Bhaumama was my grandmother's elder brother. ( He was my father's mama actually but i used to call him by same name . ) His full name is Purushottam Keshav Shenvi Kakodkar. He was a Member of Parliament in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. You can read more => Purushottam Kakodkar The link between airplane and him is because of the fact that was imprinted on my mind when i was kid by my granny 'MAEE'. When MAEE had mentioned to me , just once , that Bhaumama travels in airplane , i had fixed it in my mind that in every airplane that goes , there must be Bhaumama inside . ( how foolish i was ! ) Every time the airplane went i used go running out of the house yelling 'Bhaumama .. Bhaumama...'.
Bhaumama .. though he was there in my life for a very short time ... i remember him very very clearly. The first thing that comes to my mind is his white khadi clothes and the peculiar fragrance that he used carry on his khadi clothes . He used to always wear khadi long sleeves shirt and pant , black boots , thick black color framed spectacles ( he was the same every time and i cannot imagine him in any other outfit ) . Whenever he used to come in our house , he used get his ambassador car which was another attraction for me.
He used to enter house with wide smile , I always in front to greet him , then MAEE ( he used to call her by name KALYAN ) and then Baba & others. Every time he came home , i remember him getting chocolates(foreign :) ) and story books . He was one person who spoke a lot about education from his heart and was one of those people who have goddess 'sarswati's varadhast' ( though that time i used to not understand what he used to say ).
He has directly or indirectly influence on my personality , my command on language( esp Devanagari ). He was the one to encourage me to learn Sanskrit when i was in 2nd standard . I remember very clearly ... Once when we had visited his flat in Panjim , very small flat with hall which was more like his office having office table , a sofa in front , gallery on one side facing the road and exactly opposite kitchen ( used to have every time the 'vah taj tea' used to call it dip dip ). He had one photo frame of 'OM' on one wall and Gandhiji and Indira Gandhi on other walls. He had made me read the first sloka in sanskrit
I had read it for the first time with his help and second time without his help. That very moment he had given Baba many small slokaas which he had , and told me to learn them along with their meaning . And the slokaas were learned by one method in 3 steps : 'PATH' , 'TONDPATH' and 'MUKHODGAT'. No fumbling for words ..
I did it very fast and he was impressed and he gave more slokaas to recite. Then he told me to learn 'aadhyay'(lessons) from 'bhagwat geeta' .. aadhyay 13th , 15th and the longest 18th . I had learned them all and participated in many competitions. I remember because of this competitions in which i took part , i had got rid of stage fear.
You will find much to read about him in books because he was a freedom fighter . But what i have written here are my childhood memories of Bhaumama. I consider myself very lucky to have him in my life.
