The Unconquered Flame : Remembering Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj...

The Unconquered Flame : Remembering Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj  

( Chatrapati  SambhajiRaje Maharaj Jayanti Special  |  May 14, 1657 – March 11, 1689 ) 

Day before yesterday, we gathered to celebrate Chatrapati SambhajiRaje Maharaj Jayanti. Our manager read aloud the story of a king who defied an emperor, a warrior who composed Sanskrit poetry, a son who witnessed history at nine years of age and  I found myself very moved. I realised, how little most of us truly knew about Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and how much the world has underestimated him. For many years, popular narratives reduced him merely to a warrior king who met a tragic end. But with renewed interest in Maratha history, especially after the release of the movie Chhava, people across India have begun rediscovering the extraordinary depth of Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj’s personality, his courage, intellect, strategy, scholarship, and unmatched resilience.

History, they say, is written by the victors. But sometimes history is rewritten, slowly, painstakingly by those who refuse to let a great leaders be forgotten. This blog is my small tribute to one such leader.

Chatrapati Sambhajiraje Maharaj was born on May 14, 1657 at Purandar Fort to  Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Maharani Saibai. He grew up amidst war, diplomacy, and political turbulence. At the tender age of nine, he accompanied Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to Agra and witnessed firsthand the humiliation and betrayal by Aurangzeb in the Mughal court. Imagine the impact on a young boy, standing in the shadow of one of history's most powerful and ruthless emperors, witnessing his father assert his dignity in that great Mughal darbar. This was followed by the daring escape from Agra where father and son, slipped away from one of the most fortified places near the fort. For a nine-year-old, it must have been a terrifying. And yet, it must have shaped him. That early encounter with danger, with one of the biggest empires and it’s emperor, with courage under impossible odds that perhaps  became the background in which Chatrapati Sambhaji's character was created.

When Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj ascended the throne of the Marathas at Raigad on January 16, 1681, becoming the second Chhatrapati after his great father, he inherited not only a kingdom but a war, not against one enemy, but nine. He had to simultaneously, face the Mughals under Aurangzeb, the Siddis, the Portuguese, the British, Adil Shah, Qutub Shah and more.

Most rulers would have made peace with one enemy to fight another. Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj refused to bow to any. He drove his campaigns into Burhanpur, swept through the Aurangabad region, and pushed the Portuguese back all the way to Ponda Ghat near Goa. Historians note that had Aurangzeb not intervened, he may well have vanquished the Portuguese entirely. He captured forts across North and South Konkan, launched naval campaigns, and in a remarkable act of strategic vision attempted to blockade the impregnable Janjira fort for eight continuous months by filling the bay with stones, wood, and cotton bales. The sea defeated him that day. But from that maritime resolve emerged the foundations of the legendary Angre dynasty, the pride of the Maratha navy.

For nine years, under crushing adversity, he kept the Swarajya intact. That, in itself, is a feat which deserves far more recognition than it has received. His reign lasted only nine years, but those nine years were among the most difficult faced by the Maratha Empire

Here is the part that surprised me most. At a time when kingdoms were consumed by constant warfare, Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj found time to pay attention to literature, music, philosophy, scriptures, and statecraft. In the chaos of war, he nurtured scholarship  a remarkable achievement rarely acknowledged. So despite warfare, political turbulence, and siege Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj wrote, not in the vernacular alone, but in Sanskrit. His work Budhbhushan is a Sanskrit treatise that stands as proof of extraordinary scholarship. He authored four books in total and engaged in philosophical discourse on the Vedas with the great Vedic scholar Gagabhatta on equal terms.

He was also deeply rooted in administration. He continued the Ashtapradhan system of his father, issued Kaulnamas during the famine of 1686–87 for the relief and rehabilitation of people, and worked to increase trade by offering concessions to merchants. He was not merely a warrior, he was a statesman.

His liberal religious policy continued the inclusive tradition of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj  restoring grants to temples and monasteries, ensuring the welfare of saints and shrines, and protecting the diverse spiritual fabric of Maharashtra. 

In February 1689, he was captured at Sangameshwar by Sheikh Mukarrab Khan's forces  not in open battle, but through treachery which has been the cause of defeat, most times in history. What followed were weeks of unimaginable torture at the hands of Aurangzeb, who wanted one thing above all else that this defiant Maratha king renounce his faith and surrender.

On March 11, 1689, at Vadhu Budruk near Tulapur, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj was executed brutally, mercilessly by Aurangzeb's command. He was thirty-one years old. But he died without surrender. His death was not a defeat. It was a declaration.

History records that Aurangzeb, upon hearing of his captive's unyielding resolve, is said to have wept not from grief, but from the frustration of a man who had conquered kingdoms but could not conquer one man's spirit.

"A ruler who faces nine enemies, composes Sanskrit verse, administers with compassion, and dies undefeated  this is not a man history should forget. This is a man history should celebrate."

As an administrator, I think often about what leadership truly means. Not the leadership of comfort but of adversity. Of conviction under pressure. Of holding together an institution, a people, an idea  when everything conspires to destroy it.

Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj's nine-year reign was exactly that kind of leadership. He did not govern from safety. He led from the front, on the battlefield, in the court, in the scholarly traditions he kept alive even amid constant war. He built a navy. He cared for famine-struck people. He refused to compromise on his faith and his identity, even when death was the price.

There is a Marathi saying: शूर मरे पण गद्दार नाही. The brave may die, but never betray. Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj did not merely live by this , he embodied it.

Day before yesterday's Jayanti was more than a date on the calendar. It was a reminder that Maharashtra's history is rich with figures who deserve deeper understanding than a film or a textbook paragraph can offer. It was a reminder that greatness is multidimensional it can simultaneously wield a sword, hold a pen, and shelter the vulnerable.

As our manager spoke, and as I sat listening, I felt that particular kind of inspiration that only comes from encountering a life truly, fully lived. Chatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj was thirty-one when he left this world. In those thirty-one years, he lived more lives than most of us could imagine across several.

So here is my prayer on his Jayanti: may we learn from his intellectual curiosity, his compassion in governance, his refusal to compromise on what is right and his extraordinary, unbreakable courage.

जय भवानी  |  जय शिवाजी  |  जय संभाजी

River Into the Ocean: Reflections Before Retirement...

River Into the Ocean: Reflections Before Retirement...

I shall be turning sixty soon and with that, retiring from Government after more than three decades of service. There is a feeling of joy and satisfaction, each time I say , I am going to retire. For me, saying those words are not only matter of fact but also beautiful. Retirement is such a simple inevitability yet is one word that evokes such different emotions in people.

Last week, someone I know , a well-meaning, well-placed acquaintance  looked at me  with an expression usually reserved for condolence visits. “That’s sad,” she said, when I said to her that I am retiring. I was very amused.

Sad? That a life of over three remarkable decades in public service is completing one of its most meaningful era? That I shall be turning sixty with both feet firmly on the ground, a heart full of stories, and a diary brimming with things yet to be done? This certainly isn’t sadness but the another beautiful blessing in my life. 

Retirement is often spoken of in hushed tones, as though it is an ending to be mourned. And that maybe because society has taught us to measure identity through designations, offices, authority and positions. When those symbols begin to loosen their hold, many mistake it for loss. There is a peculiar sorrow that grips people when they  or someone they know  have to relinquish a position. If you watch it closely, you will find it is rarely about the person. It is about the power they wielded, the chair they occupied, the title that preceded their name in every room they entered. Yes, as a society, we have confused identity with designation. We have mistaken the office for the officer. 

