Somebody asked me to translate my Palaspe article into English.
Since I had limited time, I took help from Google. Frankly, Google needs to
improve a lot on translation skill and I need to intervine my lines to continue
the connect between lines. Hope you would also read this keeping the
expectation LOW… 😊😊
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Four decades of fond memories
Village of memories - Palaspe
In my entire family, no one had heard the word Palaspe
before 1980. My father relocated to Panvel and thought that it would be easy
for him to live in Palaspe, he had a small home in Raje's place. In fact, Baba
did not find a rented house in Panvel, although he tried a lot. Then someone
pointed out this address. Most of the job-seekers in Panvel to prefer to stay
in Palaspe. Panvel Palaspe Distance is just 3 km. The travel is done by
bicycle. Although Panvel is 50 km away in Mumbai, the civilisation of Mumbai
did not started in Panvel at that time. It maintains its our separate identity.
Although all the government affairs in the district of Kulaba operated through
Alibag, many government offices were in Panvel. The national highway Mumbai-Pune
routes through Panvel and Mumbai Goa National Highway was started near Panvel
and it was a place called Palaspe Phata. This is how we would introduce the
village to the guests and the relatives.
At that time, with no transportation and abundance of travel
equipment, most of the visitors from Pune or Ahmednagar got off the bus at
Palaspe Fata and used to walk to our house. It was a bit difficult to reach
Panvel, change the bus and reach back to Palaspeby catching the bus for the
route Pen, Alibag, Shrivardhan and request the driver to get off at Palaspe.
The driver of the long-haul bus did not even agree to stop for a moment at
Palaspe. Another identification of Palaspe village is the old Banyan tree near
the bus stop. The tree, which has been standing for at least two centuries, is
a witness to all the events of the village's 19th and 8th centuries.
For me, Palaspe was the ideal village forever as I spent my
childhood for 4 years. This village was home to some hundreds of people, even
with a typical Wada culture. Many homes in the village had no electricity at
that time. A small river was flowing through the village. On the bank of the
river stood a temple of Shankar and a temple of Vishnu, with a statue of
Hanuman standing beside it. There were main 2 things from the farm rice and
mangoes. Everything else had to be brought from Panvel, even the daily
newspapers had to come on a bicycle from Panvel and then reach home.
Palaspe is a village in Konkan, with plenty of rainfall and
main crop as rice. We used to go from school to help in the farm with permission
from the school. Although it was fun element for us, those who had farming had
to work a lot. At the beginning of the monsoon, when the hand constellation
begins, plough the field, after a little rain or sow the paddy to a certain
part of the field, then after a lot of time the seedlings can be removed and
transplanted. Harvesting, weeding and many other tasks when the crop is ready.
Mango was abundant in the village, but it does not as tasty as the Ratnagiri
Hapus. The roaring rains do not want to change the style of living even in the
rain.
It must be a surprise for you to note that the primary
school in our village was 150 years old. Vasudev Balwant Phadke, India's first
freedom fighter, studied in the school. His village is close to here. At that
time, the village was home to many Brahmin congregations even the people of the
Katakari community, used to stay here. Being a village on the highway, trucks
and big vehicles used to get loud at night. There were frequent accidents on
the highways and the villagers used to rush to help. We used to be afraid to
walk the highway at night, even at night.
In 1983, when we bought the TV first time, the whole village
used to watch TV at our house. There was no cable TV or dish TV. Even the low
capacity television power stations had not arrived. Therefore, a large antenna
had to be installed on a high ceiling to get a signal from the Mumbai
Television Center to watch the TV. There were about 100 people sitting in the
front room and door of our house watching it. Sarpanch had a TV in his house
but people were afraid to go there. We had no such problem.
Even though there is a lot of rain during the monsoon, the
water was very scarce for the remaining 8 months. I remember well, my mother
and I walked miles to get water. The Katakari community was also very poor.
They used to walk for so long, breaking the wood in the forest of the Karnala
fort, twisting it and they would get Rs. 5 or 10. Even though we had
electricity, most of the houses in the village were dark at night. Most of the
children in the village used to study in the candle light. At that time I uded
to ask, I have electricity in my house then how can they not have it? The
answer was never answered, but now it does. Extreme poverty was seen very
closely.
Another feature of Palaspe village is the neighbouring
Karnala fort. A bird sanctuary was also built there. Shivaji Maharaj, who had
won the fort after his release from Agra, included the Karnala fort in swarajya
himself. The top of the Karnala fort was easily visible from anywhere in the nearby
area. We were excited to make the day trip to Karnala to all the relatives.
Our neighbourhood was also very good at Palaspe. We used to
celebrate many festivals like Vatpurnima, Hartalika, Ganapati, Dussehra,
Diwali, Kojagiri. These same people gave us lot of support in the face of
adversity.
I recently made a day trip there to brighten up the memories
of Palaspe village and immediately noticed that our village has now changed.
Things and distances that seem so long as a kid are starting to seem very small
to me today, but I was also feeling the change over time.
The famous Goa highway has a big fly-over at Palaspe. The
geography is changed due to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust inception in 1989.
Traffic in this area has increased multi-fold due to a whole new road from
Palaspe Fata to JNPT. Container yards has grabbed all farms in this entire
area. Going past the paddy fields there are huge size containers. Some farmers
have leased their land to large auto companies. Overall, farm land has reduced
day by day. The school has a new building but it could not create connect with
me. It was nice to meet some of the oldest folks left in the village. The old
memories woke up again. Rice Bhakari, that aroma of rice once again took me
back 40 years to rice fields.
Today, the Navi Mumbai border extends beyond Panvel. The
name of Navi Mumbai, with its sweet and cute name. The population headed east,
and his waves swept across the country like a well-drained slope. Palaspe Fata
has become a major outpost for vehicles traveling to JNPT, not just a place.
One flyover on the other, ongoing work and on the other side Mumbai
skyscrapers. Earlier, we had a great appreciation for a bus starting from
Panvel to Mumbai and Thane every hour. Today, Mumbai has swallowed Panvel and Palaspe.
The project of the
new international airport is set to open soon. Like "Navi Mumbai",
"New Panvel" is expanding its orbit. I am afraid that after a few
years in this wave of urbanization, numerous villages like Panvel, Palaspe, Shrivardhan,
Taloja, Kolkha, Derwali and Ajivali are losing their identity. The fears have
only become darker after seeing the advertisement address "New
Panvel" of the ongoing construction project in Khopoli. At Lonavla
Talegaon, advertisers have discovered a new word "Pumbai". The
futuristic place in his mind is the bridge between Pune and Mumbai.
Most farmers in Palaspe today either sell land or secure
their future by renting, but will they ever notice that their village identity
is being gradually wiped out? ….
-
Mandar V Kulkarni
-
15 December 2019
