Rajendra Pawar's Diwali post to the late Ajit Pawar recalls a shared childhood

BARAMATI: On the first Diwali since the death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, a heartfelt message from his elder cousin has set people talking across Maharashtra. Rajendra Pawar, who heads the Agricultural Development Trust and is also chairman of Baramati Agro, put out a post on social media, addressed directly to Ajit Pawar, and shared an old video along with it.

Ajit Pawar died suddenly in January, and the loss left the whole state in mourning. This is the first festival the family is facing without him. Sharad Pawar had already told reporters that Diwali would not be celebrated at his home this year, because the festival was arriving for the first time without Ajit Pawar and the family was in deep grief.

That decision carries weight beyond the household. The Pawar family's Diwali has long been followed closely in state politics. Each year, on Diwali Padwa, workers, office-bearers and leaders from every corner of Maharashtra gather at Govindbaug in Baramati to meet Sharad Pawar. This year that custom will be interrupted.

Rajendra Pawar began his post with the sense of emptiness. "After Ajit has gone, Diwali feels empty for the first time today," he wrote. He said the Diwalis the two had celebrated together since childhood were full of warmth. He remembered that Taseb (Anantrao) used to bring firecrackers and divide them equally among all the children. To make them last the whole day, the children hid the sack on a shelf in a dark storeroom where nobody could find it.

He wrote of running through the brambles to catch a new parachute rocket as it came down, and of gathering gunpowder from half-burnt crackers to light the next day. The whole household behaved itself out of fear of their grandmother. Addressing Ajit Pawar, he added that had he been there today, the fear and the love would have felt different.

Rajendra Pawar also spoke of N D Patil, a maternal uncle by way of their aunt, whose Diwali visits filled the house with conversation. Patil belonged to another party and held his own personal principles, yet he got along with people of every age. From him, Rajendra Pawar wrote, he learnt that one should keep party and principles apart and still maintain relationships.

The post also turns to the plain hardships of those years. There was only one basket-type toilet for so many guests, and children queued behind a tin screen, shuffling forward and back. According to the post, this made it easy for them later 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 could be heard. Sitting on the steps and cleaning their teeth with a piece of brick or with ash, the children were taught by the previous generation that what they have includes a share for society. When they found baby birds fallen from their nests, they would milk a stray goat and feed them.

There was a lighter memory too. Because of his distinct taste in clothes, Rajendra Pawar wrote, only Ajit Pawar had Rajesh Khanna-style outfits.

The mood then returns to loss. "Diwalis will keep coming and going, but the marks of thorns that pricked us in childhood will now keep stinging and leave loneliness," he wrote. He recalled that he stayed on in Baramati farming and his children stayed too, while Ajit Pawar and his siblings went to Mumbai, where their children were born, grew up 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?" he asked.

He closed with the words, "Only remembering at every occasion is what remains now... Rajudada." The sign-off is the name by which the elder cousin was known to Ajit Pawar.