In reality, power, in its truest sense, was never the property of a position. The IAS officer, the CEO, the Commissioner , the Collector these are roles that are assigned for a term. What endures is character. What outlasts all titles is contribution because life is larger than a visiting card. 

Turning sixty in India also has mythological connotations. It is known as Shastipoorthi,  the completion of a full cycle, celebrated in our traditions as a second birth, a moment to begin life anew with accumulated wisdom. The Gita reminds us that the soul does not age; it only witnesses. What we call a career is merely one chapter of a far longer story.

Sant Tukaram, found his truest voice not in his youth but in the fullness of his years. Savitribai Phule, spent her life beginning again, each time with greater courage, each time with a wider compass of care. 

Life in any case is very uncertain. We do not know what each morning will bring, which phone call will alter everything, which casual interaction will become a defining memory. In all this uncertainty, reaching the age of sixty with a clear conscience, good health, and a heart still hungry for purpose is not a small thing. It is a triumph of reaching a milestone with peace, gratitude and joy which must feel like grace and not like sorrow. In the words of Sir Edmund Hillary, “ It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” 

To look back at one’s years of dedicated service without bitterness, regret, or exhaustion, and with happiness is a blessing. Besides, there is dignity in stepping aside gracefully. There is courage in embracing uncertainty again and there is freedom in discovering who you are beyond your designation.  For me, retirement does not feel like an ending at all. It feels like standing at the edge of a river I have travelled faithfully for years, watching it merge into something larger, deeper, and limitless. And I look forward to that ocean with joy because nothing stops a person from contributing to society after retirement. What stops someone who has spent decades accumulating knowledge, networks, and perspective as resources that most institutions would envy ? Perhaps it is fear of being without a designation, of contributing without a letterhead, of mattering without an office despite having abundance of time now!

But consider the women of Maharashtra’s Self-Help Groups , UMED Abhiyan whom I had the privilege to work with. Many of them had nothing: no title, no office, no official recognition. And yet they built enterprises, rebuilt families, and redefined communities. Their power was never in position. It was in purpose. If they could do that, with so little, surely those of us who have spent decades in service can do something magnificent when finally free.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson has said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

And isn’t there a quiet accounting one does as retirement approaches. Not of achievements since  those are already written. But of moments one has deferred, the book that stayed in the mind and never made it to paper, the village at dawn that went unphotographed, the poem that stayed incomplete, the destinations one has never travelled to, the conversation that was to happen “after this project.” Retirement would be the end of deferral. It would be a moment when the self would finally get an appointment with itself.

For years, we work against time, deadlines, files, responsibilities, emergencies, expectations, postponing living itself. We tell ourselves that one day we shall read more, travel more, write more, listen more, sit quietly more, laugh without looking at the clock more.

So retirement is not withdrawal from life, it is an invitation back to it.There are conversations yet to be had, communities yet to be served, journeys yet to be undertaken, books yet to be written, mornings yet to be enjoyed without urgency, and silences yet to be understood.

And my list is ready. There is research to complete , a doctoral thesis on deserted women that must become the voice those women deserve. There is writing to be done, essays, poems, reflections that a busy career pushed to the margins. There is travel, learning, mentoring and perhaps, most joyfully, the simple luxury of being present in a room without an agenda.

I have always been fascinated by the flow of a river. It begins in the mountains, narrow, cold, purposeful and winds its way through plains and cities, carrying silt and stories alike. It does not hesitate at the delta. It does not mourn the mountains. It simply opens into something vaster than itself.

To those who look at me with despair when I speak of retiring, I want to say this gently: it is not your sympathy I need, but your company if you dare. Come, let us explore what happens when experience is finally set free yet continues to work with the same passion. Let us see what we can build for our communities, for our children, for ourselves  when the only brief we follow is the brief of the heart. 

That is how I see the coming phase of my life. Not as an end, but as a new beginning. Less bounded, more boundless, purposeful yet free. The river of life does not end when it leaves familiar banks. It simply widens into the ocean. And oceans are not endings. They are vastness and I am looking forward to merge into that ocean with joy.

R.Vimala, IAS, 

Resident Commissioner & Secretary, 

Government of Maharashtra & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

The Techwari 2.0 : Reimagining the Secretariat as a Civic Innovation Hub

The Techwari 2.0 : Reimagining the Secretariat as a Civic Innovation Hub

Mantralay, the headquarters of  Government of Maharashtra, in Mumbai , transformed into something far beyond a government office for five days, between 4th and 8th May 2026.  Tech Wari 2.0 became a living experiment in learning, collaboration and human connection where technology met governance, wellness met administration and culture walked hand in hand with innovation. 

In government, we often speak about systems, policies and processes. But Tech Wari 2.0 reminded everyone that governance is ultimately about people, their minds, their values, their health, their creativity and their willingness to adapt to a changing world.

Inspired by the spirit of the Maharashtrian Wari ,where thousands walk together towards  Pandharpur, with devotion, discipline and purpose, Tech Wari carried the same spirit into governance and this “learning week” became a modern-day yatra of ideas. 

What made Tech Wari 2.0 special was its balance. This was not merely a conference on Artificial Intelligence or digital governance. It was designed as a holistic learning movement. Sessions ranged from cybersecurity, quantum computing and India Stack to yoga, stress management, parenting and ethics in governance. 

Tech Wari 2.0 had sessions in one hall where  officers discussed the future of digital public infrastructure and AI-powered governance. In another hall, participants learnt about mental wellness, healthy living and emotional balance. Tech Wari 2.0 also had  demonstrations showcasing innovation, healthy food and nutrition, while cultural performances filled Trimurti Prangan with rhythm and energy. 

 A future-ready administration cannot be built by technology alone. It must also nurture empathy, wellness, ethics and creativity. What made Tech Wari truly remarkable was its scale and inclusiveness. Over 6,000 employees participated physically at Mantralaya while lakhs joined through live streaming across districts. The idea was simple yet powerful , no employee should be left behind in the learning journey. 

One of the most memorable moments was the inaugural rhythmic performance Taalrang by Nilesh Parab and his team. What appeared to be a musical presentation soon evolved into a metaphor for governance itself. 

Every instrument had a role. Every beat depended on coordination. Every pause mattered as much as every sound.

As officers, staff and dignitaries watched the synchronised performance, the message became clear , administration too is like an orchestra. Good governance is impossible without harmony and coordination between departments, officers, institutions and citizens.

The participation of senior leadership, including the Hon’ble Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary reinforced the idea that learning and adaptation are responsibilities shared across every level of governance. 

The week brought together technology leaders, administrators, wellness experts, artists and trainers. Sessions on AI, cybersecurity, DPDP Act 2023, quantum computing and digital governance reflected how rapidly the administrative landscape is evolving. Discussions on ethics, leadership, handling criticism and stress management added meaning to it. 

Today administrators are expected not only to manage files and policies, but also to navigate public expectations, digital transformation and emotional pressures. Tech Wari acknowledged this reality with honesty and sensitivity.

The presence of experts from institutions like  Capacity Building Commission, YASHADA, The Yoga Institute, Manashakti, NASSCOM and technology leaders added immense depth to the initiative. 

Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of Tech Wari 2.0 was that it never lost touch with Maharashtra’s cultural soul.

From Naadrang and Yogarang to Kalarang and the final depiction of Wari culture, every evening carried a reminder that progress does not mean abandoning tradition. 

