146. Her motto: Work hard play hard!

Thousand Full Moon: Shrimati Vasundhara Godbole

Contributed by: Rohini

Befitting her progressive mindset Vasundhara Godebole (83+) agreed to a video recording of our call for this thousand full moons blog. The link to her narration in Marathi is given below. For those who do not understand Marathi, here is a brief summary:

Vasundhara hails from Bhivandi, a small town near Mumbai. Fond of sports from childhood she is a proponent of physical activity. She learned Swimming after her children were born and it soon became the exercise of her choice. She aspires to return to swimming even today.

Vasundhara believes that everyone should pursue their passion to the best of their ability. Her life journey attests to that. Although she wanted to be a physician like her father, she promptly enrolled for a Bachelor of Arts degree after her father cited his inability to shoulder that responsibility due to his advanced age. She completed her degree while living in a hostel in Pune. She became a schoolteacher until she got married to Vasudev Godbole, a young doctor living in Jamnagar, Gujrat. She remembers her father sitting down with a map on multiple occasions to show her how far she would be from her home after her wedding. 

She continued her education after her children were older and worked as an English/Sanskrit teacher in junior college for over 17 years. She successfully tutored students for many years after her second retirement ran a small catering business. Now she keeps busy by sowing garments among other activities such as driving, and going to the gym. 

While narrating her story she mentions that she learned to drive a scooter when she was 39 years old. She says that initially she fell multiple times but was never defeated. She mastered the skill which  gave her independence and made life way more convenient.

She urges everyone to stay physically active. According to the `on the move’ octogenarian pursuing your passion and being physically active is a key to Karma Yoga.

We thank Vasundhara for sharing her inspirational story with us and wish her many more happy, healthy, and active full moons!