L. G. Deshpande - Avid Swimmer and lover of rivers, lakes, waterfalls and sea

L. G. Deshpande -  Avid  Swimmer and lover of rivers, lakes, waterfalls and sea :

His love of travel and love of nature had no end. There are so many stories about how much he loved the water and how many lives he has saved while swimming. He taught many children and adults to swim. His love for swimming was so genuine that in his latter days he built a swimming pool on the ground floor at his school called Taranagan and built a 5 story building over it. This was in 1965 and those kinds of concepts and buildings were just not there in India at that time. He was always ahead of his times when it came to thinking and getting things done that sounded impossible to achieve.

Old Tilak Tank 

New Tilak Tank 

He was an avid swimmer and so natural in the water. He was the most powerful swimmer in the Pune Scout in those days. He would come to Tilak Tank and as a tribute, all swimmers would go to the side of the swimming pool and he would shout come on lazy people start swimming. As a joke whoever would not come to the side of the pool he would jump in and take him underwater and make him grasp for his breath.
( Dubbi in Marathi). Many people took the challenge to give him a dubbi but no body ever succeeded.

There was a group of wrestlers in Pune they decided that they are going to go to the Tilak Tank and make sure that they will give a Dubbi to my dad. Many of them tried in vain and it was frustrating for them to accept the defeat. My father once told them that they were wrestlers on the ground but he was the best wrestler in the water. In the end, they gladly accepted the positive spin to their defeat.

He used to select 12 teenage students every year and train them in swimming. Every year for 12 years he would take these 12 students of his to the fully flooded river and jump with all of them in the roaring waters from Lakadi Pul in Pune. He would stand on the middle pillar with 6 students on each side and jump in the muddy red waters of the flood.

                                           Here is some idea of the Mutha River Floods

My mom with the other moms would be waiting with towels at the other side of the river near the Bund Garden Bridge praying to the God that everybody should be out safely. As I already told you I was born after 20 years of marriage and that time my mom would really get frustrated and scared. Her heartbeat would go up and she would almost hold her breath until everybody returned safely. She would say to my dad we don't have any children but they are so precious, I don't want us to be responsible for such an unwanted episode if something goes wrong. We will have to live with it all our lives. Really she was so right in her thought process.. but my dad was my dad a dare devil but will always say that until he is not confident, about the student he would not let him jump.

I think about this now and feel wow what an insane adventure and taking risk with the youngsters.  But his students believed in him so much that with his one signal all of them would jump in those roaring waters.
It amazes me that all of them, 144 students survived to tell this story to the world and I am sure they will never forget my father and the deep impression and courage he gave them. Many of them tell me that was the changing moment in their lives. A new horizon of what one can do opened for them with that experience.
His teaching was so different he would say life's experiences are really learning. When you learn about nature, about how huge the universe is, it makes one humble and realistic. It teaches you respect. When you take a challenge then you thrive to succeed and work hard to achieve that and that builds your personality.
What a great teaching lesson for all of us.

I will be writing more swim stories that I remember but if you have one please add in comments or send it to me.