The conversations around Art, AI and Governance beautifully captured this balance. Artists, filmmakers and creative minds explored how technology can coexist with imagination and cultural identity.

In a time when discussions on technology often feel cold and mechanical, Tech Wari gave innovation a human face.

Tech Wari 2.0 was not just a schedule of sessions. It was an atmosphere where officers paused to learn. Where technology was discussed without fear. Where wellness was treated as essential, not optional. Where culture was celebrated within the seat of governance itself.

For a few days, Mantralaya became more than an administrative building. It became a campus of curiosity.

This initiative was a reflection of a much larger transformation journey through the Maha-Sadhana Saptah, where nine lakh employees completed structured learning on the iGOT Karmayogi platform, collectively recording an extraordinary 35 lakh learning hours in just one week. 

 These are not merely statistics but reflect a government and it's leadership is consciously investing in its people.

Tech Wari also highlighted several administrative reforms and human resource initiatives:

• MAHA eHRMS, Maharashtra’s first unified HR platform

• Compassionate appointment reforms

• Bite-sized digital learning initiatives like “Small Bite, Big Leap”

• Sevakarm and governance reform programmes

• Recruitment and service rule reforms for a faster and more transparent administration 

Perhaps the greatest success of Tech Wari 2.0,is that it reminded us that learning never ends, especially in public service. Governance in the future will not belong merely to those who hold authority but to those willing to learn, adapt, collaborate and stay rooted in human values.

"तुझे नाव ओठी, तुझे रूप ध्यानी

जिवाला तुझी आस गा लागली

जरी बाप साऱ्या जगाचा परि तू

आम्हा लेकरांची विठू माऊली...

माऊली माऊली, माऊली माऊली

माऊली माऊली, रूप तुझे..."

At it's heart this is the sentiment  which transforms  leadership from a position of power  into a presence with empathy.  While "the Father" represents the structural authority, rules, and objective justice required to govern, "Mauli" represents the empathy and approachability that give administration its soul. True excellence in service occurs when an administrator transcends their title to become a compassionate guardian, proving that the most effective governance isn't delivered through distant commands, but through a nurturing commitment to the well-being of every citizen.

Tech Wari 2.0 mentored by Additional Chief Secretary, GAD, Ms.V.Radha,IAS echoed this thought that Maharashtra is ready for the future and that administration can learn, evolve and innovate while still remaining connected to culture and compassion. 

R.Vimala, IAS,

Resident Commissioner, & Secretary, Government of Maharashtra & 

Phd Scholar at IIT Bombay 

Standing Tall for Maharashtra : On Maharashtra Day - A Life Given to This Land -Thirty-Three Years and Counting : जय महाराष्ट्र

Standing Tall for Maharashtra : On Maharashtra Day - 
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 

The Sky Was Always There :On Ceilings, Crossbeams and the Art of Looking Up

The Sky Was Always There :

On Ceilings, Crossbeams and the Art of Looking Up

It was early morning at New Maharashtra Sadan. The lobby was really quiet, the kind of quiet that is normally there before the beginning of a busy day. I was at peace and seated, my thoughts still unhurried. And then, without quite meaning to, I looked up.

Above me, the ceiling was a lattice of crossed wooden beams , beautiful, geometric, deliberate. And beyond them, framed by every crossing, lay the sky. Blue. Open. Infinite. The crossbeams did not hold the sky back. They simply gave it a frame.

And in that moment, something shifted in me. How often, I thought, do we sit beneath open skies and see only the beams?

We mistake the frame for the cage. We mistake the obstacle for the destination.

The Closed Window That Was Never Locked -

There is a particular kind of pain that comes not from failure, but from the feeling of being pressed against a surface you cannot pass through. A promotion that does not come. A relationship that runs cold. A dream that keeps receding. An ungratefulness we suddenly encounter. You knock and the echo returns hollow. You push and nothing opens.

We have all stood at that closed window,  forehead against the glass, watching life happen on the other side often with regret or envy. What we forget, in those moments, is to step back. To look sideways or to look up or to ignore.

The window was never the only way. It was simply the only thing we had been staring at.

" Open your mind and fly…

Sometimes you feel left out and lonely,

Drifting listless on silent shores,

Stuck or hitting your head at a closed window,

Yearning for something more.

But open your mind, lift your heart,

Free your thoughts, let yourself fly,

Take that leap into the unknown,

Spread your wings and touch the sky.

In the free fall, you'll find your path,

In the silence, you'll hear the call,

All the answers lie within you,

Just trust yourself and break the wall…

Rise and fly high…"

The Free Fall as the Path -

I have spent much of my life in structured spaces , offices, files, protocols, hierarchies. The IAS is not, by nature, a place that celebrates leaps into the unknown. And yet, my own life has been shaped by precisely those moments: the years of waiting, the MPSC after the UPSC, the long decades as Deputy Collector before the elevation into IAS, the PhD begun not in youth but in the fullness of professional life.

Each of those was a free fall. Each felt, at the time, like losing altitude.  I now understand, that each fall was on the path finding and leading me.

The poem says it plainly : "In the free fall, you'll find your path." This is not romanticism. It is the  structural truth. When we relinquish our tight  grip on how things were supposed to go, something else becomes possible. We become available to what is actually happening. Just like  "In the silence, you'll hear the call." The call was always there. We were just too loud with our anxiety to hear it.

The Answers Are Not Out There - They Are In Here , In yourself. 

In my work with deserted women across Ahilyanagar district, I have sat with women whose lives have been stripped to almost nothing. No husband. No home. Often no income. No legal recourse that reaches them easily. And yet, again and again, I have seen something remarkable happen when you simply sit with them, listen to them, trust them with a question: the answer emerges from within.

They knew what they needed. They knew who they were. What they had lacked was not knowledge but a mirror , someone to say: your instinct is right, your strength is real, your sky is there.

This is also what the Self-Help Group model, at its best, does. It does not supply answers from the outside. It creates conditions in which women discover what they already knew. The shakti was always present. The group simply removed the crossbeams from their line of sight.

Yes,  all the answers lie within you - Just trust yourself and break the wall.

Looking Up as a Practice -

That morning in the lobby, I did not look up because I was smart or wise. I looked up because I was still, for once not rushing, not yet engulfed by the day's demands. The stillness is what made it possible.

We rarely look up when we are running. We only  look ahead, scanning for obstacles, calculating distances. Looking up requires a pause , a willingness to not be productive for a moment, to not be solving anything, to simply be.

Sant Tukaram called this vairagya , the gentle loosening of our grip on outcomes. Not indifference. Not passivity. But a kind of interior spaciousness that allows the larger view to enter. He says, 

वैराग्याचें भाग्य । संतसंग हाचि लाग ॥ १॥

संतकृपेचे हे दीप । करी साधका निष्पाप ॥ ध्रु.॥

तोचि देवभक्त । भेदाभेद नाहीं ज्यांत ॥ २॥

तुका प्रेमें नाचे गाई । गाणियांत विरोन जाई ॥ ३॥

It means that the true fortune of detachment is finding the company of saints (Sant Sang). The grace of saints is like a lamp that makes the seeker pure (Nishpap). A devotee who has no differentiation (bhedabhed) in his heart is the true devotee of God. Tukaram says he sings and dances in love, ultimately dissolving (surrendering) himself entirely into that devotion is he who does not differentiate.  

 When we cultivate that spaciousness,  in a busy lobby,  in the middle of a deadline,  in the depths of a grief that does not lift , we find that the sky has not gone anywhere. It was only our gaze that had dropped.

