Nagpur

Siddhartha Shastri is originally from Nagpur, India and leads a retired life in Michigan with wife Shubhada. An engineering graduate from Nagpur University, he studied for his MBA at IIM, Ahmedabad. He worked for Tatas in India and Europe, before eventually migrating to the United States, working in the Computer Industry.

Just a couple of days ago, I was talking to my wife about late Shri Sharad Muthe, who I was privileged to know as a child, later on as his student, and as someone whom his students continue to admire even today.

Sometime in 1956, when I was only a primary school student, the Ramdas Peth Grihini Samaaj organized an evening program to present this handsome young, rising star of Nagpur to the residents. Shahir Sharad Muthe, known as an upcoming poet of exceptional talent, was also a terrific singer. India had recently become independent, and every corner of the country was full of optimism and effervescent enthusiasm - an environment that was tailor-made for Powada style (martial songs) lyrics, and the gusto with which they are typically delivered to the audiences.

Yashodhan Parande is a retired civil servant. He was born in 1951 in Nagpur and attended Hadas High School, with which both his parents were intimately connected as described in the accompanying article. After finishing his B.Sc. and LL.B., he qualified in Civil Service Examination in 1974, and joined the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and C. Excise) in 1975, and held various assignments in government of India. In the course of his career, he also obtained an MBA degree from Southern Cross University, NSW, Australia. He retired in 2011 as a Member of the Central Board of Excise and Customs, and has settled down in Delhi. He now indulges his passion for music, particularly Hindustani classical, exclusively as a listener and reading and travel (a fair bit being armchair travel!).

Baba, my father the late G.T. (Bapu) Parande, would have turned 100 on August 25, 2020 had he and my mother not been snatched from us in June 1995 in a road accident. Losing them together was such a wrench! And for me it was it was made worse by the fact that I was far away from home when the tragedy struck and could not be with them in their last moments. But, looking back, I realise that they went as they would have wished - in their shoes and together. It is impossible for me to think of one them without the other.
 

G.T. Parande. Nagpur circa 1985.