71. He ran all the way home, a distance of nine miles…

Thousand Moon: Colonel Vishwanath Dattatreya Deodhar “Bapu” (Born 1928, Age 85+)

Contributed by: Nandu

Col. Deodhar pursued a military career since a young age.  He attended Bhosla Military School (BMS) in Nasik from 6^th grade till matriculation, followed by two years of college studies in Pune.  For school, he would travel alone via train from his hometown Bhivpuri to Nasik independently, without anyone accompanying him any time at that young age.   In Bhivpuri, Tata Company had opened a power station, away from any major city, where his father was working as an Electrical Engineer.  As a starting establishment, there was no school for young Vishwanath to study.  So, right from the first grade, he studied in elementary schools in different cities, staying with grand parents or maternal uncle or aunt.   People would joke with his parents asking if they wanted Vishwanath to become a collector, a prestigious government post at that time, for sending him away so young for schooling.  His parents certainly wanted him to study well.  However, while completing his high school, he frankly told his father two things, one not to expect higher studies from him and second that he was to join military.

He remembered one incidence while reminiscing.  When he was to join college, he reserved a bicycle as it was the main mode of transportation in Pune.  The place to reserve it, at the closest railway station, was nine miles away from Bhivpuri camp.  Tata Co. had arranged a small train-cart shuttle for transportation that would leave in the morning and afternoon from Bhivpuri.  The last return shuttle used to be in the night.  So he traveled to the rail station, reserved his bike, and found that for some reason the return shuttle was cancelled.   He was to leave for Pune the next day.  Had he waited for the shuttle to return in the morning, he would have missed his train and disturbed the entire schedule.  While watching the train track, he suddenly decided to take control of the situation and just started running.  He ran all the way home in dark, a distance of nine miles, reaching home very late night, and was all set to embark upon the planned journey the next morning.

Another interesting story he recounted was writing to his father to ask whether he could eat Goat meat during Dasara celebration at BMS, this was significant since he hailed from a strict vegetarian family.  His father responded by saying that “there is nothing wrong in wearing shoes and reading the Holy Gita while drinking beer” giving his permission indirectly in his own special practical way.  

Although he is not superstitious yet he has experienced firsthand the “siddhi” or special power that some people seem to possess.  As a toddler, while playing, he had met with an accident wherein he had fallen down very hard and had injured his backbone and spine.  He was bed-ridden for almost two years.  A little after the incident, while traveling in a train, a passenger told his his parents that the condition and associated hurt was going to stay for a while and he gave exact date of recovery after which the boy would be fine.  Time passed and to everyone's surprise, one day, the prediction came true and young Vishwanath was miraculously restored to complete health.  Not being able to forget the mysterious prediction, Bapu tried to search for that individual, but was only able to offer his respects at the shrine of this extraordinary Yogi.

   

Before completing the college degree, and after two consecutive rejections for various reasons, finally he was selected in the Indian army.  He was in service till his retirement.  He recalled that his father, an Engineer, always wanted to be a soldier during World War I, so he believes that his father’s wishes were fulfilled through his selection.

He was posted in various military establishments in the group for Repair and Recovery Operations for military vehicles and ammunitions during peace time.  He was moved to different camps almost every two years, with family moving along with him or at times family stationed in Pune. Once, when he was transferred to north-east region, he was to stay in bunkers with other soldiers.  It was a scary part to live and sleep in the night with constant fear of jungle animals and possible collapse as he would hear cracking sounds of the stones above.  One day he decided not to stay there, informed his superiors, and left the bunker to safer area.  To his disbelief, the same bunker collapsed two days after and he was thus miraculously saved, with some kind of premonition.

After the war of 1971, he received a Gallantry Award of Mention-in-Despatch for excellent work at Fazilka, Punjab in the Western Sector.

After retirement, on the social aspect, he was involved in a tedious and time consuming task of compiling family history of the entire Deodhar family tree ‘Kulavrutanta’.  Its first compilation and publishing was already done earlier in 1967.  In 1992, he reviewed, revised, expanded, and coordinated the collection with the help of coworkers.  He traveled to many different cities to gather information about people with last name Deodhar, Dixit and Dhamdhere, and associated ones, sifted through many old documents tracing the family history over centuries, and wrote the information about additional families.  Now more experienced, he once again aspires to recompile and republish the ‘kulavrutanta’ with updated information by 2017, with younger team.

He wants to keep everybody happy around him. Due to love and support from his children and their respective families, he is not worried or depressed in the old age.  He attributes his good health to the hard work and exercise he did during his school days.