Rise and Fly High -

The wooden beams at Maharashtra Sadan are not obstacles. They are architecture. They hold the roof that shelters us, they provide light even as they frame the sky we must not forget to see.

Our constraints, our hierarchies, our disappointments, our setbacks, the structures of our lives are also, in this sense, architecture. They hold us even as they frame our view. The question is not how to demolish them but how to use them: to climb higher, to look beyond, to remember that the sky extends infinitely past the frame.

Open your mind. Lift your heart. Free your thoughts. The sky is not something you must reach , it is something you must remember you already belong to.

Rise and fly high.

The sky was always there.

R.Vimala,  IAS,  

Resident Commissioner,  Maharashtra  & Secretary,  Government of Maharashtra,  & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay.  

Saturday morning and the Change of Guard at Rashtrapati Bhavan

Saturday morning and the Change of Guard at Rashtrapati Bhavan....

Two weeks ago, a message appeared on one of the  WhatsApp groups of which I am a member, saying,
" Good afternoon all, it's an open invitation for all officers to
witness the Change of Guard Ceremony at the 
Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan every Saturday.
It comprises of ceremonial drill of guards, Horse spectacle and a Band show. Its a treat to watch."
That last line - its a treat to watch -played on my mind and the follow-up, sealed it.
So on Saturday morning, filled with my usual enthusiasm, I found myself on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan thanks to Lt.Colonel Shri. Harshavardhan Dhekane. 
The Change of Guard ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan is one of those things that many residents in Delhi and outside  may not know.  It happens on Saturday mornings at 7.30 a.m in the great forecourt of the President's House on Raisina Hill. If you have not seen it, you should. Not only as a tourist attraction but also  as a lesson. Yes , the Change of Guard ceremony was not only a treat to watch but also a great lesson in discipline.  

The ceremony-

The Anchors presenting the show gave information about the President's Bodyguard , the oldest regiment of the Indian Army, raised in 1773 , which rides out in full ceremonial dress, alongside them are the ceremonial guards of 1/5 Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force), raised in 1858, the proud recepients of 26 Battle Honours and 03 Theatre Honours.

The horses, the riders, the lances, the gleaming brass, immaculate and composed are more than military display. They are a living institution presenting themselves, with care and dignity, to its citizens. 

The show begins with the entry of the band , followed by the horses, the commander and the guards addressed as , 'Purana Guard' and 'Naya Guard'. The band in the centre, the horses at the sides and the outgoing guard and the incoming guard stand  across that magnificent courtyard. The band plays martial tunes, patriotic melodies, and occasionally something that surprises you.  The handover happens with a precision that has clearly been rehearsed hundreds of times displays sincerity.

What strikes most is the silence within the sound. The band fills the air, the commands ring out, and each soldier moves with a complete perfection. No shuffling. No looking around. No gestures. Every person entirely present to the single thing they are doing at that particular moment, yet part of the whole.  In a world that has largely forgotten how to be in one place at a time, this is remarkable to witness.

What discipline actually is-
Often, the word discipline is used as a synonym for strictness, for punishment, for the suppression of individual will. But what I watched that morning was the opposite of suppression.
The soldiers have trained with such perfection that the formations become second nature. The drill does not look mechanical but is an expression of  precision which is internalised and  not imposed from outside. That is what real discipline looks like. Not the gritting of teeth but the freeing of the mind to do its best. 
Watching the musicians was a feast for the ears as well as eyes. A military band at full ceremonial play is a fascinating study in simultaneous individuality and unity. Each musician carries his instruments ignoring its weight, reading his own part, playing his own notes with  responsibility so that the sound that emerges is seamless, powerful and one. Nobody is drowning anyone else out. Nobody is rushing ahead or lagging behind. They are listening to each other even while they are performing. That listening is the discipline.
Discipline is not the silencing of the self. It is the alignment of the self with something larger and discovering that in that alignment, the self is not diminished but amplified.

The unison in walking together -
There is a specific moment in the ceremony that  keeps returning to in my mind. The guards march which is something too precise to be human. Every boot lands at the same instant. Every arm swings to the same angle. Every head is held at the same height. Forty individuals moving as  a whole.
How does this happen? Not through coercion, you certainly cannot force forty people into that kind of synchrony. It happens through shared purpose. Through hundreds of hours of practice together. Through each person trusting that the person next to them will do their part, which frees them to do their own. Above all through, a common understanding of what they are doing and why it matters.
This is the crux about marching in step: it requires you to give up the right to your own pace. Your natural stride may be slightly longer, slightly faster, slightly different from the person beside you. To march together, you must surrender that. And the paradox is that  the surrendering does not make you less. It makes you part of something you could never be on your own. A column moving in perfect unison is more powerful, more dignified, more beautiful than any single soldier marching alone, however perfectly. And this was more intriguing when followed by the majestic horses and their equestrian riders. 

I have spent over five years working with Self-Help Groups across Maharashtra, women in villages who have learned exactly this lesson, not on a parade ground but in a circle of seats, pooling their savings, sharing their credit, building enterprises together. The principle is identical. You give up the right to spend your money alone, and in return you gain access to a fund that none of you could have built by yourself. You march in step. And the column moves forward.

Rashtrapati Bhavan: the backdrop that earns its name-
A word about the setting, because to write about this ceremony without writing about the building is to miss half the experience.
Rashtrapati Bhavan is one of those rare buildings that does not merely house power  but embodies it. Edwin Lutyens designed it as a statement of empire, but independent India did something interesting by inheriting it's grandeur and changing  the meaning. The building that was built to overawe colonial subjects is now the residence of the citizen's representative the constitutional head of a republic of 1.4 billion people.

Watching the ceremony against that backdrop this morning, the dome rising behind the courtyard, the symmetry of the colonnades, the Jaipur Column with its Star of India at the very top , I felt the weight of what this country has attempted. The ambition of it. The extraordinary, improbable, ongoing project of democratic governance on this scale, in this diversity, against these odds.
What I carried away -
What I carried away was not a lesson but more of a reminder. That discipline, practiced faithfully and internalised completely, does not diminish you. That moving in step with others, surrendering your individual pace to a shared rhythm, is not a compromise but a multiplication. That institutions are capable of moments of extraordinary grace when the people within them are fully committed to what they are doing.

And that real beauty, the kind that stops you mid-step and makes the day's routine agenda suddenly seem very small  is still findable on an ordinary Saturday morning in Delhi, if you know where to look.
The band played on. The guard was changed. The horses turned and walked back through the great gates. And I stood there for a moment looking  at the dome with a sense of gratitude.
It was a privilege to be a part of the lineage of our country because truly, सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दुस्तान हमारा and that is what the band was playing as it went back into the President House.

R. Vimala, IAS
Resident Commissioner, Maharashtra
& Secretary, Maharashtra Sadan &
PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

Steel Frame and Beating Heart : Governance, Grit and the pathway to Viksit Bharat

Steel Frame and Beating Heart : Governance, Grit and the pathway to Viksit Bharat

The Hon'ble Vice President’s address on the 18^th  Civil Services Day 2026 held at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan

“Delhi can plan but the fruitful result in a remote village can come only when it is implemented in its real sense. That is where civil service plays its predominant role.                                                -Sri.C.P.Radhakrishnan, Hon’ble Vice-President of India

On the 18th Civil Services Day 2026, The Hon’ble Vice President delivered an address that not only paid tribute to the civil service but also addressed the challenges faced by them. He also emphasized that they must rededicate themselves to feel more and reach deeper. Marking the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the speech wove together history, philosophy, statistics, Tamil poetry and a straightforward message as to what public service must mean in the era of Viksit Bharat. It was not a ceremonial pat on the back. It was a conversation which was direct, pointed and purposeful.

