A Life Given to This Land -Thirty-Three Years and Counting : जय महाराष्ट्र
This morning, as I stood for the flag-hoisting on Maharashtra Day, at both Old and New Maharashtra Sadan, I was engulfed by a sense of gratitude,pride and satisfaction.
The tricolour unfurled with a shower of petals like blessings from God. The Maharashtra Geet began to play. And thirty-three years, each posting, each face, each day of dedicated work passed through my mind like a wave. By the time the song ended, my heart was full to the brim.
Two days made this moment even more layered. Yesterday, April 30, was RashtraSant Tukadoji Maharaj Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Maharashtra's Rashtrasant, the saint-poet who wrote the Gramgeeta and walked with Mahatma Gandhi. And today, May 1, is Maharashtra Day, the birth anniversary of a state that has been, for me, far more than a place of posting. It has been home, teacher and grace.
Where It All Began - Bhusawal, Pune, and a Dream -
I was born in Bhusawal, a small town in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, where the railway junction and the Tapi river quietly shaped the character of the people who grew up there. I studied there, absorbed Maharashtra in its most unhurried form and then moved to Pune for university. Pune, that extraordinary city where learning and culture have always breathed the same air.
I taught History at the Pune University. I appeared twice for the UPSC and did not clear it. But Maharashtra, in its quiet way, did not let failure be the last word in my life. In 1993, I joined the Maharashtra State Civil Services and a life of public service began.
Two failed attempts at the UPSC could have defined that beginning as a consolation. Yet, it was anything but that. As I look back, today I feel it was exactly the right door, a cutting edge which Maharashtra opened for me with great love.
Thirty-Three Years Across This Great State -
What followed was not a career. It was an education in the truest sense. Maharashtra took me into its every corner and asked me to serve.
As a probationer in Sindhudurg, the sea and the coast taught me that governance must be rooted in the realities of the land and the people who live closest to it. As Deputy Collector for Land Acquisition at Panvel, I was part of the making of CIDCO and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, infrastructure that would transform how Maharashtra moves. As Entertainment Duty Collector in Mumbai Suburban, I encountered the city in all its energy and complexity. As Lands Manager of MMRDA and Joint Managing Director of Filmcity, I touched two entirely different faces of Mumbai, one building a metropolis, the other dreaming in sound, light and action.
The Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana brought me close to Maharashtra's most vulnerable, those who had slipped through every safety net. The Subdivision of Jawahar, a tribal region, taught me that development must earn trust before it can deliver results. As Resident Deputy Collector at Mumbai City and Election In-charge for Thane, with the then Belapur, a constituency of more than thirteen lakh voters, one of the largest in the state, I understood the weight of democratic responsibility in the most direct way possible.
Then came Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, work that carries the Mahatma's name not as a formality but as a promise : that every hand that seeks work shall get it and every labouring day shall restore dignity. Working for this programme, I felt most directly what it means when policy transforms into livelihood.
Inducted into the IAS and Into a Larger Purpose -
When I was inducted into the Indian Administrative Service, the canvas widened. As CEO of the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission, I worked with lakhs of women across the state who were turning small loans and collective courage into enterprises, into independence, into transformed families. Nothing in a career prepares you for the moment a woman from a remote village tells you that her Self-Help Group changed her life. You carry that with you all your life.
Mission Director for Jal Jeevan Mission brought the mission of water to every home because clean water is not a luxury. It is the first condition of a dignified life. As Collector and District Magistrate at Nagpur, the great city of Vidarbha and the second capital of Maharashtra, I held the full weight of district administration, justice, development, law and the daily needs of millions in one pair of hands and that too during the second phase of COVID.
As Women and Child Commissioner, I worked for their development, and as CEO of the Maharashtra State Khadi and Village Industries Board made Khadi and Madhuban Honey the talk of every home. Through Samagra Shiksha, I facilitated, NIPUN Bharat for the foundational learning of our youngest children. Each posting was its own world, its own lesson, its own set of challenges, I will not forget.
Delhi : Representing Maharashtra at the Heart of the Nation-
And then I came to Delhi. As Resident Commissioner at Maharashtra Sadan, I had the privilege of representing this great state in the capital of the country. It has been, perhaps, the most wonderful experience of all because here, Maharashtra is not a backdrop but an ambassador coordinating between the centre and the state, between nations and Maharashtra. Presenting the culture and heritage of Maharashtra was another opportunity.
The Ganesh Utsav filled Maharashtra Sadan with the joy and faith that this festival represents, community, colour, devotion, and belonging.
The food festivals carried the flavours of the six divisions to a city that was hungry for exactly this kind of warmth.
The Saree Festival brought Maharashtra's handloom heritage — Paithani, Himroo, Karvat Kathi, Khunn to the people of Delhi and they discovered what weavers in Maharashtra had always known.
Every event was an act of love for Maharashtra. I tried to be accessible always, to present this state not as an institution but as a living, breathing, generous culture.
The Saint Who Understood This Land Best -
Yesterday, as we celebrated Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Jayanti, I thought of how much his Gramgeeta speaks of everything I have tried to do. Born with barely three years of schooling, he wrote 4,675, Ovis, verses about rural development, dignity, service, and the ordinary person's right to a good life. He walked with Mahatma Gandhi. He was imprisoned for India's freedom. He sang for the farmer, the labourer, the woman who had no one singing for her.
Two lines from the Gramgeeta have stayed with me through these thirty-three years:
सेवा करी निरंतर, न मागता फळ । हेच जीवनाचे खरे फळ ॥
(Serve ceaselessly, without seeking reward - this itself is life's truest fruit.)
And another, which speaks to what public service must always remember:
ग्रामसेवा हीच ईश्वरसेवा । जाण हे मना, सांग या देवा ॥
(Service to the village is service to God - know this, O mind, and proclaim it.)
Standing on Maharashtra Day, having celebrated Rashtra Sant Tukadoji Maharaj yesterday, I felt the continuity of a tradition of saints and officers, of song and service, of this magnificent state that has always believed that work done honestly, humbly, and for others, is the highest form of worship.
As the Flag Rose and the Song Swelled-
This morning, as the Maharashtra Geet played and the flag rose, my heart swelled with a joy I cannot fully put into words. Bhusawal, where I grew up. Pune, where I learned. Sindhudurg, where I first served. Mumbai, Nagpur, Jawahar, Thane, Delhi — every place Maharashtra trusted me with is a chapter of a life I am grateful for beyond measure.
This is the soil where Sant Dnyaneshwar sang, where Sant Tukaram composed, where Savitribai walked to school through stones and mud, where Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar built a constitution for a nation. To have been born here, to have worked here, to have carried Maharashtra's name wherever I went, I count it among the greatest gifts of my life.
The flag-hoisting today may be one of the last in an official capacity. But the work, the dedication to people, to service, to this land that will never retire. The years ahead I shall give as I have always tried to give: fully, sincerely, and for the many rather than the few.
मी महाराष्ट्राची आहे आणि महाराष्ट्र माझा आहे.
(I belong to Maharashtra and Maharashtra belongs to me.)
जय महाराष्ट्र · जय हिंद
Maharashtra Day · 1 May 2026
R.Vimala, IAS,
Resident Commissioner Maharashtra &
Secretary, Government of Maharashtra &
PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay
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