Last Smart TV donation no.4 was done on 1st Jan which was a Saturday. That time only we got this lead of Bandalawadi. Got to know how to travel there, which turn to take as we were quite new that time in area called Ajnup.
On 2nd Jan before the wifeys cake cutting at Uthava, we went to Bandalwadi tribal ZP school.
One of the most extremely located tribal (this is my typical line in every blog because as am writing, we have completed 22 Smart TV donations & out of this 22 tribal ZP schools, 21 are extremely located & few of them are toh horribly & extremely located like Uthava, Sawarde, Hiwalwadi, Dariyachiwadi, Baudhpada etc.
Anyways coming back to Bandalwadi, one of the most beautiful locations we have seen. It was looking like a picture set as it was surrounded by mountains from the 3 sides & in middle lies the ZP school, beautiful indeed. The school does have 2 or 3 beautiful & pleasant trees in front of it & have a little playground too in between the trees & school. The soil was dark red on the backdop was the big mountain.
The ZP school kids were cute as other schools kids. My kiddo played with them a lot.
He used to go to pre military class under coach Sheikh sir & still goes. He learns marching, how to run, how to take the stanz etc. He taught all this to the kids there. Played few games too with them. Taught them how to march as in “ek do, daye dekh, baye dekh etc.” & when the kids didn’t obeyed what he said used to yell on them bcos his coach yells on him when he didn’t do it properly & that’s where he used to copy. Made him understood the same.
There was 5th grade girl called “Naina” & she was a fantastic runner. Not that my son is the best runner in the world but thought that he would defeat her although she is 3 yrs. older than her. She won the race single handedly & I wasn’t that sad but knew that she is going to win against him.
The next Saturday i.e. 8th Jan, we 3 alongwith Mukul Tilak went for the donation drive.
The arrangement was done outside the school in the small ground & the whole hamlet was gathered for this donation. As soon as the function started, it started drizzling but we completed the function somehow.
It was still Corona times & gathering like this wasn’t good for all of us. Anyways we left it to God & we proceeded with these donation sprees.
During the function, we met a group of 4 friends from Dombivli who does donate stationaries like notebooks, pencils etc.
After the donation while returning, we stopped at one of the tribal places for lunch in a house & it was fabulous lunch.
To add on: Presently bcos of lot of snakes issue, the ground have been covered by paver blocks & I didn’t liked it at all. Anyways it was done for the security of the kids from snakes.
Blog.No.6 Bondarpada, requirement gathering on 9th Jan 2022, TV donation on 5th Feb 2022
After 5th smart tv donation on 8th Jan which was a Saturday, Madhu & me the next day went to c Bondarpada tribal which was nearer to Uthava.
Extremely tribal & somewhat densely populated. There was vaitarna river adjacent to this hamlet & we saw a beautiful scenery from their too.
It was corona times & corona was on the rise that month so we did the requirement gathering on 9th Jan 2022 & almost after a month did the TV donation on 5th Feb.
This TV donation was very special as my AAI accompanied with us this time for the 1st time.
It was a beautiful function & a stage was build for the same with everything pink in colour. Younger girls there were present wearing a saree & that gace a very cute sense to this function.
Aai gave a small bhashan too & that was superrr cute. Told them “To study & study”. Aai even wore me garland & that was huge emotional moment for me & my wifey.
Pankaj sir too joined this group for the 1st time. When we were sitting on the stage asked him “sir did u liked this” & he replied by patting on my back. That was huge for me.
Blog No.7 Sawarde, TV donation on 12th March 2022
One of the most extremely tribal ZP school in terms of distance was Sawarde in Mokhada area.
After our 5th Smart TV donation in Bondarpada on 5th Feb there was corona at the large due to which we took a break between 4th & 5th Smart TV. Then again we took a break for few weeks & went to Sawarde for requirement gathering.
It is easily more than 120 kms from Dombivli & the 3 musketeers went to c the school.
It was so extremely located that the Sawarde ZP schools sir came to take us to the school because there were couple of ghats in between & some left or right turn & was confusing a lot. After a lot of travel, we reached the school.
Beautiful village & cute school indeed. It was Palghar district & 1st time went out of Shahapur district.
