Writings by Suresh Deo: SUSHI TAI ( HALWE ) KHANDEKAR - सुशिताई ( हळवे ) खांडेकर

SUSHI TAI ( HALWE ) KHANDEKAR - सुशिताई ( हळवे ) खांडेकर

My Dear,

Khandekar Pariwar @ Delhi, Sreekant, Vanita and Jay:

Apte Pariwar @ Delhi : Sanju, Suhas, Suwarna, and Aparna:

Khandekar Pariwar @ Amsterdam: Shyam, Ella, Siddhartha and Vinay (!)

Khandekar Pariwar @ Indore : Usha ( now the sole survivor amongst Halwe sibling )

And the extended family of loving relationships ~~~

Sharing with you some mental notes related to dear सुशिताई that might get fuzzy in the timelessness of time:

On Sun, Feb 12, 2017 at 12:40 AM, Khandekar <vivinkha@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Suresh,

The news about Indutai is definitely disturbing. But at the same time it is nice that she was enjoying life. A positive nature, surely, helps a person. Bal and her kids must be missing her.

I am sorry that I am mailing you after a long time.

Your articles are wonderful, I have found a new Suresh through them. Suresh, I really adore you for your enthusiasm, in-spite-of your problems. I am getting news of all the relatives through you. Please, keep it up.

Pictures of the forest are wonderful.They remind me of some forests I have walked through.

I will try to be prompt.

Sushitai

Sent from my iPad

NOTE : PLEASE CONTINUE READING BELOW PAST THE EMPTY SPACES ~~

Feb 12

to Khandekar

Sushi Tai, stay well.

Suresh

Re: INDUTAI SHEOREY

Attachment, email from Rekha ( Sapre ) Sheorey, which I had forwarded to सुशिताई.

30 June, 2017

Little did we know that in the gentle breeze of timeless time, we are going to lose both Indutai (Sapre) Sheorey @ 98 and Sushi Tai (Halwe) Khandekar @ 92 within a short span of a few months during the first half of 2017. Both of them had lived a full life graced by their self fulfilling optimism of life. Sreekant had reported that आई passed away peacefully in her sleep at home.

In recent weeks, I have been reminiscing about dear सुशिताई and my pleasant fortune of experiencing her presence during the past 70+ years of my audible life. As a result, I have automatically become the recipient and reservoir of several pleasant memories associated with her presence ranging from :

Her youthfull college years in Nagpur coinciding along with Sindhu Deo. At that time Sindhu was staying with Wadada and Vimutai Sheorey on Jail Road, Nagpur.
Her marriage with Balasaheb Khardekar of Amravati. Kaka ( my father ) was posted in Amravati during 1948-51 and as a result Sarojini and I were studying at VMV college in Amravati. Consequently, we had become very familiar with the Khandekar pariwar including Balasaheb, his parents and siblings including Pili, Bhalu and others.
During the above mentioned period, सुशिताई delivered her first child, Sanju, at Amravati. As सुशिताई was expecting to deliver her first child any day of a designated week, I was pedaling daily on my bicycle to check if the baby had arrived. The day previous to the actual delivery, their big Alsatian dog had bit me on my thigh at the entrance gate of the Khandekar residence in spite of my vainless efforts to fend him off. But fortunately the large Alsatian did not die after 12-days, and I was spared the 21-day course of injections in the stomach !! I was mortally afraid of even one injection at that time! During this period of 1948 -51, Sindhu Deo was also in Amravati married to Bhimrao Deshpande.
Later Balasaheb was posted on the Mahanadi River Dam construction project near Shivrinarayan, which was close to Bilaspur, MP. At that time Satchdada Deo was posted in Bilaspur, MP. While our entire Deo family was visiting Bilaspur at Diwali time, Kaka, Aii, SatchitTara, and all of us siblings visited सुशिताई N Balasaheb at their residential campsite in the small rural community of Shivrinarayan. Loe and behold, there was a new small baby in the crib, probably Sreekant/Shyam!. In that rural, open air environment सुशिताई was beaming pleasantness and Balasaheb was his natural effervescent presence.
Later Balasaheb’s posting with a frequency of approx every five years on various river Dam projects kept them moving to Korba and other rural locations.
Finally, a residential home at Bhilai, MP seemed to provide the stability that was needed for consolidating and bringing up the three children.
Ultimately as the three children Sanju, Shyam and Sreekant graduated out of school/college and moved out, followed by the untimely death of dear Balasaheb, it was an emotionally hard decision to sell off the Bhilai abode. सुशिताई had described about that painful experience in her eMail “ The home where we brought up our children and held onto it so very fondly, now I wanted to sell and get rid of it as fast as possible! “. That is the ever changing and challenging dynamics of time.
I had seen Sanju on the very first day of her birth in Amravati. Several years later, this very Sanju was studying at LAD college in Nagpur and staying at the hostel. During that time, I remember सुशिताई visiting Nagpur. Sanju had accompanied us to the KaliDevi Pradarshani at Dussehra festival time.
Later, I met सुशिताई a few times at Shyam-Ella’s residence in Amsterdam, Netherlands a few times after concluding my business related visits at Akzo Chemicals. At that time, Siddhartha was a few years old tomato faced sweet kid that rode on his small bicycle by Shyam and me along the Rhine river.
One and all Halwe siblings including सुशिताई , Babu, Bhaskar, Usha and Sudhakar pursued their University studies at Nagpur. As a result, we Deo siblings had interacted with them frequently and bonded.
Their mother Narmada आतेबाई and my Father Kaka were youngest amongst seven Deo siblings and were intimately bonded ever since childhood. The flavor and warmth of their mutual relationship seemed to condense naturally in our generation, and downstream.

