14 Jan 2024 - MGOL - Geography Day - Bhoogol Diwas

 

Today 14 January is being celebrated as Geography Day or Bhoogol Diwas in certain parts of India especially – the city of my present residence – Pune in Maharashtra, India.

14 January is the birth anniversary of a very distinguished Geographer from India – Prof. Chandrashekhar Dhundiraj Deshpande alias C D Deshpande, who was instrumental in propagating Geography into the academic setup of Universities post Independence in this part of the country. His student Dr. Suresh Garsole of Pune started celebrating this day since 1988.

There are many other dates of the year that too claim to be Geography Day in various other parts of India and one may argue – which is right and appropriate and which is not. Frankly this question does not bother me. I take this opportunity to remember and share my journey with this wonderful subject.

For those who are not aware – the term or title Doctor or Dr. Before my name owes its allegiance to the great subject of Geography. I am a Doctorate or Doctor of Philosophy aka Ph.D. in Geography from the prestigious The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara (Gujarat). A milestone achieved by early twenties. I have always held my head high as a Geographer by training and today take this opportunity to remember the highlights of my journey with this subject on this auspicious day.

First of all – let me state clearly – Geography is not merely a subject or an academic discipline – but very much a way of thinking, living and a way of life. It’s an attitude. Once a Geographer, always a Geographer!

Over the years, I have realised – Geographers are born. They cannot be created or made. I am very sure – academicians just by the virtue of high degrees and positions may not agree with me – for I say - degree and position necessarily does not make one a real Geographer at heart. Either one is a Geographer or one is not. Geographical Instincts cannot be taught. If one has the aptitude and skills, formal and informal education will only impart information regarding various technological tools and advances about the subject matter. It’s an attitude and approach to look at things, analyse and decipher that is most important. The subject or its public perception however is sadly engrossed in the definitions, terminologies, divisions, specialisations, tools of data analysis and statistical methods to prove or disprove an observation. All this is not the real Geography. It is far more than that.

My journey started with the development of this acumen. The credit of this entirely goes to my parents. My mother was very fond of wall maps and the globe. She regularly got these for us and we kids –me around 8 and my younger sister around 6 were made to identify places and routes on the map. This was a regular game for us. My father was the next major influence. We travelled frequently and my father made us aware of the landscape around and its peculiarities. In this, train travel played a great role. My unexplainable fascination for Indian Railways comes from my father. Observing the landscape from a moving train, watching tourist maps, atlases, reading a train timetable since the age of 8, reading magazines like National Geographic or Airlines In-flight Magazines and travelogues – all developed in me the biggest asset – which a true Geographer needs – the ability to look at the world around, from the top view – like watching the map in real time. It’s a concept not even many highly academically educated Geographers get right. This asset helps me to this day to see things differently and understand the correlation between all.

From school level Geography to University level academics – the subject polished this most important skill and various other skills related to that. This resulted in my Doctorate – The Study of Geography in Indian Universities – Past, Present, Future. A Pan India study about the development and state of affairs of the subject itself as an academic discipline.  Again a top to bottom view – identifying things as they were, the great development, the stagnation and the downfall, the issues, the problems and as many as 35 solutions to make this near extinct subject – the most sought after subject by students in India. I wanted to dedicate my life to this one single cause. But destiny had some other plans for me – making me a Full Time Professional Singer and a Stage Performer touring this great nation.

I owe all my personality traits to this great subject. People say and compliment – I am great at observation, I have a photographic memory of places, I can remember incidents, places and many a times the exact dates, I remember landscapes; I can identify culture and its differences, dialects and attitudes. I have travelled the majority of this country and known the human side of this wonderland called India.

Today, I mostly fly and can almost accurately identify where I could be in the sky at 35000 Feet above the ground or rolling in a train – know the area passing by, be it night or day. This is all due to the Geographer in me, trained by my parents and a few wonderful teachers I would like to remember with gratitude, along with my observation power that developed due to my travels. I actually have the confidence that on the land or air... I have not travelled much of water...yet.....I can never be lost. This is because I am Geographically Literate. (Sorry to say, even in today’s smart phone GPS, GIS era, 99% of us are actually geographically illiterate...how? Just ask someone to explain an address location and hear their geographically illiterate talk)

Thank You Geography for being an integral part of my life story. I shall end with 3 quotes I read along my journey with Geography.

“Geography is the stage on which History plays its part!”

And lines of 2 poems by Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee – Former Prime Minister of India, that I quoted during my Ph. D. Viva based on my findings in my study. The first lines were about the sad state of affairs of my dear subject as a dying species in the academic world (Full story about it, some other time) and trying to console myself.

टूटे हुए सपनों की कौन सुने सिसकी

अंतर की चीर व्यथा पलकों पर ठिठकी

हार नहीं मानूँगा, रार नहीं ठानूँगा

काल के कपाल पे लिखता मिटाता हूँ

गीत नया गाता हूँ गीत नया गाता हूँ

The later...lamenting about why all this happened and ending with a hope – May be some day...things may change for the better...Will it ever?

आओ फिर से दिया जलाएँ

भरी दुपहरी में अँधियारा

सूरज परछाई से हारा

अंतरतम का नेह निचोड़ें-

बुझी हुई बाती सुलगाएँ।

आओ फिर से दिया जलाएँ

हम पड़ाव को समझे मंज़िल

लक्ष्य हुआ आँखों से ओझल

वर्त्तमान के मोहजाल में-

आने वाला कल न भुलाएँ।

आओ फिर से दिया जलाएँ।

आहुति बाकी यज्ञ अधूरा

अपनों के विघ्नों ने घेरा

अंतिम जय का वज़्र बनाने-

नव दधीचि हड्डियाँ गलाएँ।

आओ फिर से दिया जलाएँ

Jai Geography, Jai Hind!

 

- Dr. Salil Latay

Pune, India

14 January 2024, Sunday

Images  and quotes used from the Internet. All rights and credits belong to the respective owners and creators. I or this blog site do not claim any right, ownership or credit on the material used here in this post. I - Dr. Salil Latay sincerely appreciate and thank everyone associated with the material used here.