One of the 1st students in all those tribal ZP schools who greeted us in English & we were pleasantly surprised. We decided to donate Smart TVs there.
Came 1st week if March & I was down with viral fever & had tension of affecting Corona. In fact I had corona as per Doctor & he told me to keep mum about it. We decided the date before I was infected & the day of donation came. I wasn’t well. Took our car but Amit Agre who had come for the 1st time to a donation prog insisted that I shud come in his Innova & here we went.
The TV was donated by Vijay Pravina & Pravina alongwith Madhu, Pankaj sir, Amit Agre & me went to Sawarde. Saw the tribal village too & came to know that my fav Uthava is just 10 min from there, just we have to cross a river Vaitarna in between.
Blog No.8, Kolipada, Date of Donation – 23rd April 2022
The 7th Smart TV was donated on 12th March & full March & few weeks of April went into my illness & wifeys illness. So there was a gap between 7th smart TV donation on 12th Mar in Sawarde & 8th one in Kolipada on 23rd April.
Kolipada is a cute little tribal ZP school on the way to Uthava, the extremely tribal place.
The kids here were very smart like other schools & the teachers too. Amit Agre donated his TV here & his friend Amol too accompanied us. We had a big lunch party after the function & I guess this is the school where we started shooting videos of the functions & other stuffs.
So first 7 smart TV donations, we have only photographs whereas after this the video saga started.
Bhanushali sir too gave a speech on Mauli & one of the tribal school kid there had created a poem for us which he sang.
Blog No.9, Gopalpada, date of donation – 7th May, TV donor – Abhishek Joshi
Me & my wifey were dancer before. Though she can still dance superbly, the same cant b spoken about me now. We had a common friend called Abhishek Joshi. After our marriage, we left the class & were busy in our respective lives.
Till this Smart TV donation, videos of tribal kids, tribal ZP schools were doing the rounds on Instagram, FB. From no where this Abhishek Joshi with whom we didn’t had contact for approx 13 years called me & said “Charu, saw ur work for the tribal ZP school kids, its superb. What can I do?”
It was such a fine gesture from him & shows such a nice human being he is. I replied, “If u r financially very good then come & donate a TV”. Immediately he agreed & he came all the way from Malad to Kasara & 1 friend accompanied him.
Gopalpada, one of the extreme tribal ZP schools which is known for snakes all around wherever uone goes. We had a function there in which Abhishek too gave a speech, we had a breakfast party under the tree & we were satisfied that one more tribal ZP school we accomplished.
C how it works. Abhishek did something for the society like every person in our Mauli group. He donated a TV for the tribal kids edutainment & demanded nothing out of it. God then in return blessed him with a cash back offer of 5000/- & he wud donate his 2nd TV next month. This is a circle of good karma. It comes back to u when u help unintentionally. Stay blessed bro & every kid in the world.
Blog No.10, Nevare, TV donor – Narayan Kulkarni (2nd hand TV), date of donation – 22nd May
My office told me to goto Delhi for one project & we had recently got a 2nd hand TV from my school friend Narayan Kulkarni. So we thought to use this TV in Nevare as its location was completely off the track from where we donated our 9 TV´s. It was situated in Tansa jungle whereas we had donated our 9 TV´s near Kasara.
But bcos it was a 2nd hand TV, we thought to donate it there. We crossed the Tansa wildlife & I guess, we saw it for the first time. We wished to stop there for sometime but didn’t had time.
All these 10 smart TV´s which r superbly located in midst of the beautiful nature, we didn’t got time to stay back somewhere or spend time with the nature bcos everytime we r running to c the schools or give notebooks or toys or donation functions. Anyways God have his own plan.
Me & wifey hurriedly went there for the donation on 22nd May. Bhanushali sir accompanied us from Atgaon station & then he told that a respected sir from that schools area died the day earlier due to heart attack. So we had a small function & we came back satisfied.
Blog No.11, Pethyachapada, Date of donation- 11th June, TV donor – Sanket Karnik
This was that time when after coming from kiddos class before the office work I used to wonder, from where to bring donors. Fortunately we got few donors & purse amount was also good. But from where to find new donors. Was doing extensive marketing on FB & Insta plus WhatsApp.