The Steel Frame Must Have a Human Core -

Sardar Patel famously called the Indian Administrative Service the “steel frame” of the nation. Seventy-nine years after that  address to probationers in Delhi, the Hon’bleVice President returned to that metaphor but with a crucial addendum. He said that , a frame that does not feel the weight of those it protects, is similar to a temporary scaffold. “You are the real protectors of the interest of the people. Every batch of officers has proved time and again that they are indeed the steel frame of India, the backbone of the nation in it’s journey towards progress and prosperity.”
 The framing was deliberate. Steel implies strength; backbone implies both structure and sensitivity. The Hon’ble Vice President was asking civil servants to not just be efficient administrators but empathetic architects of change, who understand that governance is ultimately personal and that every scheme is someone’s lifeline.

The District Collector at the Centre of Everything -

In perhaps the most practically grounded section of the speech, the Vice President brought the spotlight down from policy corridors to the district headquarters and specifically to the District Collector’s role. Two flagship programmes received special mention: the Aspirational Districts Programme and the One District One Product initiative.

They may have been designed in Delhi but must be lived, adapted, and implemented by someone who knows the soil literally and figuratively. “One product, one district programme also cannot be implemented from Delhi. That has to be implemented at the district level. By whom? Again, by the Collector, He said.”

Aspirational Districts- Even within developed states, pockets of deep underdevelopment persist. The programme targets these gaps but can only be successful with ground-sensitive leadership.	One District One Product- Local economic identity cannot be imposed from the top. It requires the collector to map, champion, and catalyse what each district does best.
Last-Mile Governance- The Hon’ble Vice President  urged collectors to personally visit Block Development Offices at least once a quarter to listen, motivate, and understand barriers.	Team over Hierarchy- When seniors engage with subordinates, confidence flows downward. That confidence is what converts schemes into outcomes.

 

A Decade That Changed India’s Weight in the World-

The speech placed civil servants work within a sweeping national narrative of transformation citing figures that would have seemed ambitious targets just ten years ago, but which had  now been accomplished as milestones.

But the Hon’ble Vice President was careful not to let pride become complacency. “We should not get satisfied with what we have achieved,” he said, “but we have the room to keep ourselves moving forward.” Progress is not a destination; it is the direction. He spoke about the 25 Crore people who had been lifted out of poverty in a decade, 4 Crore Houses built for the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana and India’s rise in global GDP rankings.

Nari Shakti in Khaki and Khadi-

One of the most heartfelt thoughts in the address highlighted the growing presence of women in the civil services. The numbers  women’s representation rising from 21% to 31% in UPSC selections over the last decade were shared not as statistics but as a shift in the soul of governance.

“It is just not a change in numbers, but a shift in mindset that is the most welcoming trend. When women are given equal opportunities, they do not just succeed. They redefine the meaning of success itself.”
The Hon’ble Vice President spoke of meeting women officers serving as Police Commissioners, Collectors, and Superintendent of Police, across states and a particular quality they bring to public service: a “mother’s touch” that is not sentimentality but profound attentiveness. He expressed hope that this transformation would soon mirror itself in Parliament and State legislatures a clear nod to the Women’s Reservation Act coming into full effect.

Team Spirit versus Group Spirit - A Critical Distinction

Among the conceptual contributions of the speech, the distinction between team spirit and group spirit stood out in  particular. Team spirit is goal-directed where individual talents complement each other, differences are channelised towards a shared outcome and the target is always larger than any individual ego.

Group spirit, by contrast, is identity-directed, includes likes and dislikes, personal loyalties and internal politics which override the mission. Transforming from the former into the latter is easy  whereas resisting that drift requires conscious leadership.

“Individual efficiency and team efficiency should complement each other rather than contradict each other. Real success lies therein.”

Obeying the Boss versus Obeying Pressure-

Perhaps the most morally charged moment of the address came when the Hon’ble Vice President spoke about integrity under pressure. In a system where postings, transfers, and promotions are levers that can be pulled by the powerful, he drew a firm line.

“Obeying the boss is different. Obeying the pressures is different. I am not against obeying the boss. But I am always against obeying pressure.” He was speaking to a hall full of officers who know precisely what that pressure looks and feels like and he was not pretending it doesn’t exist. He was asking them to be stronger than it.

Quoting from the Tirukkural (31)  of Thiruvalluvar, he said, “Sirappu Eenum Selvamum Eenum, Araththinooungu Aakkam, Evano Uyirkku”  meaning "Righteousness (Aram/Virtue) is the highest form of wealth. It brings both fame and fortune, It brings material prosperity, inner growth, dignity, and everlasting anand.

Viksit Bharat 2047,  A Countdown, Not a Slogan –

The Hon’ble Vice President returned repeatedly to the 2047 horizon, India’s centenary of independence and the vision of a developed Bharat. But he was insistent that this remains an aspiration, not an entitlement. It requires the steady, unglamorous work of implementation at every level: district, block, panchayat, household.

In a quietly powerful observation, he noted that nearly 12 to 15 lakh students appear for the UPSC examination each year, and only around 1,000 are selected. “God has blessed you,” he said  not as flattery but as a call to account. Along with the privilege of that selection comes an obligation to the 140 crore citizens.

“As the Vice President of India, can I increase your salary? No. But you have something no salary can buy, the opportunity to serve, to reach the poorest and to shape the nation. The power you hold must flow to the common man.”

Six Imperatives for the Civil Servant Today

1.   Target the truly needy- Benefits must reach the poorest among the poor. Inclusion without focus dilutes impact and drains resources.	2.   Stay connected downward- Visit BDOs. Talk to subordinates. Confidence flows from the top , if you don’t build it, no one will.
3.   Uphold integrity always- Resist pressure. Distinguish between a legitimate direction and an illegitimate one. The willpower must live inside.	4.   Build on what works- Acknowledge your seniors. Learn from peers. Small, steady improvements create lasting transformation.
5.   Create impact, not just output- Measure not just delivery but transformation in the communities you serve.	6.   Be an ambassador of unity- Your posting outside your home state is not inconvenience,  it is nation-building.

 

Civil Services Day is, at its best, a moment of honest reckoning  not just a celebration of the bureaucracy but a recommitment to what it must become. The Vice President’s 2026 address did not offer comfort. It offered something rarer : a mirror, a map, and a call. "Let it be remembered that in the villages which have been reached, the rights are secured, and the citizens empowered. This is what will define this generation of civil servants when history writes its account."

R.Vimala, IAS

Resident Commissioner & Secretary,  

Government of Maharashtra, Maharashtra Sadan & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

NARI SHAKTI : A 360-Degree Journey, From Basic Dignity to Broken Glass Ceilings

NARI SHAKTI : A 360-Degree Journey, From Basic Dignity to Broken Glass Ceilings

"Days of seeing women only as homemakers have gone; we have to see them as nation-builders." - Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi

Picture a woman from most Indian villages in her thirties. Till a decade ago, she woke up before dawn, to walk away from her house, in the dark for her morning ablutions, despite being afraid and exposed. She carried water from a distant well or river for all members of her home. She cooked on wood fire that stung her lungs and lived in a house that was devoid of her name. She had no bank account, no insurance, no voice. Today, each one of those realities has changed. That change has a name : “Nari Shakti”, the result of eleven years of tireless efforts made under the dynamic leadership of a Prime Minister who refused to treat any dimension of a woman's life as separable from the rest.

