Rajendra Pawar pens emotional Diwali post on childhood with Ajit Pawar, first festival since his death

Baramati: Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar died in January. His sudden death plunged all of Maharashtra into mourning. This is the Pawar family's first Diwali without him, and an emotional reaction has now come from within the family, from Rajendra Pawar, who heads the Agricultural Development Trust.

Earlier, Sharad Pawar had told the media that Diwali would not be celebrated at his home this year. He had said the festival was coming for the first time without Ajit Pawar, that the family was in deep grief, and that the Pawar family would therefore not celebrate Diwali this time.

The Pawar family's Diwali has always been a subject of talk and interest in state politics. Every year, Diwali Padwa is observed at Govindbaug in Baramati, where workers, office-bearers and leaders from across the state come to meet Sharad Pawar. Because of Ajit Pawar's untimely death, this tradition will be interrupted this time.

Rajendra Pawar wrote a post on social media and also shared an old video. In the post he wrote, "After Ajit has gone, Diwali feels empty for the first time today. The Diwalis we celebrated together since childhood were full of warmth. Taseb (Anantrao) would bring firecrackers and divide them equally among everyone. So that the firecrackers would last the whole day, we hid them in a sack on a shelf in a dark storeroom, so that no one could find them."

He went on, "In those days, when a new parachute rocket flew up, we ran through the brambles to catch it. We collected the gunpowder from half-burnt firecrackers and lit it the next day. Out of fear of grandmother, our whole household behaved. Had you been here today, the fear and the love would have been of a different kind. When N D Patil (a maternal uncle by way of our aunt) came on Diwali, the house would fill with talk. He belonged to another party and had his own personal principles, yet he got along with people of every age. I learnt that one should keep party and principles apart and still maintain relationships."

The post also recalls the everyday hardships of childhood. Rajendra Pawar wrote, "In those days there was only one basket-type toilet for so many guests. Children had to sit in a queue behind a tin screen, shuffling forward and back. This experience later made it easy for us to get along with anyone. Half the mango grove drew water from the well behind the house, and from morning the squeak of the kavad kept sounding. Sitting on the steps, cleaning our teeth with a piece of brick or with ash, the previous generation taught us that what we have includes a share for society. When we found baby birds fallen from their nests, we would milk a stray goat and feed them."

Addressing Ajit Pawar, he wrote, "Because of your distinct taste in clothes, only you had Rajesh Khanna-style clothes. Diwalis will keep coming and going, but the marks of thorns that pricked us in childhood will now keep stinging and leave loneliness. I stayed in Baramati farming, and my children stayed here too. You siblings went to Mumbai, your children were born there, grew up there and studied abroad. How will all these next generations understand the warmth of our childhood Diwali? How will they understand the firm weave of our bond and the delicate threads of runanubandh? Only remembering at every occasion is what remains now... Rajudada."