From nowhere a msg came on Messenger from a friend of mine with whom we lost touch as were busy in our respective lives. His name is Sanket Karnik, we exchanged numbers & spoke after 23 years.
The reason is our tribal videos on FB, Insta. He saw that on FB & was willing to help. Again my “learn by hearted line” which is “if u r fina ncially well off, do donate a TV” & he readily agreed.
This shows such a nice human being he is, hats off to these guys.
We went to Pethyachapada which is situated on the right side of the highway as we had worked on the left side mostly in an area called “Ajnup”. Superbly located like other tribal ZP schools & I guess Shreedhar Parab for the first time accompanied us to the tribal ZP schools.
After the donation function, we had a video call too with Sanket & he was very happy due to that & one can sense that by hearing his voice.
And its important on our part too to show the transparency to the donors too as they shud know where their money is going.
Presently, we do have WhatsApp group with the all the sirs & teachers & they send us the videos of their school kids learning digitally.
Blog No. 12, Karanjpada, date of donation – 25th June 2022
We. Kolarkar had a purchased a Smart TV in month of April. But we didn’t found time to c the smart TV bcos of office or Yuvi’s school or Yuvis homework. I those 2 months we saw only 2 movies on that TV which were “Swades & Taare Zameen par”. Hence we decided to donate that Smart TV.
There was no new school which we had seen that time so we decided to c this school. Here we went to c the school. It was extremely tribal & had one of the factories in its vicinity too.
The kids there not only tribal but also consisted of other castes too. That time we came to know the caste & its other properties. We unknowingly re-collected the tribal kids at Uthava. They are so backward in life because of the locations in which they stay.
Anyways Mukul & Sonali Tilak along with Pankaj sir & Parab accompanied us to the TV donation which was done on 25th June 2022.
As am writing this, recollected that on this day 25th June 1983, we had won our first world cup under Kapil Dev.
Presently, this tribal ZP school is using the smart TVs to the fullest especially dance number alongwith studies & the sirs there do send us the videos every now & then.
Blog no.13, Musaiwadi, Date of donation – 16th July 2022
We did the requirement gathering for this school on 18th June & after approx 1 month had TV donation here. In this month we had notebooks donation for few of the tribal ZP schools in Karanjpada which would be written In a different blog.
While I was marketing for donations for our cause, a call came from US & told “Charu Sir, Sri here”. I wondered who is Sri then after some chat got to know that the person to whom I am talking is Srinivas Tothakura & we fondly called Tothya when we were in Indusind Bank. He junior to me & for last 6 to 7 yrs staying in US. He told that he saw the tribal school videos on FB, Insta & he wants to donate a TV. That was so nice, coming from far away land & shows such a nice human being he is.
We went to see this school which was located apposite of where we did our maximum work. This school was in right to Shahapur whereas we did our maximum work near Kasara & 1 in Tansa plus 1 in Mokhada.
Anyways coming back to Musaiwadi, me & wifey went to c the school. It was horribly & extremely located & midst of jungle like most of the tribal ZP schools. For the 1st time, my moter in law accompanied alongwith Pankaj sir, Parab & by default wifey & Yuvi.
We had a beautiful function & Bhanushali sir alongwith the teacher there had difficulties in spelling out the donor name “Mahanvitha Tothakura”.
Yuvi also gave a small speech there for the kids & after the donation we came back satisfied like always.
Blog No.14 & 15, Ambyachapada & Chafyachapada, date of donation: 30th July 2022
These are interesting donor stories.
We have Dangat kaka staying on 4th floor of my building Satyam, a very friendly uncle.
Informally I told him the earlier month “What wud u do with all these money, u also have a farmhouse in ur native. Give a TV for my tribal kids”. Immediately he agreed & told “TV dila means I wud give TV on my retirement”. I replied “Shud my kids wait for ur retirement” on which he said “I am retiring on 31st July so u wud get money that time”. I was on cloud nine as we got 1 more TV.
2nd TV in this donation came from a family called Bhushan who resides on the 1st floor of my building. 2 brothers & their families alongwith parents live in a harmony & that’s treat to watch.
They met me in the staircase & I told them informally “Dedo TV mere bacchlog ke liye” & they instantly agreed & transferred the money when the time came.
