Tekdi(Hill) has a special place in the heart of every Puneri. If you are an outsider who happens to visit Puneri Tekdis in the morning, I won’t be surprised if you thought that Punekars are fitness freaks. Well, I am also one of those fitness freaks. Fortunately, we happened to stay very close to Vaghjaee Tekdi. I love to go out in the morning and have a good jog around the hills or just a stroll around Parvati. Last few days, I have been struck by conversations that I overheard while I was out on the hill. Let me put down this conversation between these guys A and B (both Punekars who by definition assume godness).<\/p>\n
A to B: Geet-ramayan aikun punha Ramayan ghadalyachi Anubhuti Jhali!
B to A: Yes, but I have a basic doubt – If Seeta was Ram’s wife, why the hell was Hanuman going around Lanka setting it on fire?<\/p>\n
Now, I know some people like to express their opinions because God has given unique outlets to everyone but this conversation just hit me real bad – these guys were looking at things in a convoluted manner!!! I am not at all blessed with such talent – thank you O Lord!<\/p>\n
Few years ago, I had conducted a drive to clean the Vaghjaee hill close to my house and around that time some of the people passing by(!!) have offered me lot of words of wisdom(it’s free – what to do? we are like this only!). I am putting down some that I recollect –<\/p>\n
Fortunately, by looking at us for a few days, 3 more people joined us in this work and we managed to clean a lot of plastic from the hill. I still remember it was 3 years ago before Monsoon and we succeeded in cleaning up 80-90% of the hills around Vaghjaee. But that experience brought out finer socio-economic issues.<\/p>\n
The funny part is, as people move up the income levels, they start complaining about the living that they themselves practised.<\/p>\n
I plan to cover much more on the socio-economic imbalances in future. Stay Tuned.<\/p>\n