सुशिताई and I were only eight years apart in age, and had the unique coincidences of overlapping places and time frames during which we met and shared life experiences. In my perspective, with her consistent unassuming simplicity and grace, she appeared like a transparent ( निर्मळ ) glass prism through which a beam of light diffracts displaying the Rainbow of colors and harmonious optimism of life.

The last time Usha and I met सुशिताई personally was at Anjali-Rajiv Luktuke’s residence in Kothrud, Pune a few years ago. Babu and सुशिताई were both present there in good spirits and demeanor considering their graceful age.

Our memories of dear सुशिताईi, Babu, Bhaskar and Sudhakar Halwe are fondly enduring and entrenched through life consciousness. Each one of them have left behind for us a self enriching legacy of optimism and warmth of life.

On a separate note, I am sharing with you a few of my communications received from dear सुशिताई ; associated Dewdrops along with the Rainbow of Life reflecting through her radiating positive attitude of Life.

I could not resist but brag about Sushitai's self reinforcing attitude of learning to use the iPad, which was gifted to her by Shyam in her ripe Seventies and promptly assisted by family members in Delhi for continued use of it comfortably. She utilized her emailing skills until her last few months of life @ 92 simply to stay in touch with her near and dear loved ones. How much positive can one get and brave life graciously ! सुशिताई had her share of age related physical issues, but never mentioned her consequential limitations in our mutual conversations.

Almost a decade ago, सुशिताई had direct dialed me @ Addison from her residence in New Delhi just to tell me that she liked an article that I had written. In consideration of the cost of an international call, she spoke for only one minute and affectionately said “ सुरेश तू छान लिहितो रे “. She was referring specifically to my article on “ १९६३ दिवाली का इनाम - आमचा म्हैतर/जमादार, देवकी आणि मी “ . In the article, I had described an incident during my first return visit to Nagpur from US in 1963. सुशिताई was very familiar with देवकी, आमच्या राऊत आणि रवताईंन ची मुलगी. The whole family of four “ राऊत, रवताईंन , देवकी आणि रेवती “ were resident in the side quarters of Nakhare bungalow @ Dhantoli, Nagpur. The said article dwelt on our social hypocrisy and its self-incriminating ugliness in dealing with the untouchable /अछूत / खालचे लोक, while we worship multiple Gods ( इष्ट देवांच्या मूर्त्या ) in our देवघर daily. That warm compliment from सुशिताई over the phone conversation has become an ever present, untarnishable Memory to cherish for my entire lifetime; more so because It prompted a responsibility to write responsibly about the realities of life.

As सुशिताई developed familiarity with her iPad, she gradually shared with me diverse experience of her life that bonded us further and deeper ~~~~ .

In the silent pause of moments, Life appears to condense like a Dewdrop reflecting the reality of existence beyond logic or reason and prompting us to surrender unconditionally to the universal wisdom encapsulated within ourselves.

I wished to end this tribute to सुशिताई with her casual photograph interacting with her immediate family members. However, in the temporary absence of a suitable photograph, I chose to dedicate the following song to her life of warmth and positivity. Today, I woke up with the tune in my mind “ So Long, Farewell ~~” from the classic movie Sound of Music.