The above 2 personalities are beautiful human beings i.e. Dangat kaka & Bhushan family. Without coming to the place where there TV wud b donated, relying only on the videos, that’s superb.
I persuaded both of them to join but due to time constraints they were unable to join.
Anyways coming back to the donation, it was one of the hottest TV donation prog. Rain wasn’t there that much but heat & moisture was horribly high. Also because both the schools are next to each other i.e. couple of kms in between, we had a joint celebration that day & we sat outside the school in the open ground. It was a sight to watch with positivity all around.
It is for the 1st time that Mohit & Kiran came for the 1st time to these kind of prog I guess. They brought lot of notebooks, colouring books for the kids.
As always we came back happy & satisfied.
Blog No.16 Gaydhara, date of Donation – 5th Aug
One of the fastest TV donation to a school after requirement gathering was done.
Nilesh patil who is my childhood friend from our school also have Kings group with them with does their bit for the needy people living in Murbad area.
He called me & told that there is a donor & he wants to donate a TV instantly on eve of his bday.
Me & my wifey wondered that we don’t have a TV with us. Immediately we asked Bhanushali sir & he gave us this school. Its in Ajnup area which is one of the worst area & that’s the reason we have donated majority of the TVs here.
We went to c the school & luckily it came out to be one of the extreme tribal ZP schools & date of donation was decided as 5th Aug 2022, a Friday.
Met the Kings group while I was eating Uttapaa on 90 ft road, Nilesh & Umesh Patil which is another example of brothers who does stay in harmony.
Reached the mentioned school & the guys which came with us were amazed to c how the tribals live as they were seeing it for the 1st time.
Had a beautiful function there & we came back satisfied seeing the smiling tribal kids faces.
Blog No.17, Oholyachiwadi, date of donation – 7th Aug 2022
August month was superb by Gods grace & we did as many as 5 smart TV donations to various tribal ZP school kids.
This is a very interesting story. During the TV donation at Musaiwadi, Shanmuga Priya who is my ex-colleague residing in Selam, Tamil Nadu called me. As the network was horribly poor there told her that I wud call back. But got that she wud donate 5K for our cause. I was happy & at the same time felt that she shud had given a TV but was thank ful to her & God that we got 5K which is a huge amount.
During last 2 weeks me & wifey started doing followups especially or letters in each & every school. During one of the breakfast time at Udupi, Mukul called me, told there is an offer on Amazon & we wud get TVs for 7000. I directly put that on my WhatsApp status & immediately Priya called me in literally 2 min & said that Charu I wud give 7000 instead of 5000 bcos of that offer. I was so damn happy & ate the samosa sambar with extra love.
Bsck to Oholyachiwadi, Shanmuga Priyas TV was donated here. One of the extreme tribal location wise it was superb. You have to start the 1st part of Kasara ghat & immediately on one of the turn is this school.
We had a good function there, Sheikh sir, Sidhant & Brahma accompanied us this time.
Blog No. 18, Hiwalwadi, date of donation: 13th Aug 2022
One of the tribal ZP schools where TV donation took approx 8 months because we had seen this school on 1st Jan 2022 after the TV donation at Dariyachiwadi. But after that the school requests didn’t came to us.
While I did mentioned you that there was an Amazon sale & Priya donated 1 TV few weeks back then as narrated in my earlier blog, told Vinod Rao who is my childhood school friend & fantastic human being indeed. The same hotel & same time when Priya told me that she wud donate TV, Vinod also msgd me saying that he wud donate 2 TVs, one from ICAN his ITES company & the other on behalf of his young grandfather of 93 yrs. of age. Superr human beings I have met in this mission & Vinod is definitely one among them.
It was Amrit Mahotsav that week as India completed 75 yrs. of Independence & during the TV donation at Gaydhara, Bhanushali had requested Kings club for some fruits to few tribal ZP schools on eve of the Amrit Mahotsav. They readily agreed.
Also there were 15 cycles which I had collected for the tribal ZP school kids for the 3rd donation drive were ready so we decided to take the tempo with us alongwith fruits first to Fanaspada where we wud donate the cycles then to Umbarmalli then to Aadmal, Sir of Pethayachapada wud come & take his fruits share & lastly to Hiwalwadi where TV donation wud take place.
