On 21
st March, I was in Kolhapur. I wanted to visit
Mahalaxmi Temple in Kolhapur. Believed to have been built in 700 AD, it
continues to attract devotees and tourists from all over India and
abroad.
I will relate three unconnected reflections about my visit. On 21
st March and 21
st
September each year the rays of the setting sun adore the idol. The
period is considered very auspicious. As cameras are not allowed inside
the temple, all I could do was to take a couple of snaps of the entrance
to the temple.
- Kolhapur Mahalaxmi Temple
My
second reflection is about Kolhapur railway station. It is a Terminus.
The station reminded me of the Railway Station in Rome, Italy. I
happened to visit Italy once. It so happened that due to excessive fog
(quite common for Milan in the month of October) flights from Milan to
Rome were cancelled. I took a train from Milan to Rome. That’s how I saw
the railway station. The common thing that I found in both these
stations was that the height of the platform is very low. While getting
down from the train with my baggage I had slipped and hurt myself. A
similar incident took place at Kolhapur not with me but with my fellow
passenger. In the footsteps of the person who had helped me to reach the
airport, I helped the one who fell to reach his hotel which in any case
was not far off my own.
Why do railway authorities both in India
and Italy allow such avoidable hurts to their customers, I reflected in
my mind and cursed the apathetic authorities.
- Kolhapur Railway Station
- Rome Railway Station
My
third reflection is about the greatest singer of our country Lata
Mangeshkar. She is from Kolhapur. I asked the driver of an auto rickshaw
if I could see the place where she lived before moving to Mumbai. He
told me that now there is now a Mangeshkar Nagar, an entire colony name
after her. He could take me to Mangeshkar Nagar but he would not be able
to identify the house where the singing queen once lived. Then he also
told me that Lataji wants to take over the old Prabhat Studio in
Kolhapur and re-develop it. But local people are against it. They feel
it is a heritage structure and should be maintained as it is.
Suddenly
I thought of the Pedder Road Flyover. Lataji stays in a building on
Pedder Road. She has been all along opposing the development of the
bridge as it would create noise and pollute the atmosphere for the
people who stay on Pedder Road
I was not happy to think about the two controversies:
One: Lataji wants to develop the old studio but the heritage trust is against it;
Two: Authorities in Mumbai have been planning a Pedder Road flyover bridge for a long time but Lataji is against it.
- Lata Mangeshkar
