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Published on October 1st, 2017 | by Sandeep Patil

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Discovering Shivaji – Blogpost of a lifetime

One doesn’t get honour, privilege and good-luck to write such a post usually. I am glad and grateful that I got this opportunity in my lifetime.

I had always cherished and worshipped the Godlike image of Indian King Chh. Shivaji Maharaj in my heart, since I was a boy – and there are countless Indians like me who revere him passionately.

I, however, always wanted to do my bit to show my gratitude to the great King, in my limited capacity – whichever way it may fit. Thankfully, in today’s age of blogs and vlogs, a lot can be done within an individuals capacity.

That’s where it occurred to me to start a YouTube Channel in the great King’s name. Today I – with my wife Ajanta – together, we are feeling extremely happy, fortunate and blessed while launching this Channel “Discovering Shivaji“. It will be active from this Vijaya-dashami, 30th Sept 2017.

I am not following the usual comic-book approach, which is typical for narrating the lore of historical personalities. I rather believe that History cannot be separated from the appropriate Geography. Hence the animation here is used from the cartographic perspective to understand and analyze the events. Hopefully the viewers will appreciate this approach.

My intentions are not here to mesmerize the viewer with the greatest virtues of the King – although the King was never short of the greatest and rarest virtues and qualities – both as a human as well as a King. But the idea is here to provide viewer as much information, insights and analysis as possible.

There is a tradition worldwide of using the historical personalities for political gains. In countries like India, which had a glorious past and not so golden present… this is even more evident. Consequently the historical people and events are painted by different political masters in their convenient colours. I loathe this tendency – that is why there are no heroes and villains here. From Shivaji to Aurangzeb, all are plain human characters – like they always were. So I try to refrain from serving conclusions on a platter – again as much as possible. I have rather tried to be analytical, insightful in the course – and would leave the conclusion to the viewer’s discretion.

Finally, I must say that my better half played the role of better half in this endeavor as well. Though I conceptualized the things, she was the one who made this dream into reality … and in that sense this channel belongs to her more than me. There is a verse of Kalidas describing qualities of an ideal wife (apologies to feminists) which goes like  गृहिणी, सखी, सचिव (Gruhini, Sakhi, Sachiva)  In our case – and in terms of making this channel – I would transcribe it to the animator, reviewer, consultant etc. and she played all these roles effectively.

What lies ahead is not an easy task indeed; but I have faith and that should take care of the rest.

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About the Author

God knows why but I have too many interests. So chances are that you and me have something in common. Let’s see… Patanjali? Chanakya? Romans? Vijaynagar? Shivaji? Renaissance? Vivekanand? Agatha Christie? Tagore? Hitchcock? S.D.Burman? Cary Grant? Satyajit Ray? Grace Kelly? Brucia la terra? Suchitra Sen? Roman Holiday? Vasantaro Deshpande? Robert de Niro? Malguena? Kishore Kumar? Osho? Hotel California? Smita Patil? Erich von Daniken? Pu La? GA? Andaz Apna Apna? Asha Bhosale? PVN Rao? … Watch this space, sooner or later you will something on similar topic



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