As planned it went perfectly. During the start of the journey, we saw Kings club eating Uttapaa but it was raining & the tempo had gone already with cycles. So we didn’t did any breakfast. Reached the planned spots & didn’t do breakfast till 1130 am. Me & wifey were horribly hungry & asked the Kings club if they want to eat anything to which they replied in negative. But we told we wud eat a wada pav as we cudnt sustain it more. Before Kasara ghat there are lot of hotels, stopped in one of them. We 2 alongwith Bhanushal sir took wadapavs & Kings club seeing the garmagaram wada & bhaji, eat 2 or 3 plates each. That was a wonderful sight to c.
Anyways If we r done with wada pavs let me take u to the TV donation prog.
Hiwalwadi is easily one of the most pictureseque tribal ZP school ever seen. Beautiful nature all around & on the far one can see the railway which goes to Nashik.There is absolutely nothing in the vicinity as is the case with most of our tribal ZP schools where TVs are donated.
Had a beautiful TV donation prog. ICAN (Vinod Rao, my childhood school friend) donated the TV here.
Blog No.19, Thakurwadi (Unique school), date of donation – 20th Aug 2022
The 2nd school along with Hiwalwadi to whom it took literally 8 months.
We got this school request on 1st Jan when we had TV donation at Dariyachiwadi & we heard that this ZP school isn’t in any tribal area but near Kasara Railway station & it is being operated by the sirs & teachers who pay monthly rent to run the school. On top of it then don’t get the reimbursement too. So we were not that interested to go & see or donate a TV there.
But after the TV donation at Gaydhara we had time with us & no schools so thought to go & see this school, here me & wifey went.
That sir from Thakurwadi alongwith Bhanushali sir & Jadhav sir accompanied us to see the school.
One of the tiniest ZP school we had ever seen. The size of the single & only room wud b max to max 10*12 ft & 18 students. It was parallel to Kasara railway station & we were walking from slums type area. All the students of the schools are children of porters on the railway stations, porter means one who does sell samosa or wada pav etc who are extremely poor.
We decided to donate the next TV here & it was donated by Vinod Rao on behalf of his young grandfather of 93 yrs. of age.
Before going to Takurwadi, we went to Uthava for cake celebrations of Ninads bday (mine was the next day). I also donated plates, spoons, glasses on eve of my bday which would be covered in a separate blog.
In Uthava, Magar sir told us to plant trees & Parab who is our agriculture Wikipedia started digging rigorously & after 10 to 11 hits, he felt uneasy & sat down for sometime. Then me, wifey & Pankaj sir headed for the planned one & reached Thakurwadi for the donation function & it was done successfully.
Blog no.20, Baudhpada, date of donation: 27th Aug 2022, TV donor; Mukuls Anonymous friend
This was one of the extremely located & beautiful indeed. We got this school & me, wifey started on the journey to do the requirement gathering. On the main types of road, we asked a passerby about this school & the passerby told “take the right from a Mango tree” & went away. We kept wondering there are so many Mango trees on the road, how r v going to search for the one. Still we started & by fluke took a right turn & started the hill where there was no road. Prior to that we went on another hill but that was a different hamlet.
Coming back to the hill on which we went there was only an old man working in the fields. When asked about the mentioned hamlet he showed that with help of his hand direction & we went there.
Luckily that hamlet was the one which we were looking out for.
Extremely located yet mesmerising beauty it was. The ZP school was a cute little one like all other tribal schools we had seen & we decided to donate a TV there.
The day came & me, wifey alongwith Pankaj sir went there alongwith our TV which was donated by Mukul´s anonymous friend. We recorded 3 videos standing in the fields there. The air was literally cold & we experienced that for the 1st time among all the schools. There were no fans (like in most of the schools) & none were required seeing the air quality.
We chatted with the tribal ZP school kids there, they sang songs for us, 1 school girl was so fluent in English like any city school girl, had a horror story session with them. While starting from their the sir their gave us “Aloo chi paann” (vegetable in Marathi) & mom cooked those coming back home, they were delicious & pure vegetables.
