Programs done in November

Ann Dr Vasundhara Phulambrikar

On the 14 th of November our guest for the weekly meeting was Mr Amit Godse the bee man of India .

His presentation on his work in the field of honey bee conservation and cross pollination was an eye opener and very informative.

His start up is called Bee Basket and is based in Pune.It provides pollination services to farmers , FPOs and seed companies in India. They have also trained around 1000 tribals in sustainable honey harvesting and bee keeping thus providing them livelihood. Till date they have conserved more than 8000 bee hives in Pune and Mumbai alone.

Bee basket is associated with ministry of agriculture and family welfare, PUSA institute Delhi and Atal incubation cells at NID Ahmedabad and IIM Kolkata.

His observation of how come we see lesser bee hives these days but more and more bottles of honey on supermarket shelves got us intrigued as he went on to  explain about adulteration and spurious honey.How honey is a natural product and cannot be customised .

He explained the characteristics of different types of bees and also the various varieties of honey and medicinal properties 

On our request he had got bottles of raw honey which were a big hit amongst our members.

 The introduction was done by Vasundhara and Manoj thanked him .

Overall a sweet memorable evening.

Rtn Manoj Phulambrikar 

Mother tongue’s role in family life and in education has always been a topic of debate. There’s concern about the demise of a local language due to a lack of usage. Education in local languages is thought of as effective in imparting sound conceptual knowledge. 

Shri. Vasudev Dongare, a polyglot who has expertise in 9 languages, delivered a talk on “The Importance of Language Education in Changing Times” at our Club on Monday, 21st November. 

Childhood & Languages  

Vasudev grew in “Mala” – a somewhat isolated and picturesque place in the Udupi District of Karnataka – a village where “Chitpavanni”, his mother tongue, is still in use. Most of the families from “Mala” are migrants who travelled from Konkan in 1618 AD. They carried with them their language and customs. The young boy picked up “Tulu” from his Udupi friends, and “Konkani” from Gaud-Saraswat families that resided in the village. In school, he studied “Kannad”. 

“Learning a language includes studying the details of its grammar,” Dr. Dongare said. 

Sanskrit Education

The famine of 1971 made many young boys like him go to Sringeri Sharada Peetham for studies. Here, he began studying “Sanskrit” language. His sharp intellect made him study the language’s grammar in-depth. 

“The grammar of spoken Sanskrit differs from the grammar of Vedas,” he said. “Every language has old and new versions. You need to be adept at both.” 

He learnt “Malyali” from his friend.  Later, he got a doctorate in “Sanskrit” language. 

In 1987 he became a resident of Pune. Soon, he began speaking fluent “Marathi”. Dr. Dongare worked in Pune’s leading Marathi daily, “Sakal”, for 22 years. He gave examples of grave consequences wrong word-usage caused in the newspaper. Thankfully, most major disasters got averted just before the paper got into final print. 

Local Language – Education & Career 

“For a career in language you need to know the spoken version, script, grammar, and the old and new versions of language in-depth,” he said. “It helps if you get a good teacher. A guru.” 

Dr. Donagre has been a part of the team accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His expertise in instant interpretation, besides translation, was a great help. 

The Indian Government plans to open local language education schools. Books on subjects like engineering and medicine will soon be available in several Indian languages. “This will ensure a more detailed understanding of the subject,” he said. 

Persons from the Southern Indian States love conversing in their mother tongue when they meet anywhere in the world. This keeps a language alive.  “Marathi-speaking people should emulate this. It fosters affinity among each other,” Dr. Vasudev Dongare said. He gave a tragic example of two persons who lived as strangers next to each other only to discover their shared language and culture a couple of years later. 

In Conclusion Dr. Vasudev Dongare would soon be representing India during a worldwide event on local languages that will be held in the US. He is busy with research and translation of several manuscripts.  

Overall, his talk covered his own journey, anecdotes from his working life, and work opportunities in local languages. He also gave credit to destiny in giving him opportunities. 

Rtn Manoj Phulambrikar introduced the speaker. PP Anand Nawathe delivered the vote of thanks.

ऍन मीना इनामदार.

सोमवारचा प्रमुख कार्यक्रम हा “मेडिटेशन” विषयावरचा असला तरी रोटरी  प्रथेप्रमाणे (नोव्हेंबर महिना आणि नॉमिनेशन कमिटी)  कार्यक्रमाची सुरुवात  “नॉमिनेशन कमिटी ” च्या निवडणुकीने झाली . 

नॉमिनेशन कमिटी खालील प्रमाणे :

• आई पीपी डॉ शोभा राव 
• पीपी डॉ अविनाश कुलकर्णी
• पीपी  वृंदा वाळिंबे 
• पीपी अशोक गाडगीळ 
• पीपी अनिल दामले 
• रो. अनिरुद्ध इनामदार
• पीई डॉ स्मिता जोग 

कार्यक्रमाचा उर्वरित भाग “मेडिटेशन” ह्या  विषयावर  होता .  

  या जन्मावर या जगण्यावर शतदा प्रेम करावे…. हे अत्यंत आवडतं गाणं.पण या गाण्या  प्रमाणे जगण्यावर खरच प्रेम करायचे तर शारिरीक व मानसिक तब्येत छान ठेवणं गरजेचे आहे.

शारिरीक तब्येत चांगली रहाणं हे मानसिक तब्येत कशी आहे यावर पण अवलंबून असते.IQ.बरोबरच EQ हा पण तितकाच महत्वाचा मुद्दा आहे जीवनातला. मन: शांती मिळणे हे सगळ्यात महत्वाचं . ध्यानधारणा, समाधी, प्रार्थना या गोष्टींमुळे मन:शांती मिळू शकते. ती कशी मिळवायची ह्याचे विवरण करण्यासाठी आपल्याकडे “अंजली बापट ” आली .ज्या मुलांच्या गरजा वेगळ्या असतात अशा मुलांसाठी ती गेली 20 वर्ष काम करते.युके,सिंगापूर आणि आता भारतात सातत्याने ती कार्यरत आहे.ती इलेक्ट्रोनिक्स इंजिनिअर आहे.

“हार्ट फुल नेस” इन्स्टीट्यूट बरोबर” मेडिटेशन ” या विषय यासाठी काम करते. याच्या 150 हून अधिक देशात शाखा आहेत.सुमारे13000 प्रशिक्षक 40 लाखांहून अधिक लोकांना मेडिटेशनवर मार्गदर्शन करतात.अंजली स्वतः अनेकांना मार्गदर्शन करते.आपल्याला अनेकदा तळपायाची आग मस्तकाला जाते अशी मनाची अवस्था होते .तीच कमी करायची हे अंजलीने पायापासून मस्तकापर्यत शरिराला सूचना देत मेडिटेशन कसे करायचे हे प्रत्यक्ष आपल्याकडून करून घेतले.मेडिटेशन चे अनेक फायदे सांगितले.

तिचं भाषण ऐकताना तिला असलेली याविषयीची ओढ,अभ्यासपूर्ण माहिती, अनुभव तिनेओघवती भाषेत शांतपणे आकलन करून सांगितले.आपल्याच क्लब मधले अविनाश व वीणा यांची ती जेष्ठ कन्या.. अंजलीची ओळख आणि आभार प्रदर्शन रो. अनिरुद्ध इनामदार ह्यांनी केले .

अप्रतिम आणि सद्य परिस्थितीत गरजेचा असा विषय आहे हा.अंजली ,मनापासून कौतुक.पुढील वाटचालीस शुभेच्छा !!