Journalism of Courage
A relentless worker fighting for a cause is how social activis Anil Awachat describes his friend Dr Narendra Dabholkar. Awachat called the murder a major shame for Pune,a land of social reformers.
This incident has definitely taken society backwards. Here was a man who relentlessly fought against superstition. His martyrdom should not be wasted and the anti-superstition bill should be cleared, he said.
A simple,straightforward person who never spoke badly about anyone is how Awachat remembers his friend. Friends since their college days as medical students,he says that Dabholkar always fought for reason.
One should understand that he was never against religion,but against superstitions, said Awachat. He said such was Dabholkars leadership quality that he was able to create a youth movement with the Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti.
Awachat said that Dabholkar asked him to contribute to Sadhana magazine.
He spoke of how their group,comprising Dr Shriram Lagoo,Baba Adhav,Dabholkar and himself,had travelled across the state to perform a play. He had a detailed programme chalked out. We would call him the task master, he said.
He said that even though Dabholkar was constantly travelling,writing books and organising camps,he had a cultural side to him where he loved reciting poems written by Suresh Bhat and listening to music.