Dignity First -

Our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi ensured that empowerment began with what dignity demanded first, a toilet. The Swachh Bharat Mission (2014) built over 10 crore household toilets, declaring rural India Open Defecation Free by 2019, eleven years ahead of the UN target. This resulted in ninety-three per cent of women feeling safer. The increase in the percentage of toilets in girls schools from 37% to 91% led to decrease in the drop out rate of girls in the school. The Jal Jeevan Mission connected over 15 crore rural homes to tap water, ending women’s burden of the long walk  to rivers or wells to bring water for the home. PM Ujjwala Yojana added over ten crore LPG connections each in the woman's name. PM Awas Yojana-Gramin ensured that over two crore houses constructed under the scheme included the woman as it's owner, ensuring her a place of her own with legal proof of existence and collateral for loans. Toilet, water, fuel, home - these were not four schemes, but one unbroken act of restoring dignity.

Health from the First Breath -

A woman's empowerment was initiated even before her birth. Mission POSHAN 2.0, with a budget of over ₹1.81 lakh crore between 2021 and 2026 targets the critical first 1,000 days of life. The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)  has paid over ₹20,000 crore in maternity benefits to over four crore mothers as of 31st March 2026, directly into bank accounts. Over 90,015 Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan ( SUMAN)  health facilities guarantee free, dignified maternal care. PM Suraksha Bima Yojana and PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana extend an insurance safety net to millions who had none. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao has improved the sex ratio at birth from 918 to 930; Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana has secured daughters' futures through crores of savings accounts.

 From Survival to Aspiration - 

Financial independence is the spine of empowerment. 57.93 crore Jan Dhan accounts, of which 55.7% are held by women, exist as of March 2026. making them direct recipients of government transfers. Similarly, PM MUDRA Yojana has sanctioned over 57 crore loans worth ₹40+ lakh crore, of which 66% were women. DAY-NRLM has organised over 10 crore women, into over 90 lakh self-help groups, the world's largest women's collective, with lakhs of lakhpati didis crossing ₹1 lakh annual income. NaMo Drone Didi trains SHG women as agricultural drone operators. Such aspiration had been waiting only for an opportunity.

 Safety, Justice and the Breaking of Silence - 

Mission Shakti with 819 Sakhi One Stop Centres offers legal aid, shelter, medical help, and counselling under one roof and has assisted almost 11 lakh women. The Women Helpline has handled 214.78 lakh calls. Childline, Working Women's Hostels, the Nirbhaya Fund, and the SHe-Box portal complete a safety net from village to boardroom. The abolition of instant triple talaq in 2019, making it a criminal offence, changed the lives of millions of Muslim women overnight. This was not merely a legal reform but a declaration that every Indian woman is a citizen of a constitutional republic, entitled to equal dignity and equal protection.

Breaking Glass Ceilings - 

When ambition met opportunity, India's women guided Chandrayaan-3 to the moon, graduated from the National Defence Academy for the first time and produced India's first woman Rafale pilot in Squadron Leader Shivangi Singh. India leads the world in women STEM graduates. The Women's Cricket World Cup was won in 2025, and all these are the headlines of a new India.

 The Constitutional Moment - 

The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, passed unanimously by both Houses of Parliament in September 2023, reserves one-third of Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats for women ,and  was the first legislation of India's new Parliament building. As of 24th March 2026, almost 49.75% that is 12,14,885 of India's 24,41,781 panchayat representatives are women. When women govern, water flows, sanitation improves then girls stay in school. With the implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, that lesson would soon travel to Parliament. 

360 Degrees : Interconnected, indivisible- 

Toilet, water, fuel, home, health, livelihood, safety, representation : each is a link in a chain. Remove one and the chain breaks. This is the 360-degree vision, not a collection of schemes, but one indivisible commitment to every Indian woman's complete life : from her first breath nourished by POSHAN, to the day she takes the oath of office in a legislature or the parliament thanks to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. Much has been accomplished but the work continues.

"From welfare to women-led development, India's Nari Shakti marches forward. The nation must leave no woman behind." 

R.Vimala, IAS,

Resident Commissioner & Secretary,

Government of Maharashtra ,

Maharashtra Sadan, Delhi   

PhD Scholar at IIT  Bombay 

 

 

The Evening our Hon’ble Vice President Took Us Back in Time...

The Evening our Hon’ble Vice President Took Us Back in Time...

It has been a little over a year since I was posted to Delhi as Resident Commissioner, Maharashtra and Secretary, Maharashtra Sadan. From the very first day, I was driven by the  desire to present the culture,food, festivals, textiles and the living traditions of Maharashtra at Delhi in the best way possible.

And so we got to work together as a team.

The Mango Festival came first , a riot of colour and fragrance that brought Maharashtra's legendary alphonso to the capital. Then the Ganesh Utsav, where the blessings of Shri Ganesha found its way to New Delhi along with art , craft and the famous , modak, coconut and jaggery dumplings in steamed rice flour made by the ladies of the self-help groups from Maharashtra. 

The Food Festival, the Hurda Party, the Saree Mahotsav which followed were a celebration and a present of love from Maharashtra to the city that hosts us.

Every event was planned with care, executed with sincerity, and received with warmth. And slowly, word spread. Maharashtra Sadan was not just an administrative outpost. It was becoming a cultural home.

It was against this backdrop that, Shri Leshpal Jawalge of Sarhad, Pune walked into my office , one day with an idea. He spoke of women officers across India  IAS, IPS, IFS, State and Allied services  who were not just administrators but writers and poets. Women who drafted policy papers by day and wrote about their feelings, experience and grace by night. Women who had stories to tell, essays to write, poems to share, voices worth listening to but who never had a platform specifically created for them.

He proposed the first-ever, Akhil Bhartiya Mahila Prashaskiya Adhikari Sahitya Sammelan, a literary conference for women officers across India. I had seen creativity quietly living inside me and in many of my colleagues, waiting for a moment to breathe so I said yes immediately. 

And then, as these things go, the detailed preparations began.

Delegates to be identified and invited from across the country. Speakers to be confirmed. Articles and interviews to be solicited, written, edited. And a souvenir, a proper publication to mark the occasion  to be compiled and printed in time. We named it 'Soudamini' Lightning, brilliant and  illuminating. It felt exactly right.

It was also important that this souvenir should be released by someone truly worthy of the occasion.

When we requested the Honourable Vice President of India, Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan , he was gracious enough to give us an appointment despite his busy schedule. Having  served as the Hon'ble Governor of Maharashtra, he knew our state, our people, our culture and it added to the glory. 

Walking Into the Enclave - 

For every officer and writer who was part of our delegation that evening, walking into the Vice President's enclave was a great moment. There is a quiet grandeur to the place  unhurried, gracious, carrying the weight of the office with a certain lightness.But what overwhelmed us was not the grandeur. It was the warmth.

The Hon'ble Vice President received us not with the stiffness of ceremony but with the ease of someone genuinely interested in who we were and what we were doing. He appreciated our efforts in taking lead to organise the first Akhil Bhartiya Mahila Prashaskiya Adhikari Sahitya Sammelan. He looked at  'Soudamini' with care. He asked questions. He listened.

