At the age of 98 years, Shri Madhav Krishnan Paradhi who retired as ANE from New Service Division, Akashvani, Delhi is completely fit and fine. He was an inspiration for over 100 retired persons who had gathered at Akashvani Pune for a grand Get-Together. The employees ranging from 60 to 98 years who had retired from various AIR and DD stations like Pune, Mumbai, Satara, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nasik and have settled at Pune were extremely happy to meet each other after a gap of tens of years. The programme was conceived and coordinated by retired employees – Prakash Sawarkar, Vyanktesh Bargaje, Ramesh Potnis, M.V. Zarekar with active support from Shri Ravindra Ranjekar, Dilip Palde and few other serving employees of AIR Pune. The anchoring on stage was effectively conducted by Shri Anand Deshmukh Former retired Announcer who is completing 50 years of Announcements next month.
The retired employees were called on stage in the batches of 15 to 20 and were requested to speak few lines about their journey in AIR & DD and their memoirs. It was privileged to listen to Shri M.Y. Thote (88 years), Former Chief Engineer who was responsible for the introduction of colour television in India. In an emotional speech, Shri Sambhaji Shelar(74) who had retired as Head Clerk said that though he had received an invitation to come to AIR on 26th Janurary, he could not make it due to ill health. Medicines and tonics are continuing but this time when asked by the family members, he said "I will definitely go on 6th June and attend this Grand Get Together". He said the invitation letter, written so intimately was the greatest tonic which could bring him to this function. Shri Ramesh Gulani(71), retired Flute Artist who is visually impaired said that long back he was Principal in school with Baba Amte but always wanted to be with AIR and God heard him and fulfilled his desire and he cherished working with the organisation. Every retired employee was given a chance and had something special to speak. Some of the names who participated include Shri A. Rajgopal(68) who had retired as Chief Engineer from Chennai, Sh. KA Shaikh(70), former ADG(WZ), Shri Rajeev who had retired as DDP from DDK Dibrugarh, Sh. JRA Pawar, former ADG (News), Smt. Usha P. Page(75), former SD, Sh. Sharad Bhosale(71), former SD, Sh. Arun Sakat(67) former DDG(P), DD, Vijaya Joshi(80), former Director(News), SB Deshpande(70), former DDE, Smt. Sharmila Karkhanis(70), former AD(News). Sh. NM Nilangekar(68), former SE, Sh. Chandrashekhar Karkhanis(74), former ANE, Sh. SG Moghe(78), former DDE, Sh. GG Deshpande(67), former DDE, Smt. Sunanda Kogekar(84), News Reader, NSD, Delhi. The Get Together was followed by a participatory lunch and the retired officers got a surprise gift of the group photograph of attendees and a bound directory containing contact details and Date of Birth of all attendees which was prepared within 3 hours by the team of dedicated volunteers.
The retired officers vowed that even after retirement, many of them would like to contribute positively for the society and it was also decided to set up an informal body – AIR & DD Clan, which will try to do some meaningful social events involving interested retired and serving employees. First such event is being planned as – day long visit to residential tribal school at Bhimashankar about 110 km away from Pune and the next may be an event at an old age home….
Source : Ashish Bhatnagar