Renaming Pune : PART I

It took me quite efforts when I googled few famous places of Pune to know after whom they are actually named?

First I tried the famous ABC. For those unaware it doesn’t stand for Anybody Can blah blah blah… In Pune it stands for book hub and Dagdusheth Temple, Prabhat Theatre etc. the full form being Appa Balwant Chowk.  When I googled ‘Appa Balwant’, it didn’t show anybody named Appa Balwant but just the famous book stores at this location. Even ‘history of appa balwant / chowk’ could not fetch me the desired results. As a lazy citizen wanting to know the history of Pune places, atleast I couldn’t succeed. In one of the blogs however I could fetch that ABC was actually named after Appa Balwant Mehendale. Did you know that?? Yup, next time you actually visit there do take efforts to see yourself the actual full form and the next best you can do (if you are interested) is to know about that person. Of course a location of such prime importance has to be named after an important person and the least you can do is to find out about that eminent person.

The least I did (lazily) was to google about Appa Balwant Mehendale. Nothing much came up since not many have uploaded any details about him directly but in one of the blogs I read that Sardar Appa Balwant Mehendale fought bravely in the Panipat war between Marathas and Rohilas. Sardar Mehendale had built this big mansion, which, since it belonged to the Mehendale family was known as Mehendalewada.  The road junction (called a Chowk in Marathi) near is known in his memory as Appa Balwant Chowk. So that is the short story-cum-update of ABC!

So is the case of Z Bridge. Somebody rightly observed the pattern of the bridge being similar to alphabect ‘Z’ so thus the new name came up. I bet not even one of you reading this blog may be knowing the real name of ‘Z bridge’ as allotted by PMC. Neither did I till this date. So what I did?? I googled again :p :P . Finally and luckily on the first page itself I could find the bridge named after one Kakasaheb Gadgil. Now next question immediately popped, Kakasaheb Gadgil who? His full name was Narhar Vishnu Gadgil affectionately called as Kakasaheb Gadgil who graduated from Fergusson College in Pune in 1918, and obtained a degree in Law two years later. Gadgil was a pioneer in social reform movements in Maharashtra in the 1930s. During 1947-52 period, Gadgil served as a minister in the first central cabinet of independent India. He held the portfolios of Public Works, Commerce, and Mines and Power. Gadgil served as the governor of Punjab from 1958 to 1962 and as the vice-chancellor of Poona University 1964 onwards until his death less than two years later. (Thank you Wiki!).

 But it wasn’t much to educate you about ABC or Z bridge I wrote this blog. I wrote to highlight and if at all you share the pain of one of recent shocking incident on one of bridges in one morning of Pune. Death of Dabholkar. The bridge he was killed on is actually not named after Balgandharva, but popularly it is known as Balgandharva Bridge (Balgandharva was a famous theatre personality). And just like Z bridge the name of this so called Balgandarva bridge was adopted from nearby situated Balgandharva Rangmandir (Theatre).  This bridge was actually named after Maharshi Shinde the famous social reformist contributing in eradicating untouchability, a true free-thinker. Ironically a modern free-thinker Dabholkar was shot dead on this very bridge!! Now the moot point. Should this bridge be still known as (I’m sorry , not known as but called as) Balgandharva bridge. I’m sure his fans, historians and Puneities wont mind taking up this cause of keeping the name Balgandharva to the Theatre itself. For the sake of convenience we people start calling a location what suits us easy and best. But the horrific incident that leaves a dent on our very being of a Puneite calls for a thinking. To call spade a spade or not. To give the ones who deserved to be remembered the due remembrance.  Can we call Maharshi Shinde bridge as actually Maharshi Bridge just like we call Karve road as Karve road?? Or atleast Dabholkar bridge in remembrance of a recent sacrifice. I need not glorify here his contributions to reform our society, you are very well aware of it. I am not sure whether PMC will erect a statue in his respect on the bridge ( I sincerely hope it does without any requests from citizens) but then why wait for the officials to take up this task.  Can’t we simply call it Dabholkar bridge?? Or even Shinde bridge after whom it was actually named; but not Balgandharva bridge. It is too much to ask? Is it even a biased request you may ask. All I can say is it is kind of injustice not to realize and remember what they stood for. It was for a reason the officials named a place after a person. 

 

Some may say what difference it shall make or whats in the name??!! I believe name is everything.  Atleast names of these reformers needs to be remembered and cherished by us all or else there would had been no need for us to learn all those n number of names in our history syllabus.

I urge you Puneites (Ofcourse the choice is yours) to henceforth call this bridge as Dabholkar / Shinde bridge so as a mark of respect.  If you second this thought , pass it on. 

And FYI, MG Road is actually Moledina Grant Road :P