THE YOUNG POLITICIAN

The Young Politician

Saheb was born and brought up in Deorashtre a village in Satara district. Its a small village in hilly areas where agriculture is not a highly productive occupation. He spent his childhood in this tiny village and later moved to slightly bigger places in the area – Vita and Karad where his father and elder brother worked on a small farm hardly enough for the provision of the family. To use his own words, he is a typical product of village life. Saheb has a keen intellect as a young boy. When he was only 16 in 1930, he took part in an elocution competition at Poona the centre of high culture and education in Maharashtra and bagged the first prize. The subject of his maiden speech was village improvement and it caused quite a flutter among the listeners and participants as a boy coming from far off village should score over city boys who are usually better informed.