How Prin. Mahableshwerwalla arrived in Warananagar:

By Abhay Bindumadhav Joshi

Notes:

1. This is based on my conversations with Pracharya during my recent visits to Bangalore.

2. I have taken the liberty to use his first name in the narration below, to make the story a bit more personal, and not to mean any disrespect. I hope that does not offend anybody!

 

 

Sam worked in the Satara Public School which is funded by Department of Education. Sam was not a government officer, but they had a special contract with him to run the school. The school was in the ZP (district office) building and was sufficiently isolated from the public traffic. The main door to the school was kept closed with a watchman ensuring no one entered without prior appointment. The main theme of this residential school was to pick talented boys from rural areas and fund their stay and education.

 

At this time, Tatyasaheb Kore and Dr. Shingte were actively looking for a principal for the school in Warananagar. They visited a number of reputed schools and traveled great distances looking for a suitable candidate. They even visited Satara Sainik School but didn’t know at the time about the Satara Public School. They finally got to know of Sam from an official in the State Education Ministry. So they drove off to Satara to check out Sam.

 

The watchman at the door asked them to wait, and sent a message to Sam that two gentlemen named Tatyasaheb Kore and Dr. Shingte wanted to meet him. When Sam learnt that they were looking for a school principal, he said, "I know of a retired colonel who has run schools." He called the colonel to meet with Kore and Shingte and went off for his morning round of the school. As usual, the round got prolonged and he forgot all about his visitors. After a couple of hours someone called him and reminded him that the visitors were still waiting for him! Tatyasaheb Kore had met the colonel in the mean time, but he still wanted Sam to come to Warananagar. When Sam declined, Tatyasaheb Kore finally rose to leave and said, “Can you at least visit Warananagar?” Sam said, “You know, it is easy for me to say 'yes, I will visit', but I know I won’t be able to visit, so what is the point of promising?” Tatyasaheb Kore remembered this reply and quoted it later to others many times.

 

After a few days, Sam received a long telegram inviting him to participate in interviewing candidates for the post of high school principal at Warananagar. Sam was on his way to Bangalore for summer vacation. He said to Edna, “Look, these people are after me to help them. They seem to be nice people and I think I should help them.” Edna was not very sure, so Sam said, “Ok, let me try to get a train reservation which might be difficult to get. If I don’t get a ticket, I won’t go. But at least, I will have tried.” So, Sam went to the station, and found that indeed there was no seat available. Just when he was about to leave, one of the Ticket Collectors said, “If you wait for some time, I may get a cancellation.”

 

And that is what happened! Sam got a ticket to go to Miraj. After arriving at Miraj he inquired about Warananagar and discovered that there was no bus until the next day. So he went to Kolhapur, where, he was told, there were buses to go to Warananagar. But, after reaching he found that there was no bus. So he went to the post office and called Warananagar. Tatyasaheb Kore took the phone and asked him to take a taxi to Warananagar. Coincidentally, there was a gentleman who also wanted to go to Warananagar. So they shared the taxi. After reaching, Tatyasaheb Kore welcomed him and said, “Let’s have lunch”. Sam said, “But we can’t. I am already late for the interviews. The candidates you invited must be waiting. We can’t delay them any more!” So Tatyasaheb Kore and others, who also hadn’t had lunch, had to finish the day’s schedule before having any food!

 

(Sam jokingly said to us, “After this episode, people learned to ensure they had eaten before joining me for any project”.)

 

The interviews were over in two days and Sam prepared to leave. Mr. Samudre and Mr. Kodag were hired at this time. At this point, a factory official approached Sam and said, “Please sign here for your travel allowance.” Sam said, “What allowance? I don’t need allowance. Just pay for the ticket.” The official was surprised but learnt a lesson about Sam! Before leaving, Tatyasaheb Kore persuaded Sam to make a monthly visit to Warananagar to coach and mentor the teachers. Sam agreed. So for the next whole year, he visited every month. At this time, Sam’s contract with the Satara School was getting over, and he decided not to seek an extension since it involved taking a full-time post with the Education Ministry. Tatyasaheb Kore implored Sam again to join full time. But since the replacement person for Sam hadn’t joined, Sam had to continue at Satara, so he declined once again. So, Tatyasaheb Kore appointed Mr. Dani as the principal of the high school.

 

A few months later, the replacement person joined and Sam was able to leave Satara finally. Tatyasaheb Kore was just waiting for such opportunity, and immediately asked Sam to join Warananagar. Sam said, “But you already have a principal. You don’t need me.” Kore said, “Don’t worry. We are promoting Mr. Dani to the post of CEO of the education department and hence the post of Principal is vacant.”

 

So after so much time and effort (on the part of Tatyasaheb Kore), Sam finally landed in Warananagar with his bags and baggage.