Excerpts from my forthcoming book:
Baden Powell had children’s development at heart. My own evolution was volition in life, thanks to him. There are also arguments stating that some other institution would have filled-in any vacuum. Fact remains that this idea engulfed the world.
As a Mumbai University student, hiking was my obsession. Continuing activities learnt as a scout, starting with. (SSG - Subramanya Scout Group) where camping, hiking, handling ropes were taught. A seed of passion for travel was implanted at that time, leading me to meeting interesting personalities.”
Instinctively it appeared to me that I was searching for someone. It was like a joke for many that I was talking to every one including villagers, ascetics, travelers almost anyone who crossed my life, exchanging views, ideas.
In a hike we went to Shivtar valley, State of Maharashtra, India, where we saw a cave about 500 feet above from us. So, we decide to visit the cave. There, we found one young ascetic. I befriended him talked to him, when other hikers were looking on.
This young ascetic held a Masters Degree. He left everything, and was doing research on the works of Saint Samarth Ramdas, King Shivaji’s preceptor, all alone. He was fed by local people.. They come to pay their respects. He was alone. His needs were meager. It was nice to meet such a person in such a remote cave in the midst of nowhere. He was like any of us.
For people in the Indian Sub-continent, Himalayas is a link to their culture, and indirectly unifying a billion minds and emotions. Surrounded by the sea on three sides and the Himalayan mountain in the North, people living in India could continue to evolve an independent thought process.
Himalayas! … It is embedded in the psyche of the people of India. Adoration,, admiration, worship, love, reverence are a few synonyms describing the feelings. Pandavs, the five victorious brothers, deriving their name from their father King Pandu, went to the Great Mountains of Himalayas after the destruction brought about by their war. Many saints, kings, intellectuals and common people went there in humility, and respect. A photograph of Badrinath, an important place of pilgrimage, was inspiring Temple inspired me to go there personally, taking guidance from the tourist department, deciding to take the hardest route via Almora. Collecting two more companions--there I was, in the foot hills of snow-clad Himalayas, in the summer holidays of 1962. Companions were my cousin brother from father’s side, Mr. N. S. Sharma (Barrister from London) and a fellow mathematician, philosopher, class-mate Mr. Satish Dharmadhikari
A destiny was in the making. We were one day behind Mr. Uma Prasad Mookerjee, not knowing that we were following him--till we reached the first rest house, and saw the guest book. First day and every day we saw his beautiful handwriting and extra ordinary comments in every rest house. Rest Houses are maintained by the government to facilitate their representatives to visit places where their work would take them. I find myself bowing to him in reverence at Badrinath, not knowing anything about him.
I thought it was over. No…He wrote a letter from Mumbai, care of Kantisen at Santacruz, inviting me to meet him again. He had kindly kept this friendship almost till he died on his ninety-fifth birthday. Employment at Kantisen’s business lead to new leads.
While serving in in XL, Mr. K. K. Chhayya was keeping account of raw materials in the same room. He was carrying a torn gujarti (language spoken in the state of Gujarat, India) magazine, all the time. One day he showed photographs of his school pal with his wife in a magazine and invited me to meet them at their home, Moraba House, Linking Road, Khar, Mumbai India
There were singing of ‘bhajans’ (devotional songs) by Dr. Chandrasen Sudderrao Poy the day I went to meet him. He was a magnet, and I was rusted iron filing. He dissuaded my going to meet him, as he says it is unnecessary. For the first few days he questioned me and finally allowed me to visit him as I pleased. The friendship is ever lasting, may be, for my several births, according to local belief, to come. I traveled with him, extensively and listened to him every day for fifteen years, and looking back, I know positively that he was not ordinary and he did not disclose as to who he was, spiritually. I believe that he was Lord Dattatreya (Brahma-Lord of creation, Vishnu-Lord of protection, Mahesh-lord of destruction, all combined and came as a child of Anusuya, whom Lord Shri Ram visits in his journey before reaching Lanka). Every place he visited was associated with Lord Dattatreya, except in the beginning when we visited places of Saints, starting with Saint Gnaneshwar, places where Lord Shri Ram with Sita and Shri Lakshman built a hut and stayed, near Nashik.