Blog No.21, Borichapada, date of donation:10th Sep 2022, donor name: Anand Vidwans (Govinds dad)
This was the tribal ZP school which was adjacent to Gopalpada to which we donated our 10th Smart TV. This school was not located on the road, we had to walk from a small lane & reach there. Extremely tribal this school was.
Govind Vidwans, friend of mine in Indusind Bank, his dad recently completed his 80 yrs of age & he donated this TV on his behalf.
When we saw this school for the 1st time there was no meter connection, so we decided not to donate TV here. But after few weeks or months, the teacher there installed a proper meter & so we over turned our decision.
Me, wifey, Pankaj sir & Parab graced this donation occasion. This time Giants group of Kalyan too accompanied us for the occasion & they were happily surprised to c our work & the president admitted that “he has seen such tribal places for the 1st time”.
After the function me, Bhanushali sir sat with the kids for lunch & the sir chanted the mantras before the lunch & it was captured beautifully on the mobile.
Later we went to Mengalpada for notebooks donation & then to Uthava to show Giants group the place where they wanted to build a toilet.
Would include the “Giants group” story in another blog.
Blog No.22, Mokhane, date of donation: 17th Sep 2022, TV donor:Dr. Sagar Marathe
This is one of the richest tribal hamlet we have ever seen. We saw them & did the requirement gathering on Dec or Jan i.e. 8 months back.
The reason behind saying the richest is there are 3 hamlets from which the tribal ZP school kids come into the school. The hamlet in which the tribal ZP school is located does consist of Innova type of cars. So we thought if the persons staying in the hamlet can afford 20 lacs ka Innova car then shud pay for the smart TV too. Considering this thought, we didn’t donated a smart TV for 8 months here.
But suddenly during Ganpati festival, we thought of giving a smart TV here because there are 105 students in this school & it wud definitely help.
Told Neena Naik madam the same & me, wifey went there to donate a TV alongwith our kiddo.
There was festival like atmosphere when we went for the TV donation. It was raining heavily at times & immediately I with one of the school kid went to see & record the other 2 hamlets & yes, they were extremely located atleast couple of kms from the school.
We were literally satisfied by our act as handling 105 students in a school wasn’t easy & this Smart TV would definitely help the little ones as well as the grade 8 or 7 for their science projects.
The kids in the school were very smart & 1 kid named Ganesh who was in Grade 6 was ready with the table of 39, just imagine. I didn’t went past 12 table in my life & see the kids there, so talented.
Blog no.23, Vihirichapada, date of donation:24th Sep 2022
Once Magar sir called & said that Vihirichapada needs a Smart TV. Went on the Google map & saw the location, it was horribly extreme & had mountains as the backdrop. Like I said most of the tribal ZP schools r extremely located but this was too much like Uthava tribal school. Atleast Uthava had a good road but 15-20 min of the road leading to this tribal was horrifying.
We did the requirement gathering & decided to donate a Smart TV here.
Mukul Tilak, his wife Sonali, their daughter Spruha & his father Shriram Tilak visited alongwith me, wifey & Pankaj sir. Like always we started the journey & took an halt for breakfast & the Tilak kaka asked us numerous question about the mission how it started, funding etc. Little we did knew that they would post a big FB writeup on all this.
Reached Vihirichapada & there were lot of villagers too present for the occasion. Tilak family had brought lot of notebooks (for Uthava as well), colouring books, slice cakes (for Uthava as well). It was a nice function & we did some video recording too like always.
After that we headed to Uthava to showcase one of the most or the most extremely located yet a beautiful & cute tribal ZP school called Uthava. We played, danced, saw the students studying there & me, wifey recollected the 1st time when we came here on 5th Dec 2021 how were the kids & presently how they are. A sea of changes in confidence, smartness, learn by heart method. U name it they have it. Had a beautiful lunch there with my favorite “Bhendi bhaji” which is nothing but “Lady Finger” & had it twice in Uthava, last time when Giants group visited. All thanks to Magar sir for this idea of Bhendi ki bhaji.
Blog No.24, Cycle collection
Our 1st cycle donation was on 1st May i.e. Labour day or Maharashtra day & indeed I behaved & behaving like a labour for my tribal ZP school kids.
