The unforgettable trip to Mulshi Dam near Pune. My Dad: An avid swimmer

The unforgettable trip to Mulshi Dam

The school had arranged a trip to  Mulshi Dam. Mulshi dam is not very far from Pune and is a very nice location for a day outing. Surrounded by mountains and lush green trees it is a place to visit for sure.
In two buses about 80 plus children of age 12 to 14 went for this trip. LG ( My dad) and my mom both accompanied five more teachers and two Peons. Since it was on a weekend they also took Nuzy their Dog with them. Nuzy was a full pedigree dog- a Bull Terrier. She won many competitions in Mumbai and Pune Kennel Club. She was leashed and was sitting quietly with my father in the front of the bus next to the driver.
LG was not feeling well that day and had a slight fever but still he joined the trip with others.
They reached Mulshi Dam at about noon time. The children played in the near by gardens. Then some of the older students and two teachers wanted to swim in the Mulshi Dam. When they started discussing about this my mom started saying that was not a good idea. She kept saying that LG is not well and he can not come so they should not take the children for a swim.
My dad said that this dam has a lot of silt at the bottom so he wanted to make sure that the teachers who were going to take the group for the swim was aware of that and was ready to take the responsibility of the children. Also he insisted on choosing about 20 children who could really swim. So in the near by stream he had them jump and made sure that they knew how to swim and then gave go ahead to the two teachers.
Now rest of the group started eating lunch and were enjoying the Puri, potato phaji and other goodies that they had brought with them but not my mother. She was very upset that the children had gone swimming and my dad was sitting in the shade with Nuzy and was relaxing. She kept nagging him that why did he let the children go for a swim and kept saying that was not a good idea. Now she did it so much so that the remaining teachers started making fun of LG.
My dad got really annoyed and told my dad that she worries unnecessarily and it will be nice if she can be quite now since the children were already gone and the decision was already made and there was nothing much he could do about it. But my mom ... she would not listen she kept on nagging him.
LG got really annoyed and just to avoid any further nagging which he new will end up in a fight, he took the leash fo Nuzy in his hand and started walking towards the wall of the dam with one of the peons.
As he reached on the middle of the dam wall he heard the students shouting that Pathak- one of the child who was actually son of one of the co-working teachers- was drowning. LG immediately gave the leash of the Nuzy to the Peon and jumped from the dam wall into the dam water which was about 20 feet below the dam wall. While jumping he shouted stay there where he has drowned and within no time, with his powerful strocks, with lightening speed he reached the spot where this child Pathak had drowned and went under water to find him.The other two children accompanying Pathak, got LG's message, kept swimming where Pathak had drowned.
It  was really Pathak's luck that day and a miracle really, that in the first attempt LG brought him and carried him to the shore. He lowered him on the ground and  started giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation. He tilted his head and let the water out and did it again. The second time Pathak responded and started coughing and letting the water come out of his lungs.
A life was saved...
LG was exhasted once Pathak came conscious he just almost collapsed next to him. But he was so happy that he could save his life.

My mother had a winning smile on her face and as always she said see my intuition was right. I am so glad that you were on the dam wall so you could save him. See I am always right and you all thought that I was nagging...
My father laughed and said yes Mam you are always right !!!    

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.