There were celebrations & festivities since Dec 2012, as we had performed Shashtipoorthi Shanthi in Bangalore.
We planned to be a part of his Birthday celebrations and 4 of us planned a trip to Nanded.
Preeti & Deepti planned a longer stay at their parent's house and left for Nanded a week earlier.
Myself & Ashwin planned to be in Nanded the day before the Birthday - 18th Jan. We had booked KSRTC Merc Benz Multi-axle bus till Hyderabad and Inter-city Train to reach Nanded.
We had lot of expectations with the Benz Bus...The multi-axle premium offering from KSRTC did not entirely live up to it's "Sleep Like a Baby" experience.
The seating comfort was not too great...it was a regular seat. A regular Volvo bus probably offers better seating comfort.
The power & ease of control was awesome, as we sat in the first row and were observing other features of the bus.
The entire journey was boring as overall we traveled for almost 18 hours!
Once we reached Nanded, we realized that it was Mr & Mrs. Nityanand's Wedding Anniversary (17th Jan). We wished the couple & had some small celebration.
We had lunch at home & rested for a while.
Another reason for Preeti to visit Nanded was to offer yellu bella to her mom, chikoo & to some relatives in Nanded, as part of her 5th Sankranti after marriage.
Later in the evening, we set out on a "relative house visit" spree & visited few houses. We learnt "Thilgul Ghyaa..God God bola" is how they wish people in Maharashtra for Sankranthi. Which means, eat sweet & talk sweet.
This is similar to our saying in Kannada "Yellu bella thindu, volle maathadu".
We finally stopped at a place called Godhavari, where we had some chats.
Once we reached home, Chikoo bought us some Vada pav's, which were yummy...I make it a point to have Vada Pav everytime I visit Nanded, and Chikoo obliges it every time.
Later in the night, Mr. Nityanand took us to Mr. & Mrs. Gunvant Patil's house, as the couple had invited us home.
Mr. Gunvant Patil studied at IIT, Bangalore.
Mr. Patil, a true Engineer still has interests in repairing home appliances, painting, plumbing, engineering works and has passion towards repairing Clocks & Watches.
He comes from a family of Landlords and is a social activist working towards interests of Farmers and leads "Shethkari Sanghathan" and very soon to-be politician.
Mrs. Karuna Patil is a well known Doctor and the couple are very close to Maiya's family.
The couple were very humble & were wonderful hosts. They greeted us to their beautiful, well designed, tastefully done house. Their house was amazing, we were speechless and we wanted to go around the house, which they gladly obliged and took us around in detail.
Mr. Patil had a revolver which Me & Ashwin were eager to see. He explained us how it would operate & ways to legally procure a gun.
We were then offered ice creams & some quick bites. After Preeti gave Sankranthi offering to Mrs. Patil, we headed back home after a wonderful time at the Patil's.
By the time we reached home, it was almost 11:30 PM. All were up till 12:00 AM and we all wished Mr. Vasant Maiya on his Birthday. He cut the cake & the small celebrations concluded with gifts offered by everyone.
Next day, We started early in the morning as Mr. Maiya had scheduled a Puja at a Venkateshwara temple in Nanded. The idol of the lord was brought from Tirupati. It was a detailed puja & each of us were part of the Puja.
A unique concept in this temple for the devotees to book a day in a year & the family can come and offer Puja.
Mr. Vasant offers puja every year on 18th Jan, and Mr. Nityanand offers Puja on 17th Jan.
We did know that there was a Raghavendra Swamy temple in Nanded and no one had explored the same. Myself & Ashwin being a hardcore followers of the great guru, we insisted that we find that place right away after Venkateshwara temple Puja. Mr. Maiya agreed & finally found the place which was right opposite to Bijli Hanuman Mandir in Nanded.
Me & Ashwin were amazed to see the place...as we entered, it was a serene, calm Mutt premises. We found it more thrilling as we heard "veda gochara" (holy chanting) from the mutt. We were asked to take out Shirt & Baniyan and step inside the mutt. The Mutt was small & very traditionally maintained. It had a Brindavan with Rayara Mruthike & Teekacharyara Mruthike. It also happened to be Utharadi Mutt, myself & Ashwin were overjoyed to find such a pious place in such a remote corner where you can hardly find Madhwas. The mutt also ran a small vidhyapeetha. Mr. Maiya booked the yearly Puja at the Mutt as well.
