Balewadi and Akashwani.

Somewhere I read 2 words- Balewadi and Akashwani. Nostalgia took me to my Engg days. Every morning, Aai listens Aakashwani. Though it is a big panic for my sister, who takes a conscious sleep, small programs of 5 minutes help Aai to keep track of time. Also they broadcast good information about various things.

I, usually in deep sleep, take periodic triggers for at least 30 mins to wake up. Aai used to start shouting at 6:30 maybe. After sleepy “aai-please-2-min.” for about half an hour, I used to hear 1st line on Akashwani.

Pune station, they air Sanskrit news. I am on time if I wake up between
“Eeyam Akashwani samprati vartaha shruyantam Pravachakaha Baladevananda Sagara ” and “Iti vartaha ”.

If it is “Aata aaikuya Nata Nisargashi ya sadarat Maruti Chitamapalli yanni dileli mahiti” and I am still brushing, I must skip bath.

If I hear “Bhalchandra Joshi pradeshik batamya det ahet.”, I could see my bus passing without me!

If the woman is saying “… apale aarogya ya sadarat Dr. Rajeev Sharangpani yanni dileli mahiti …”, I need to play different cards:

My college was near Balewadi. Oh no, even far from Balewadi- total dist. more than 30 KM. And prompt PMT used to provide buses to reach there with a great frequency of one for every 2 hrs. I must walk 1.5 km to catch the lal dabba. So, if I miss morning college bus, instead of taking next PMT after 3 hrs, I used to skip the college. HOD was Hitlar. In fact one can ridicule Hitlar with his name. So the rule was to inform him with reason, if you are taking off.

Well, he called a couple of times to enquire about my bunk to my mom. The phone was requested one. I gave this reason and asked him not to call :P.

So I used to write a quick application, and hand it over to Patil (a lecturer—yes he is not a Prof., (though he says so) who used to catch bus from my stop). Patil did this kabutarbaaji for some days. Markande then dared me to do so again.

Anyway there was no escape from his scolding, even if I reach the college. C teacher used to send me to him for not completing assignments. Patil would complain for not being attentive in class. Jaadi (don’t remember her name) would complain for misguiding other students while solving problems. Sheetal Kapde-Maths had complained for laughing (at her??) in the class. Many teachers noticed attitude problem, arrogance and complained to HOD. He also used to keep track of all my bunks. I still challenged him by announcing a mass bunk in the college. (Which was followed by disasters. I managed to end the story quite diplomatically :) or maybe he allowed me to do so!!)

He punished me by all various means; still I enjoyed those days … like most of us did.