lie-detector to find yourself lying. You don’t need to reinvent off-label use of relativity tablet .You know it.

Having mastered the fun of not lying, I further went ahead and suggested my daughter trying this fun. She agreed with same apprehensive & careful kindness with which she must have resolved to treat me. She began practising the art of not lying. It was not too difficult initially for her because probably she wasn’t aware that she was semi-truthful some times and those semi-truths went unnoticed. Sure enough dark atrocities of truth caught-up with her. Months passed by.

After several irritations and facing awkward situations she was almost on the verge of rejecting the morbidity of being truthful all the time. But a day came when she came out with flying colours only because she had opted not to lie.

Bingo! She was hooked. That incidence changed her ( I think). She wasn’t even aware of the trap. In fact it wasn’t even a trap. It was just a normal situation where a teen ager was expected to hide the truth to save the situation. She didn’t. Her peers & mentors appreciated. She has been since held in a silent semi-micro respect by all in her team.

You don’t need to ride in the Dharmaraj’s chariot when you have option of carrying your own little mirror. As a student of Gandhian thought , I am always fascinated by the guiding principles old man has laid down for us . Truth , non-violence and trusteeship are the most haunting and at times highly contradictory. In my opinion , you practise truth and offer yourself for violence. Owning truth is the purest form of violence. No I am not playing with words.

Try practising truth : for a week or two. Then come back & leave your comments on my blog. It ain’t simple putting your soul through roller coaster of facing consequences of calling spade a spade. Without sense of humour you can’t endure it. That creates fun.

I am sure my daughter will tell same thing to her daughter.

Portrait of a Vermiculturist as an old man:

If you have close to fifty (fifty something) flowerpots sitting in your 4 balcony pockets with fabulous plants and if you have resolved not to use chemical fertilizers, then raising earthworms in those pots is the best option.



Plants get carbon from air and nitrogen vitally required for body building needs to come from soil. There is a big headache for plants if soil underneath is frugal in supplying nitrogen. In wild environment, nitrogen keeps coming from decaying organic matter and the bacteria hanging on to the roots. If plants are to live in an urban balcony, nitrogen availability becomes an issue.

Normal wood decaying around roots may not be greatest philanthropist below the earth. You get nitrogen only once when you visit 300 times. It decays with its own sweet time. Leaves however are kind especially if earthworms are around to feed on them. The worm droppings are best nitrogen vendors. You get nitrogen once in only 30 visits. Wormway ® is Ten times better than WoodMall ®!

So where’s the beef Mac?

I have fifty pots & I begun raising earthworms in them this monsoon. Indian monsoon prediction failed as predicted .Some butterfly fluttering its wings without any notice served on Dr. Govarikar did the trick.

Rains arrived late. Our building compound was late in presenting worms to the weird worm collector who got up early morning and hunted for the worms that might be out on the limb to explore if dirt on other side of the hiding place was any greener. The novice collector was looking for healthy adults while young ones crawled underneath the soil. It wasn’t too late before he embarked on ‘Catch ‘em young’ campaign. His zeal was unbeatable even by the volunteers sitting in booths outside of National Democratic Convention.

Soon he got at least 10 worm lings and a couple of adults in each pot. He did not have any food supplied in the pots. By the time he realised the situation, most of the worms had escaped the brutal prison where food wasn’t supplied. The jailer had failed to notice their escape. He didn’t know that worms surfaced in night time, sniffed around to find nothing rotting in the neighbourhood and got frustrated further since the student Vermiculturist had flooded their hiding places by over watering the plants. They had to climb down the pot surfaces and hide underneath pots where good clean rot was found. Moreover they escaped the curious visitations of the student who poked the soil with anything sharp nearby to confirm their whereabouts. Of course life under the pots wasn’t too exciting especially when the student was away and no water sipped thru the soil. Ants were out hunting for fresh & dry worms. A spider who recently relocated near the pots prying on ants was the only solace who feasted on the ants.
“ It ain’t too easy being a worm ” some depressed worms were heard murmuring by ants. The murmur however fell on deaf ears of student who was busy surfing internet to find the cause of sudden exodus of his inmates.
Soon the student learnt to provide sumptuous ration of wet mud soaked leaves and the algae to pot residents. He learnt many things at the cost of early unfed heroes. Soon his early morning worm hunt in the drizzling monsoon stopped attracting lazy stares of the neighbours who had gotten used to ignoring his fast growing and profusely flowering plants in the midst of multiplying worms. His hunt ended as soon as he saw a worm any number of times he poked the soil any deeper all over in all the 50 pots. He was a proud trustee of 2000 something worms. Plants were happy since they got the food delivered at their feet.





Lessons from 3 months of Worm rearing in flowerpots

1. Worms are people too, they need to eat and sleep in damp soil.
2. Their droppings are a good food for roots of the plants but the droppings are only a consequence & not the aim of their living.
3. Their aim is to eat the decomposing stuff spilled around their neck’s reach. They reproduce all the time.
4. Confinement at Darkness frees their soul from the fear of predating ants & birds.
5. If I were a worm ( may not be a remote possibility ) I won’t venture the long distance treks across the dry land to get to the food. I would rather stay in a damp stinking place with lots of leaves to munch on.
6. Yes they like the stench. May be they can smell thru skin.
7. There is an interesting observation. They hate the fragrance. This observation is a result of a trial on literally hand picked subjects. The trial is single pot, open label, placebo-uncontrolled and retrospective.
8. Hold it there Mac , don’t reject this study just because you sit on Lancet Editorial board.
9. Our Vermiculturist Pro observed disproportionately high exodus of worms from a pot which was next to a flowering plant. The flowers were exhibited in plenty squandering the fragrance in surrounding wet air. Believe it or not. They just quit.
10. So, sauce good for humans is not good for worms !
11. Back to worm rearing : Big earthworms may not hang around too long even if plenty food there. Their willing souls may be leaving weak bodies.
12. Great place to stay for them is : In a pot soil covered with plenty rotting leaves , cool dampness without N,P,K nonsense around .Of course tender stares of onlookers are great aphrodisiacs.

This reportage is now discontinued till our Pro finds additional stuff to report.
Amen