Last year, sometime in August, I got a call from a VIP number. It had said that I have read your blog on Symbiosis Founder President Dr S B Mujumdar and I liked it very much. I will be coming to Pune soon and come to meet me!, It was Dr D Y Patil alias Dnyandeo Yashwantrao Patil, eminent educationist, founder of Dr D Y Patil University and currently Governor of Tripura. He is an educator and a leader of the Indian National Congress from Maharashtra state.
It was a shock and a pleasant surprise at the same time to have received the call from such a great personality. Subsequently I got to meet him, and I found him to be an amazing and lovely person. We talked on various subjects, and those 4-5 hours transformed our relationship in to friendship! Since then, on every visit to Pune he calls me for lunch/dinner and then we spend hours and hours, discussing not only politics but many other topics. At the age of 77 years he live life King size. He has indeed the heart of a King, he speaks only good about everyone.
Dr. D.Y. Patil is a well known educationist and philanthropist from Kolhapur located in the state of Maharashtra. Born in a small village of Ambap on Oct 22, 1935 in Kolhapur district he dreamt of spreading education and healthcare to the masses of India and revolutionized the educational sector in Maharashtra. He is the founder president of D. Y. Patil Educational Academy, Ramrao Adik Education Society and Dr. D. Y. Patil Pratishthan, D. Y. Patil Education Society & Continental Medicare Foundation. He has also founded D. Y. Patil college of Engineering and Technology at Kolhapur and D Y Patil College of Engineering at Pune in 1984. He received the Padma Shri award in 1991 for social work. He got the degrees like M. A., LL. B., Ph. D. He is associated with a large number of educational, social and cultural activities. He has devoted himself to the cause of education. Eminent citizens representing various educational, social and industrial interests, are members of the Board of Trustees of these organizations.
Through his noble work and realized dreams, Dr. D. Y. Patil has contributed significantly to the cause of Education and healthcare. Through his various educational and healthcare schemes and policies he would like to see India grow and become a self supporting and leading nation. His vision is to make education and health care available to all, especially to the poor and needy, and to the deprived and downtrodden.
Dr. D. Y. Patil has focused his energies for the cause of education, with emphasis on professional education areas. He is of the opinion that the education patterned to train the students to face the challenges and ever changing job/skill requirements on account of globalization without forgetting ethos of rich Indian culture is bound to transform the society and thereby make India a strong, self supporting and leading nation. His preference is for actual implementation of his concepts rather than merely preaching.
Dr D Y Patil was elected to the Kolhapur Municipal Council as a Congress candidate in 1957 and remained in office until 1962. He was the member of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha from 1967-78. In both the 1967 and 1972 elections, he was elected from Panhala Vidhan Sabha constituency. He was appointed the governor of Tripura state on November 21, 2009 and took the oath of office and secrecy on November 27, 2009.
A sports lover, Tripura Governor Dr D.Y. Patil visited London to witness the opening ceremony of the Olympics at his own expense. ”I had taken leave and visited London at our own cost to witness the opening ceremony. I won’t take a single rupee from the government or won’t enjoy any official benefit during the visit”, Patil said. He added, “As a sports lover, I had also attended Helsinki and Beijing Olympics in 1952 and 2008.”
Dr D Y Patil has been drawing Re.1 as monthly salary instead of Rs.110,000 after he became the 12th governor of Tripura Nov 27, 2009. He has visited many interior and tribal-dominated areas and taken personal initiative to implement developmental projects. ”The centre and the state have a common aim to flush-out militancy from the northeastern states,” he said. Patil has also sponsored trips for budding cricketers and young people to watch the Indian Premier League (IPL) and other cricket matches in Mumbai and several other places.
It is always a pleasure to meet him as I get to learn many things from him which are lifetime useful for us. I also traveled with him. His one more specialty is his hospitality. He insists to join everyone for lunch/dinner those are present at that time. He also participates with us on same table with equal menu. I got the pleasure to have meal with him almost more than 20 times! He is an extremely hospitable host and will make every attempt to ensure that the guests are treated well, and he takes personal effort towards this!
One more specialty I found, if you shake hand with him you get some power & energy and he passes very positive waves. I also wonder about his enthusiasm as I have never seen him tired and upset. He is always a happy man! He doesn’t take rest in the afternoon. He likes to discuss various things with various people from different-different sector. He is very simple & humble person indeed! He is the true friend and always keeps in touch with the concerns though he is at Tripura, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Pune or even London! He keeps calling his friends and the others and always cares about them. I remember he called me from London this year after the opening ceremony of Olympic-2012. One day, I went to meet him with somebody at his Koregaon Park’s bungalow & that person left early. Afterwards when I left, Dr Patil called me and said, I feel very sad that you travelled by auto despite so many cars here. I told him that your driver dropped me by your car only then he got relief. It shows his humanity and how that person is down-to-earth and genuine.
Today is his 77th birthday and wish him good health and peaceful long life ahead..!!
Happy Birthday, Dada!
