Pune, a city that opened new avenues

I love Pune because it gave me the opportunity to listen to various orators who taught me how to be spontaneous, my biggest asset in compering

I would often accompany my grandparents to different temples to listen to pravachans, kirtans and kathas as a child. My early memories of Pune city are thus of walking down the narrow roads along Sadashiv Peth, where we used to live. It is because of these outings to various temples that I developed a liking for literature and music.

Back then, one could not see a single building in the narrow lanes of Sadashiv peth but would only find wadas. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

I remember Pune as a cultural and political centre where all political leaders and prominent artistes would visit. I was so influenced by their oratory skills that at a very early stage in life I decided to be a part of this industry and develop my oratory skills. I enjoyed listening to PK Atre, PL Deshpande, Shripad Amrut Dange (communist leader), SM Joshi (social leader), Jagannath Joshi (BJP leader) and George Fernandez among others. I developed my oratory skills through their speeches.

Pune has several excellent libraries where I would spend long hours reading. Thus, my interest in books increased.

The Pune I know from my childhood was indeed a city, where a person could walk from Shaniwarwada to Abhinav Kala Vidyalay chowk, Shivaji Road to Tilak Road, from Laxmi Road you could go to Shaniwar peth and Narayan peth. These were the limits of Pune.

While Parvati, Vitthalwadi and Peshwe Zoo were like picnic spots for us and Ganapati processions on the roads of Pune were to enjoy and be a part of together. It was the only festival where people left their homes to be out on the road. If one goes to speak of Pune camp, it was all very new to us and a trip to MG Road was exciting.

Most of the political rallies only took place at Shaniwarwada, and in Diwali, we would make killa near the grounds of Shaniwarwada. We would wear colourful clothes and stand on a stool to call out to people to come watch our killa. As a youth, I lived in Sadashivpeth. Back then, it was a wada culture and there was not a single building around us. In every wada there was a well and a small ground, surrounded by coconut and banana trees. During summer vacations, we would sleep in the open ground called angan while in the same ground we would hold ‘Bhondla’ ( a local tradition) in Navratri.

This was also the time that I found a friend in books and would spend almost two hours everyday at the Government of Maharashtra library near Vishrambaug wada and my school library in NMV. I used to get to read a variety of books, especially autobiographies, as I enjoyed reading history of that period and also of lives of various personalities.

Compering came to me as easy as holding a conversation. It was during my days in BMCC college, the first time I held a mike was to compeer for an orchestra. But I got my due recognition as a compeer for the programme called ‘Chaitraban’. This programme was a combination of poetry of Ga Di Madgulkar and the music of Sudhir Phadke, and consisted of old Marathi film songs.

I was also working as a journalist while studying commerce. This gave me easy access to meet prominent people. Hence, I could do my research well by talking to these personalities and making my compering different from others. Spontaneity while compering became my asset and I thank my city for it which opened avenues to listen many oratory jugalbandi like PL Deshpande verses PK Atre and so on. Now I’m in my 40th year of compering. Nowadays actors are called to compeer but that is not original literary skills. Hence, I have begun oratory workshops for politicians, industrial people and students for communication is a must in this world for selling your idea.