"Maharashtra," he said with a smile, "is like my second home."

The Hon'ble Vice President spoke of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj with a reverence that transcended region and religion. He reminded us that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is not merely Maharashtra's hero ,he is a civilisational icon, a guardian of an entire way of life. His campaigns reached as far south as Jinji in Tamil Nadu, weaving a thread of sovereignty and cultural confidence across the subcontinent.

Had Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj not risen when he did, the course of India's history , its cultural continuity, its civilisational self-respect  would have been unrecognisable.

He recalled an encounter with scholar  who had never read Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's history in full and therefore had parochial views. The Hon'ble Vice President shared that he had been reading about Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's greatness since he was in school. He knew about Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's great respect for women and for all religions. The Chatrapati had never demolished any structure unlike other perpetrators who came from outside. "Those who do not know this history cannot truly know India." He said. 

He spoke with reverence of Maharani Tararani, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's daughter-in-law, the warrior queen who held the Maratha empire together in its darkest hour. She did not let it collapse but endured, fought, negotiated, governed and prevailed. Her story belongs to all of India and to all of humanity.

Not many people outside Maharashtra know her greatness therefore, her biography, should be translated into every Indian language, he said. 

Maharashtra's literary inheritance found a proud champion in the Vice President's address. He spoke of the Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, an extraordinary repository of manuscripts, ancient texts, and rare collections  as a testament to the intellectual grandeur that has always flowed from the soil of Maharashtra. The Maratha kings who wielded the sword also built the library. Power and scholarship were never in opposition; they were, in the Maratha tradition, expressions of the same civilised wholeness.

Perhaps the most stirring note of his address came from a recent personal experience. During a visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the Hon'ble Vice President had witnessed something that moved him : girls from Muslim families, from communities often associated in the popular imagination with resistance to girls' education, were outperforming their peers in examinations. They were topping charts, filling classrooms, writing futures. He said that  "No religion prevents women from excelling in education. 

Girls , from Muslim families, from communities about whom certain assumptions of restriction persist  were not merely attending university. They were leading it, winning gold medals. Daughters, the first-generation scholars, young women were sitting in those classrooms with a quiet, fierce determination.

He was clear and firm about what this meant: "Islam does not prevent women from excelling in education. These girls are the proof."

This was not just a general observation. He was sharing something that had genuinely moved him as a human being. The real story unfolding in Kashmir  which rarely finds its way into our newspapers or our conversations is this. Girls choosing knowledge. Families choosing futures. 

His thoughts also went to Punyashlok Ahilyadevi  Holkar, the beacon of Maharashtra's women's tradition in the same breath. Her legacy of governance, compassion, and temple-rebuilding lives on as proof that women in power have always elevated not just institutions, but civilisation itself.

His call was clear and urgent: we must seek out positive stories, nurture them, amplify them and share them. In a world saturated with narratives of conflict, the administrator's truest duty should  be highlight what is quietly, stubbornly, beautifully working.

The souvenir 'Soudamini' ,means lightning, brilliance, the sudden illumination of a dark sky and holds within its pages the essays, reflections, and interviews of women IAS, IPS, IFS, State and Allied service officers from across India. It's release by the Hon'ble Vice President was a recognition that the officer and the writer are one person, and that both deserve to stand in the light. As we bid adieu, his emphasis that this laudable event be replicated in all parts of the country remains with me. 

R.Vimala, IAS,  

Resident Commissioner, Maharashtra, & Secretary, 

Maharashtra Sadan,  & Phd Scholar at IIT Bombay 

On the wrong side of 50 : Andamans, A Journey of beauty and Realisation

On the wrong side of 50 : Andamans, A Journey of beauty and Realisation

There are moments in life when you suddenly pause and wonder where the years went. I recently experienced one such moment when I was finally able to travel to the enchanting Andamans,  a destination that had lived quietly on my wish list for years.

Mysterious, beautiful and surrounded by endless shades of blue, also known as Kaalaa Paani , the Andamans had always fascinated me. Yet, like many dreams, my visit there kept getting postponed , first because of work, then because of responsibilities and sometimes simply because life got busy.

This time, I finally made the journey with my son, using the Leave Travel Concession that government servants are entitled to, once every two years. Ironically, though the opportunity was always there, I had rarely used it. There was always something more “urgent” , files to clear, commitments to meet, family matters to attend to.

And before I knew it, decades had flown by.

Standing on those pristine beaches, watching the waves roll endlessly to the shore, I felt something shift within me. A realisation, that time, once gone, never returns. We often assume there will always be another tomorrow to travel, to rest, to enjoy, to simply live.

But life does not always wait.

Reaching fifty in your life is a milestone which adds to your wisdom. It brings a realisation that life is not only about responsibilities and achievements but also about experiences, relationships and memories nourishing your soul.

So the travel to Andamans with my son was not just a holiday. It was an opportunity to spend time together and also a reminder that life must be lived in the present moment. The laughter shared, the quiet walks by the sea, the feeling of wonder while watching nature’s beauty and sunsets are the things that will truly stay with us.

Yes, stepping into the Andamans was like stepping into many worlds at once , history, adventure, geography, nature and serenity all rolled into one.

Our visit to the historic Cellular Jail made us re-experirnce patriotism. Walking through its silent corridors, we bowed our heads to the immense sacrifices made by the freedom fighters. We could sense the patriotic zeal of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Sachindranath Sanyal . The sound and light show at night was a powerful reminder of the price paid for India’s freedom.

Nearby, the ruins of Ross Island narrated another chapter of history , the colourful lives of the British who once inhabited these islands. Ironically, today, the place is in ruins and engulfed by ficus trees, making it look haunted but also telling us about the lifestyle of the British and their families. 

The true star of the Andamans is nature with its green hills, blue-green seas and clear skies. 

The peaceful Neil island is home to the stunning natural coral arch known as the Coral Bridge which has beautiful living corals as well as cute sea animals. The scuba diving there was full of adventure and wonder. Neil  island’s beaches are quiet, pristine and deeply calming.

On the other hand, Havelock Island has some of the most famous beaches in India. Radhanagar Beach with it's white sand is among the best beaches in the world.  The Kala Patthar Beach with waves lashing against it's black rocks was mesmerising. Adventure seekers go  to the Elephanta Beach for water sports like sea walking, snorkelling and scuba diving which was enjoyed by us too.  

But the Andamans offers much more  beyond beaches. We explored Baratang Island, which has  fascinating limestone caves filled with intricate stalactite and stalagmite  formations.  These are living lessons in geology reflecting thousands of years. The island also has the unusual mud volcanoe, a rare natural phenomenon igniting geological curiosity.

Another unforgettable experience was the trip to Parrot Island. We had gone there hoping to watch thousands of parrots and parakeets returning to the mangroves at sunset.  But that  evening the parrots chose to stay away  but the experience was magical nonetheless. Sitting in the quiet boat, watching the sun melt into the endless , listening to the gentle lapping of waves against the boat was a moment of pure serenity.

The Andaman Islands truly offer a rare combination of hills, forests and beaches something few destinations can claim.

And yet, the journey also brought a small realisation. Many of the adventure activities here require good physical fitness and have an age barrier of fifty. I had to procure a medical certificate to undertake activities like scuba diving and sea walk etc. That made me realise how important it is to travel and experience such adventures while one is still comfortably on the right side of fifty.

Perhaps , that is why the message of the Bollywood film "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" resonates so deeply.