The idea came to me I guess in month of Feb end or March. Friend of mine named “Sambhaji Jadhav” called me once & told that he does have a PC as well as printer & cycle for tribal ZP school kids. I replied with YES for PC & printer but no for cycle as mine is a small car & cycle would not fit in the car. Th topic stopped there.
During that time, I was standing in my balcony & saw that there are few cycles lying down in my building compound & immediately idea came into my mind that why cant we collect cycles, repair them & transport them to the tribal ZP school kids for their happiness.
My reference point was “we as kids were so obsessed with cycles that we used to take 1 cycle on hire for 5 rs. for 1 hr. That was the motivation for me. Chalo nikla phir e-bhangarwala. Why e-bhangarwala, why e, u wud come to know in upcoming stories.
Started the cycle collection in my own building. Told one of the painter (would not take names but bahut jano ki pol kholne wala hoon) there were 2 cycles with him & when I asked him about those, he said “just now sold on OLX” & 6 months down the line, they are still lying there. What a man.
Then the 1st society was my childhood friends society in which I went with some hard copies about the work with do. Stood there for 15-20 min, met the secretary & told him to pls ask on WhatsApp & do let me know.
Met Mrs. Sulekha Gatkal in KDMC & told her the motto of collecting cycles & she immediately started forwarding me the name & address of the cycle owners bcos she does have a cycling group called “Hirkani” & as of now she does have provided 10-12 cycles from various parts of Dombivli, Thakurli.
Then met Mrs. Pooja Totala, friend of hers & she too provided few cycles.
Went to Thakurli once & saw that cycles aren’t that good. Told the owner to pay 500/- for the repair, reply came as “No sir, we don’t have money right now”.
Located one cycle while taking another cycle from the owner to the repair shop. Went to that location the other day & after enquiring with few shop walas went to that shop whose bicycle was that. He replied saying “Sir, its my sons cycle & he wud use that once exam is over”. By my experience it was definitely not in working condition. Anyways leave it is the better option anytime as beggars don’t have any choices.
While returning empty hand the same day, located 1 more cycle. Am like an eagle who searches for their prey every now & then. Directly enquired the shop adjacent to which the cycle was kept, told him the cause & readily agreed & said “sirji mereko dena ka hi tha, dhoond raha tha aur aap mil gaye”. He washed the cycle too, I was very happy that got a cycle atleast.
Also saw few cycles lying in the same building. Met the secretary too but he was out of town but there wanst much response.
A lady sitting on the bench there told me to visit a tailor wala whose cycle is there lying for so many years. Met him, he took me to the his cycle & saw that it was worst of the worst cycle ever seen & I didn’t took the cycle & came back empty handed.
1 tricycle I got from Dangat family & another from Patil family in my same building.
One interesting kissa which shows how some person are – Got a call from 1 lady staying in MIDC & she told that there are 4 cycles with her. Went their happily as my tribal kids would get 4 cycles today. Saw that 3 of the cycles are worst in worst condition. When told her that “we are giving it for tribal kids happiness, can you pls repair it & give else give me the money, wud repair it. Instantly she replied “Sir there is 1 function which took place just now in the family, also 2 kids fees shud be paid, we don’t have money. If u want u can take it else leave”. My mind went blank with anger & fortunately this wasn’t an answer from a male otherwise wud had said everything to him. Anways beggars don’t have a choice & these guys doesnt know the state of the tribal kids, God bless them.
Another superb family was Mrs.Cholkar from MIDC. Went there in March I guess, spoke to uncle & aunty, told them our groups motto of Smart TV as well as cycles. That uncle have worked with a famous social worker too I guess in his younger days & worked extensively for a village near Rajmachi. They gave their grand daughters cycle for our cause & I came back happily after that.
Recently last month the aunty called & told me to “pls come & take 2nd cycle”, when I asked how is uncle, she said “he breathed his last 10 days back”, I was taken aback. Life is cruel at times. He was driving his cycle met with a small accident & had brain haemorrhage. Went & brought his 2nd cycle for my tribal kids & in fact it was the 1st cycle of the 4th donation drive. On a different thread, they donated a 2nd hand TV recently which wud b donated on 1st Oct 2022.
WE got cycles from Thane too from Karan Thakkar, the person from whom we bought our Brio car.
