113. Finding the native village 'Ambere'

Thousand Moon: Nalini Gopal Vaidya
Contributed By: Dr. Raghunath Boradkar

Shirimati Nalini Gopal Vaidya stays in Talegaon near Pune with her son.

She served as primary teacher for 29 years. She retired in 1995. She received enough money from her provident fund and decided to look for her family's native village in Kokan. So she planned a trip to Kokan with her family. She narrates the story of her travel experience and their encounter with a gentleman called Shri. Kavade guruji. She has all sorts of good and bad memories but this experience she considers worth narrating. She begins the narration with a poem about the winding road “GhaaTaatali VaaTa”,  as they were travelling through the ghat. They were enjoying the scenery and chatting happily. At some time her elder son asked the driver about the petrol and old him to fill the tank. The driver said there was enough petrol and so they did not bother and went ahead. At about five thirty in the evening the driver said that we have to look for a petrol pump as there was very little petrol in the tank but there was no petrol pump nearby. We had small children with us, and we were not familiar with the roads or people. We were all scared. A little ahead we saw a ’Tapri’ and inquired. He said there was no petrol pump nearby. We requested him to help us and explained to him our condition. He gave us some petrol so we could proceed further. A little afterwards we came to a road crossing and did not know which way to go. We became desperate and started praying. We knew that our village was Ambere but we had never been there. Then a man came and started inquiring about us and where we were supposed to go. He turned out to be a teacher in Ambere and knew the Vaidya family and was ready to help provided we dropped him at his village He had missed the train and there was no train till next morning. We agreed and he guided us and gave us the exact address of the Vaidya family where we were to go. He was Shri. Kavde guruji and we felt that he was God sent. We dropped him at his village and he gave us the directs to Vaidya's place. Needless to say we reached their place and we were received by Shri. Vaidya. Seeing my husband Shri. Vidya remarked that the owner of the land has come. We got our land and everything else. When God gives he gives ample.

We thank Kavde Guruji even now and wish him happiness.  We can not forget this incident or Kavde guruji ever. It is carved on our minds.