Dears, Today is the birthday of Dr. Heman Yeshwant Karapurkar and the death anniversary of Bhausaheb Dayanand Balkrishna Bandodkar.
If I remember right, Dr. H. Y. Karapurkar is 73 and batting towards the century with singles. In his heyday, he hit sixes and fours. I had heard my father speak glowingly about Dr. H.Y.Karapurkar's father, Mr. Yeshwant Karapurkar, Deputy Director of Agriculture, in the context of a plant exhibition in what was known as "Fomento" and now is known as the Duler Farm, bang opposite our home in Mapusa. My father was a career educationist and a hobby farmer who had 40 heads of cattle and a few thousand square metres of paddy fields under his personal supervision. The other fields were all over Bardez and Tiswadi, mostly looked after by loyal "mundkars". In 1967, the agriculture department introduced the Green Revolution variety of Taichung Native -1 rice and we ate gooey rice for a season. My father won prizes for coconuts in that exhibition in the early 1960s when I was knee high to a grasshopper that Cecil wrote about. I met Dr. H.Y. Karapurkar for the first time in the chamber of the Director of Agriculture on 4th Floor Vidyut Bhavan, Panaji, in August 1978. No I was not invited for his birthday celebrations, I was summoned to receive the recommendation of my nomination to the University of Agricultural Sciences at Bangalore [now Bengalooru, the "land of beans"] for my undergraduate course in agriculture. I received the letter, thanked him for it and went off to book my ticket to Bangalore with two classmates in St. Xavier's College, Mapusa. We went by ourselves a few days later. No parents or elders to accompany us. I did not have the occasion to meet Dr. Karapurkar during the four years of study in Bangalore. On my return to Goa, I bumped into him in Panaji one day. As per the upbringing we received at home and school, I wished him. He was a well known person. I was shocked by his response, "Good evening Braganza" We had met briefly just once a full four years ago ..... and he remembered my surname! It was not a common surname either. Later, I learnt that Dr.Karapurkar's memory for names and statistics was a legend. Dr. Karapurkar has been known to pick up a file and go directly to the CM and get it approved and sent "down" to the concerned ministers and Secretaries and the under-secretaries for concurrence with appropriate financial and administrative sanctions. What had to be done quick he got done quickly. What could wait, went throrough the "normal process" that means different things to different proposals. I learnt first hand that Dr. Karapurkar knew his officers, subordinate staff and farmers by name. This is no mean feat when the officers and staff are spread over ten zonal offices in eleven talukas [and till 1987 also Daman and Diu]. He knew where they were from, where they lived and whether they were doing work or just employed in a job. One anecdote that I heard of him [though not confirmed] is about a staff member who often availed of 45 days leave that one was eligible in case of a miscarriage. When the lady in question was about 50 years old, he is supposed to have written in the file "Please verify through medical officer, the applicant must have reached menopause." ;-) He was right. He had prevented miscarriage of justice. In 1990, I returned after doing my M. Sc.[Agri] in Horticulture and was posted in Mapusa, next door to home. There was a request for deputing an officer to Goa University to serve as the first "Garden Superintendent". The rank of "Junior Class A Gazetted" and the salary was that of an Assistant Director of Agriculture. Naturally, almost everyone with an M.Sc. [Agri] wanted to go. I was selected by Dr. H.Y.Karapurkar and Dr. S.K.Gandhe, the then Registrar of Goa University and Special Secretary to CM of Goa. Friction had started between the all-powerful Registrar and the new Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Padmakar Dubhashi. Said Dr. Gandhe, "If he knows I have selected Braganza, he will reject him. Let us send him two names. He will make the same choice as us." Dr. P.R.Dubhashi had me interviewed by a panel of three persons, including Dr. Abraham of GMC, Dr. Gandhe and himself. He made a choice that Dr. Gandhe had predicted and Dr. Karapurkar had agreed. Dr. Karapurkar also provided me with all the backing to make my stint successful at the Goa University. I never felt alone. At the end of my extended two year deputation, Dr. Dubhashi did not want to relieve me. I wanted to work with Dr. Heman [he deserves that name He Man] Karapurkar before he retired in August, 1993. There were officers in the Dept. who did not want me to come back till there was a clear vacancy, as anew officer had been adjusted against my vacant post. Since I "repatriated" [posting in the Goa University was on "foreign service basis" whatever that means] against their wishes, I was posted at Ela Farm for one day and two holidays and then shunted off to Ponda to work under Mr.Satish Tendulkar, the present Director of Agriculture. I suffered in silence as even draft covering letters for routine reports were "corrected" in red ink and sent for re-typing, a task that the office typists cribbed to do when given for the third time. [That Satish continues with this habit after 15 long years, is another matter. I have voluntarily retired a decade ago and it bothers me not!] After 15 days, Dr. Karapurkar called me to his chamber and asked. "Are you happy?" I told him the truth. He said, "Get a letter typed that your services are needed in the Head Office and I will sign it." I had his steno type a draft letter and gave it to him. He looked at me sternly and said, "I said get me a letter, not a draft. I know you can draft well." I did as told and served "on loan basis" at Panaji till my promotion in the month he retired. I would have loved to work with him in the newly formed Goa State Horticulture Corporation [Dr. Karapurkar had even brought a Government order to that effect] but his successor and some of my collegues put paid to that plan. After two years in the Corporationas its first and only Chairman & MD, Dr. Karapurkar went on to be the Chairman of the Goa Public Service Commission. If you hear of Sandeep Jacques and Sanjit Rodrigues among the myraid of GPS cadre officers, it is thanks to him. In almost any Government office that I have been with him, the head of office stops what he or she is doing and stands up to greet him. That says a lot about the man and what he means to the people he has touched by his kindness. Bhausaheb Bandodkar is remembered today for many things...the greatest being empowerment through education. He started a thousand Government Primary Schools [GPS] in remote and far flung villages. The GPS teachers were from Maharashtra and Marathi speaking areas of Karnataka. He started the Goa Education Society that operated the Dhempe College. What happened to GES is another story. He brought in officers on deputation form Maharashtra to run services till Goans could be trained to do the jobs. He was not much educated ...but just see his vision and his ability to do! We lost a lot of family property because of the land to the tiller act of 1967 and 1972. We grudge it not. It empowered a whole set of people who had lost out during colonial rule ...and are now being cheated by mineowners, SEZ developers and land sharks again. These two men are remembered in a special way by Goans. They will never die. Their good deeds and kind words will keep them alive even if they do not walk this earth. Dr. Heman Y.Karapurkar is my professional guru. I wish him long life and good health all the days of his life. Mog asundi. Miguel -- -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Miguel Braganza, S1 Gracinda Apts, Rajvaddo, Mhapsa 403507 Goa Ph 9822982676 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