Went with Tempo Mr. Amol there & brought those 15 cycles. Met the 2 SPOCS over there & they did a simple thing, put a WhatsApp request saying that till so & so date, we would keep all the cycles on 1 designated place. If no one bothered to take their cycles, we would donate it to “Mauli group of Dombivli”. So on that day we took all cycles which were present on that designated place & picked up 15 cycles & tied them in the tempo. Took selfies etc. & as we were about to start the tempo to return from there, one girl came running down & told the SPOCS that her dad has told to take her cycle back. Such are the person staying on the earth you see? We gave back the cycle, came back with 3 iron rods they gave. Asked Magar sir if they want it but he denied so sold them off to a bhangarwala & 1700/- we got from them. Tempo also took exact 1700/- so the ride was free in that sense. Directly gave all the cycles to Raju bhai, the repair shop wala & came back happily ever after.
Another hilarious moment I encountered in Sunil Nagar when me alongwith wifey went to see a rented place for her mom. Immediately my sea hawk eyes spotted few unused cycles. Didn’t took that place but co-ordinated with the agent there & brought 4 cycles from there. These cycles were different from the ones I spotted. So after few days, met him on the way & told him “arrey baba, give me that cycle”. This is my usual hilarious tone with few friendly people. He told “pls don’t take me in between. The cycles which u took, one of them was one of the owners fathers cycle & he was upset that we gave them to you”. I replied back saying “if the cycle was his fathers cycle then why the hell it was lying down & in horrible condition, he shud had kept it at home & in good condition”. Anyways such are the people you see?
Went to Dombivli west in start of the 1st drive to collect cycles, next to station. Went to 4th floor & was speaking with the owner & he called his boy who stood besides to me & when I saw him from toes to his face he was all 6.3 ft (bcos he stood immediate next to me while I was sitting) & I kept thinking “how this boy can drive small cycles?” Then got to kno that he was having that dairy wala cycle. Brought that cycle & my dairy wala took it & would give 2 small cycles in exchange. After few days, brought 1 more cycle. When brought the 2nd cycle, the tyres were jammed a lot & it took lot of efforts bcos it had a lock. During these cycles collections, I always wear my running shorts, always have my napkin right to my shorts, half inside my shorts & a t-shirt & full sweaty. Anyone who sees me would be saying “Bechara bhangarwala, kitna kaam kasrta hain”. Went to one lock wala & told him to cut the lock. He was seeing me in a very suspicious manner as if am a thief & brought this cycle from somewhere & now wants to run away. Asked him the price & he said I guess 100/-. Had a small verbal fight with him & then stopped an auto & carried the cycle way to the Raju repairing wala.
Once went far to Dombivli west & got 2 cycles but 1 was shorted than the other. Otherwise what I do, is to bring 2 cycles in go if they are of same height. But here the case was different so took an Auto.
Once again went to far off in another direction in Dombivli west, that mam came down & handed over their cycle as well as 30+ toothbrushes for tribal kids. Saw many other unused cycles lying down, followed up with them just couple of days back but she said “no one is bothered about others. Just me & my family”
“Jai Mata Di” shop wala once called me & donated 3 small cycles & that was a nice gesture from his end.
Once Dr.Patil d dentist called me to his complex to take 5 or 6 cycles. Here the Bhangwala man went. Saw all of them in horrible condition that cant be repaired. I got one, walked for more than 2 kms, the tyre wasn’t moving at all & more the efforts. Went back but was horribly tired because we had a TV donation drive the earlier I guess. Saw all other 5 cycles in the same condition that the tyre aren’t moving. At the same time Dr. told to give one of the cycle to the bhangarwala having his shop outside his building. Bhnagarwala man with that bhangarwala went to his bhangarwala shop with 1 cycle, sold that cycle for 300/-. Saw 1 tempo standing there, asked him about the ride to Raju the repair man & he agreed for 200/-. Brought all the 4/5 cycles to the repair shop with 100/- profit. Ambani ke baad main hi hain aisa lagne laga hain.
WE call Bhangar cycles as racer cycles on our WhatsApp group. So Bhangar wala alongwith good cycles have collected 87 kilos of Bhangar which amounted to 2700/- Rs. which were used for repair of the somewhat ok cycles that were collected. That’s something man. Bhangar baba ki jai ho.
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