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http://www.harmonyindia.org/hportal/VirtualPageView.jsp?page_id=10230

Mr India
Even at 103, Mahadev Gokhale is passionate about exercise, says Khursheed Dinshaw

There is very little Mahadev Gokhale has not attempted in the name of adventure. A versatile athlete throughout his life, he continued running, walking, cycling and swimming till the age of 84. Strong-willed and full of energy, nothing would appear physically impossible to him. As a 12 year-old, he even joined the circus briefly as a trapeze artist.

Born in Ganpatiphule in Maharashtra, 10 year-old Gokhale moved with his family to Karjat after his mother's death. His father started farming and the grain would be stocked in a godown full of mice. In search of a solution, Gokhale and his friends looked for a cat but brought home a cheetah cub by mistake. The cub stayed with them for four months during which time the duo would exercise and eat together. Hungry after playing one day, Gokhale had barely sat down to eat when the cheetah came up from behind and tore open his back. "We always ate together and he was annoyed that I hadn't waited," he explains. The end result: Gokhale was unable to sleep on his back for the next four months.

It didn't slow him down though. Cycling was a favourite mode of travelling for Gokhale and he continued well into adulthood. "It would take me 15 days to cycle from Pune to Karachi," he reminisces. "I would stay there for four months a year and teach songs of Balgandharva to Jaddanbai [the mother of actor Nargis], Begum Para and Husnabano [actors and friends]." He carried out this routine every year for a decade till he was 35. And up to the age of 40, Gokhale would cycle from Pune to Delhi and continue to Manasarovar on foot. Once, he had just returned from Manasarovar when he met a group of pilgrims in Delhi who asked him to accompany them as a guide. Reluctant to disappoint them, he walked back to Manasarovar with them.

The year 1939 was memorable because of three significant events. Gokhale ran and won a 27-mile marathon. Both the other feats were related to the Parvati hill temple in Pune. Since climbing 99 steps of the Parvati on foot was common, he accepted his friends' challenge to do it differently. Keeping his head down and body upright (shreeshasan yoga asana), he climbed 47 times continuously on his hands. "It's paining because I did it only today," he told his friends nonchalantly at the time. "There would be no pain if were to do it everyday." The third achievement was carrying wife Vijaya - he was married that year - on his back and climbing up and down Parvati 42 times at a stretch.

Disbelieving that Gokhale ran barefoot all the way to Lonavala for his marathon practice, the owner of Kaka Halwai in Pune gave him a sealed envelope for his brother in Lonavala. On his return, Gokhale handed over the sealed reply, apologising profusely because it was damp with sweat. The messages were just to test his claim and merely mentioned the timings Gokhale started from Pune and Lonavala. Since that day, basundi and mithai were sent for him every day. His achievement of completing 125,000 surya namaskar in four months also earned him whatever he wanted to eat for a year from a shopkeeper in Aundh.

Today, even though he is toothless, he eats sweets everyday - laddoo, sheera, shrikhand, puranpoli, gud poli, pedha - along with a diet of milk and powdered roti mixed with powdered dry fruits, ghee and sugar. Five years ago, a friend challenged him saying he couldn't eat 1.25 kg of sheera as he was getting old. Gokhala finished it in three hours and asked his friend to bring a similar amount the next day as his reward!

At Gokhale's 100th birthday, he was weighed in jaggery, fruits, mithai and sugar. "About 800 people came to pay their respects," says daughter Mrudula Gadgil with whom Gokhale lives. The great-grandfather has two more daughters - Mangal and Madhuri. Till five years ago, Gokhale would go to his shop independently. He has a newspaper distribution and book binding business. But after recovering from a fall, he uses a walker and is accompanied to the shop by son-in-law Pradeep. However, his morning and evening walks in the colony continue. Fond of reading English, Hindi and Marathi newspapers, he doesn't need spectacles even at 103.

Interestingly, Gokhale once wanted to join the Army but was considered physically unfit because of his height (5 ft 4") and abnormal pulse rate - one goes missing after every four beats. It has clearly been the Army's loss!

rar
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अशी झपाटलेली माणसे विरळा!!

आणखी काही लिंक्स
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/hitlers-guest-from-pune-dies-at-103-154...
http://joezachs.blogspot.com/2010/11/hitlers-guest-from-pune-dies-at-103...

आणखी एक
http://joezachs.blogspot.com/2010/11/hitlers-guest-from-pune-dies-at-103...