जिंदादिल

 

When I first heard the death of Dr. Kunte sir, I felt from inside that this should not be happen. He died in a fatal accident. Last year he had his bypass, but he seems to be recovered well, even showed some of  his brilliance ( trademark shayari) at the send off. ( Bhau patankar was his favourite,  like me.)

            So what set apart his from others? Frankly speaking, I was neither his student nor a close one who observed him every day. I guess I met him only 7-8 times but it was a real pleasure each time. That man defied all the boundaries of agedness. He seems to be getting younger by each passing day. Wine taste gets better and better as it gets old, same applied to sir.

                        I heard a lot about him in my graduation days but never had a chance to meet him. It was only when our dept organized a camp at Rahuri, then I came to a person behind the nametag Kunte sir. He was all the time surrounded by the students, he used to question them, told interesting stuffs (which we used to think a bit uncharacteristic for a statistics teacher) but as I said that, “man never rode same trodden path. He was explorer”.

                        We met some people very few times in our life but they leave everlasting impression on us. Why that happened? Because,”inside within us we always idolized some conceptions, a kind of lifestyle which we very loved to live but for some or other reason we can’t. When we came across the kind of people who live according to what we consider the best form of life. We start admiring them, as simple as this!”  I used to think what made me fascinate about sir, whether his enthusiasm, his trademark laughing style mesmerizing the subdued atmosphere or his inner belief that we can make better of everything. I just can’t separate one thing out.

                        At the last day of camp we had a campfire. It was all about Kunte sir night. He told shayaries, gazals , poems, mischievous  jokes , laughed along with us. That night was never intend to end.

            He now may not belong to this materialistic world but his smile will always remained with us.

 

 ज्योत जळत असते
अन समां उजलत असते
ना ज्योतीच्या ठायी कोणा गर्वाभिमान
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