Friends and fans ring in Pu La’s 100th birthday with warm memories, laughter

PUNE: The Keshari pedha tasted the same as it did many years ago. The gathering of who’s who was exactly like the impromptu darbar that used to happen every year on this day. There were the strings of marigold and bursts of laughter and applause punctuated the conversations. Only one thing was missing. P L Deshpande, Pu La for his fans, whose birthday on November 8 used to be a joyous occasion, was not there.
An informal gathering of Pu La admirers was organised by his nephew Dinesh Thakur and his wife Jyoti on Friday to celebrate the man who sprinkled star dust across the Marathi literary and cultural landscape on 100th birthday at his residence on Bhandarkar Road.

In attendance were noted astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar and his mathematician wife Mangala, history scholar Babasaheb Purandare, director Jabbar Patel, cartoonist S D Phadnis, actors Shrikant Moghe, Madhav Vaze, vocalists Shrinivas Joshi, Raja Kale, Vijay Koparkar, Anand Bhate, Kirti Shiledar, santoor exponent Satish Vyas, tabla player Ramdas Palsule, author poet Aruna Dhere, Anand Madgulkar, compere Sudhir Gadgil and many whose lives were touched by Pu La.
Thakur said a plaque stating “Hya manasane amhala hasawale” (He made us laugh) was installed on the bust of Pu La at Pu La Deshpande Kala Akademi in Mumbai to mark his 100th birthday. Six audio books of Pu La and Sunitabai were launched by Storytel on the occasion for a global audience.
The Asiatic Library has released 21 volumes consisting of clippings of all news and editorials on Pu La that were printed in newspapers and journals over the years. The compilation has been done by Pundalik Dhuri of the library. The library has made all the material on Pu La available on the website for students and researchers, a library representative said.
As the floor was thrown open for admirers, hidden treasures of precious memories, humorous quotes and remarks made by Pu La were shared.
Babasaheb Purandare recalled Pu La had once said that he would have been Chhatrapati Shivaji, had he been born in that era, to which Sunitabai had remarked that he would have spent hours chatting with Adilshahi general Afzal Khan instead of killing him.