Again, a shocker. Unbelievable
news that came at the most unexpected moment. It has happened to us several
times in the recent two years—persons quite close to us die and we come to know
about them months later. This time the occasion was a nice gathering of a few
senior citizens under their Senior Citizens Club in Thane, Mumbai. A member of
the Shiv Sena who attended the event not as a senior citizen as he was much
younger informed me to my casual inquiry about the famous Shiv Sena leader
Anant Tare that he has passed away about a year back. I was taken aback and was
too shocked to ask more questions. Instead, I came down to the nearby lane and
telephoned Tare’s personal associate Sunil. And to my horror he confirmed the
news that Anant Tare had indeed passed away on 22nd February 2021 at
a private hospital in Thane. He was hospitalized for some illness in December
and before the day he was to be discharged he had a brain stroke and later a hemorrhage.
As the doctors prepared for a brain surgery, he was found to be COVID-19 positive.
Afterward, he went into a coma for more than two months, and tragically passed
away on that date without recovering.
In my grief that
clutched me suddenly I blamed Sunil for not informing us. He said that the
times were too sadly hectic and that the news had been constantly flashed in
the local news channels and the newspapers. Of course, that time newspapers
were still not allowed in our Thane society, but we used to watch the local
news channels quite regularly. How we missed such an important news, we don’t
know. Perhaps it was the same divine wish that we should not know about it at a
time when we were bogged down with personal issues, and then in March 2021 we
left Mumbai for a few months, still not knowing the sad truth.
Anant Tare had
been a prominent Shiv Sena leader and had been the Mayor of Thane Municipal Corporation
three times in the nineties. In 2000 he was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative
Council, and after serving a full term as an MLC Tare worked on as a Deputy
Leader of Shiv Sena for Thane and Palghar districts. Anant Tare belonged to the
Mahadev Koli community, and all his life he worked tirelessly for the betterment
of the Koli community, the oldest fishing community or rather the aboriginals,
listed now as a Scheduled tribe, of Mumbai and Thane. The beaches in Mumbai are
being called ‘Koliwadas’, because the Koli fisherfolks live in hidden hutments along
the seashore. Anant Tare had been their beloved leader—a leader who worked at
the grassroots and always for the people. He was also a very religious person worshipping
the traditional Koli Goddess Ekvira Devi among other deities and was the
president of the Ekvira Devi Temple Trust at Lonavla. His office cum
residential campus in Thane-West is truly a place of integration with temples
of Goddesses of Amba and Ekvira and a Pir Baba dargah (Sufi place of worship).
I knew Anant Tare
since 2006 when I was posted in Doordarshan News in Mumbai. We became friends
at the very first meeting, without any motivation behind—like that of exchanging
favors or following a ‘give and take’ policy. He had visited our office on many
occasions, sometimes just for meeting us or at times coming as a guest in the
news or the program shows. His associate Sunil had also been a regular visitor bringing
stories of the activities/events of Tare Saheb whom he referred always as ‘Dada’,
and we used to include some of the stories displaying the energetic spirit of
the lively Kolis. Anant Tare had given me and my wife the unique opportunity of
attending a Koli festival in Mumbai, and we were stunned by their lively culture,
folk dances and a rich cuisine of the sea fish varieties—I could not even count
the number of fish delicacies offered. He has also been inviting us to visit
the famous Ekvira Temple in Lonavla, but unfortunately that did not
materialize, and now he is no more.
Our friendship continued
naturally after I left Doordarshan Mumbai and even after I retired from service
of the Government of India. We have often been in touch and the kindhearted
religious peoples’ leader always helped us as best as he could in times of our
personal crisis. While living in Thane after my retirement we visited his
office several times and had darshan of the temples and the dargah. He always adjusted
his busy schedule to be present during our visits. On an invitation from Sunil
in October 2020 to come to Tare Saheb’s Navaratri celebration we went there and
to our surprise Anant Tare was present there personally, waiting for us and to
felicitate us—myself and my wife Ragini. That was an unforgettable moment, and that
day of the 25th of October 2020 turned out to be the last time we
met him. Yes, at that time my wife had more plans of visiting Tare Saheb’s
wonderful place.
We offer our
tributes and homage, belated as for the reasons cited above, to a genuinely true
leader and a true family friend. Our heartfelt condolences to his family of wife, a son and and a daughter along with all kin and associates. I always discussed politics of Maharashtra
with him, but never went beyond that which he too understood very well. Our common
subject of mutual respect had been the great Balasaheb Thackeray and all the
Thackerays—Uddhav Thackeray (Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 2019 with a
coalition government), his dynamic son cum minister Aaditya Thackeray,
dissenting leader Raj Thackeray and all others in their families. Anant Tare
started his career as a banker and soon joined politics, inspired by Balasaheb
Thackeray. He was said to be among Balasaheb’s most trusted ones. In Anant Tare’s
demise at an untimely 66, Maharashtra and the Shiv Sena have lost a great honest
leader.
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