We offered our prayers to the great guru, headed home & had breakfast.
Close family friends kept coming through out the day to wish Mr. Maiya.
The same day, an article on Mr. Vasant Maiya was also published in the local Prajavani Marathi paper.
Mr. Maiya took time to visit Rayat Hospital in Nanded, to meet the people in distress & spend time with them. It was indeed a sanctimonious act demonstrated on the occasion of his 60th Year birthday. His intention was to meet all the patients, give optimistic opinion about their ailment & build hope & confidence on the ongoing treatment.
He offered biscuit packets to each & every patient in the hospital. It was indeed a devout display of his concern to the society!
Rayat, is an NGO run hospital, founded by Dr. Suresh Khursale, with an objective to provide health care facilities to the needy, who either cannot get better attention at the Govt hospitals due to malpractices or who cannot afford to avail facilities at Private hospitals.
We came back home & had lunch.
Mr. Vasant had hosted a birthday party at the Nanded Club, where friends, family & all prominent citizens of Nanded were invited.
Almost 300 people had gathered to wish him on his Birthday.
Eminent citizens & achievers in various walks of life including Collector, Doctors, poets, politicians & writers had adorned the dais.
All such distinguished personalities along with some friends & admirers of Mr. Maiya took turns to give speeches wishing him on his Birthday and sharing their experiences with Mr. Maiya.
Though the speeches & conversations were in Marathi, Charitha helped us understand the summary of each speech.
All speeches highlighted on Mr. Maiya's persona, his friendly quality, inspirational talk, fitness and how each of them admire one or the other qualities of Mr. Maiya.
Many of them expressed their gratitude and mentioned how inspirational Mr. Maiya is, how much a social person he is, how well he respects & loves Marathi literature & language, albeit his mother tongue being Kannada.
It was a moment of pride for him & the entire family!
The day ended after savoring some Marathi styled food line.
Next day morning, Mr. Nityanand took us to Lion's Eye Hospital.
Mr. Nityanand Maiya who is an active member of the Lion's club was one of the pioneers to take this initiative to set up an Eye hospital on PPP model.
With his & the Lion's club's efforts, today they are running a successful Eye hospital that offers low cost Eye checkup & operations.
Mr. Nityanand being a Trustee in the hospital along with the Chairman Mr. Dhyaneshwar Mahajan, ensures smooth operations and oversees every aspect of the Hospital. The hospital has achieved it's target of 200 successful Eye operations last year, with regular Camps being organized in the nearby villages.
As myself & Ashwin wanted to watch a movie, Mr. Nityanand took us to "Inkaar". Though we liked the story line & the idea, overall it was a boring one.
Once we were back from the movie, we went to the Gurudwara as Mr. Nityanand described the practices at the temple.
We later visited a well maintained park nearby, where a laser show was on.
It was time for the family outing, and the entire family went out to "Dhashmish Punjabi dhabha" for dinner.
The dinner was hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Nityanand Maiya, as part of their anniversary celebrations.
Nice food, great ambiance, green lawns made the family time even better. It was pretty cold, around 16 degrees, and the dhabha had a great way to help it's customers, by way of placing "Segdi" - a small campfire lit besides each table.
Next day morning, it was time to travel back to Bangalore.
It was one of my best trips to Nanded, with good family times, tasty food served for breakfast, lunch & dinner prepared by Mrs. Maiya. Tasted some delicacies like Dhodna, a variety of pickles.
Me & Ashwin had loads of fun...we did everything possible in 3 days. We played cricket (Computer game), watched movie, we made jokes & laughed, ate royally & visited places.
We started our loooong journey back, with both the sisters on their usual routine of eating & sleeping for 24 hours! Me & Ashwin had lot of topic to talk about, starting from Business, Industry, Politics to Madhwa philosophy.