Life is not meant to be endlessly postponed. Being on the wrong side of fifty is not about slowing down. It is about choosing wisely how we spend the time we have. It is not only about planning work with dedication, but also planning holidays, journeys and moments of joy.

Because life is not a rehearsal.

So if there is a place you have always wanted to visit, a friend you have been meaning to meet, or a dream you have been postponing , do not wait endlessly for the perfect time.

Time has a way of slipping through our fingers.

Plan your work but also plan your holidays.

Live fully.

After all, You live only once and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara....

R.Vimala,  IAS,

Resident Commissioner & Secretary, 

Government of Maharashtra & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

This Is Your Time: Shaheed Diwas & Rising with the Spirit of Our Martyrs

This Is Your Time : Shaheed Diwas & Rising with the Spirit of Our Martyrs
23rd March is not just a date. It's importance is such that it must live within us as a reminder asking us : What are we doing with the freedom we have been given?
Yes, 23rd March is comemorated as "Shaheed Diwas", Martyr's Day, a day we remember three young revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru who chose courage over comfort and purpose over fear. They were barely in their twenties when they joined the freedom movement yet their clarity, conviction and commitment were far beyond their age.
This year, as our staff and I gathered at Maharashtra Sadan to pay tribute to them on Shaheed Diwas, I felt something different. As their life details were read aloud, it did not feel like history, it felt like a mirror  reflecting who they were and who we are becoming.
Let's remember Sukhdev. Born in Ludhiana, he wasn’t just a freedom fighter, he was a thinker and an organiser. He built strong networks, stood firmly against injustice and played a key role after the tragic death of Lala Lajpatrai. Even when offered a chance to become witness and save himself during the trial, he refused. His courage wasn’t impulsive, it was a conscious, unwavering decision.
Bhagat Singh, perhaps the most iconic among them, was driven by ideas. He read, reflected and acted. Influenced by revolutionary thought early in life, he chose sacrifice over a conventional future, even vowing to remain unmarried so he could dedicate himself entirely to the nation. As part of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, alongside leaders like and Sukhdev,  ChandrashekharAzad,  Batukeshwar Dutt and JatinDas, he carried out acts meant to awaken and  not just destroy. His powerful call of “Inquilab Zindabad” still echoes across generations.
And then we all know of Rajguru, but not many would know he was a scholar, a linguist who knew Sanskrit,  Kannada,  Malayalam apart from Hindi, Urdu. He was a fearless patriot. Known for his precision and bravery, he played a crucial role in the assassination of Saunders. And  beyond that moment, his life reflected discipline, focus, and commitment qualities we often struggle to build even today.
All three were imprisoned in Lahore and were executed together on 23rd March 1931.
If we pause for a moment and think about them we will realise that all three were in their early twenties. They were at an age when many of us are still figuring out our paths but they had already found a purpose worth dying for. That realization is both inspiring and discomforting as well.
Because today, we are more connected, more informed, and full of opportunities. Yet, we often find ourselves distracted, demotivated, and unsure. We hesitate to put in effort. We fear failure. We give up too easily. Sometimes, we even lose hope when faced with challenges.
So the real question is not whether times have changed.
The question is have we changed?
A visit along with my friend to the  National War Memorial at the India Gate made this even more real. The names of the martyred soldiers engraved there are not just names they are stories of courage, sacrifice, and love for the nation. Each day the spouse or a family member lays a wreath in memory of martyrs at the memorial.  Watching the spouse of a brave soldier laying wreath with quiet strength was an eye opener, a moment that has stayed with me.
Because sacrifice is not just history.
It is happening even now.
Even today, while we scroll endlessly on our phones, laugh with friends, chase our goals, or sleep peacefully at night, there are soldiers standing at our borders. In freezing cold. In unbearable heat. In silence. In danger.
Some of them will never come back.
They give up their today so that we can live our tomorrow.
And then a question which we just cannot ignore, "If they can give their lives for the nation, can we not give our best to our own lives?"
This is where the lesson lies.
We are not being asked to sacrifice our lives.
We are being asked to value them.
We are not being asked to fight wars.
We are being asked to fight our weaknesses ,our distractions, our fears, our excuses.
We are not being asked to become revolutionaries.
We are being asked to become responsible, resilient and purposeful individuals.
Because today, real courage looks different:
• It is waking up and showing up, even when you don’t feel like it
• It is staying focused in a world designed to distract you
• It is choosing effort over excuses
• It is learning from failure instead of fearing it
• And it is refusing to give up on yourself
The truth is, this generation has everything it needs ,talent, access, awareness. What it needs more of is discipline, direction, and determination.
Bhagat Singh once wrote with quiet confidence that he would prove his strength when the time came.
Dear youth of today, that time is not in the future.That time is now.
Yes, this is your time, to rise above mediocrity, to move beyond excuses, to build a life of meaning and impact. Not just for yourself, but for the country that countless people have given everything for.
Because somewhere, not too long ago and even today someone your age chose sacrifice so that you could have a chance.
So don’t waste it.
And let's not just remember their courage. Lets's Live in a way that honours it...Jai Hind...

R.Vimala, IAS,  

Resident Commissioner & Secretary, 

Government of Maharashtra  & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

The Quiet Power of Exile: What Sri Ram Teaches Us Even Today

The Quiet Power of Exile: What Sri Ram Teaches Us Even Today

Faith and belief are not just ideas we carry but emotions that stitch our lives together like threads. And in the heart of every devout Hindu, Sri Ram resides not merely as a deity, but as an ideal, a guide, a presence that shapes our understanding of life itself.
Perhaps, the Ramayana depicts one of the most profound paradoxes of life.
Think of Ayodhya, on the eve of Sri Ram's  coronation. The city is adorned, lamps are glowing and hearts full of joy. The throne stands ready and destiny appears certain. And then one conversation changes everything.
In place of a crown, there is exile.
In place of a palace, a forest for Sri Ram.
Not for a day or a season but for fourteen long years.
Within the palace, Sri Ram would have been a king among many.
But in the forest he became Maryada Purushottam, the highest embodiment of human virtue.
The forest did not diminish him; it revealed him.
It was there that he met Shabari , whose pure devotion shattered every barrier of caste and status, reminding the world that love and faith know no hierarchy. It was there he built bonds with the vanaras and allies that no royal court could have ever managed.
And then there is Prince Bharat,  perhaps one of the most quietly powerful figures in this epic. The one who was handed the kingdom by Sri Ram and refused to claim it. Instead, he ruled as a trustee, placing his brother’s sandals on the throne. The one who gained everything chose renunciation; the one who lost everything gained immortality.
What appeared to be a punishment became a preparation.
What looked like a loss became a legacy.
What seemed like an exile became the making of divinity.
And somewhere within this timeless story lies a truth for all of us.
How often do we feel exiled in our own lives? Through rejection, failure, or unexpected turns that take us far from where we thought we belonged? And yet, perhaps what we call exile is not punishment at all. Perhaps it is preparation. The forest, after all, is where transformation happens.
Recently, I was blessed to have darshan of Sri Ram, at the magnificent temple in Ayodhya. It is a temple with extraordinary architecture while being a testament to devotion, patience, and faith. Yet beyond the grandeur, it is the idol of Sri Ram that fills your heart with great joy.
The spiritual aura of Sri Ram extends beyond the temple. Other temples like the Dashrath Mahal, Sugreev Kila, Kanak Mandir, Hanumangarhi deepen our sense of bhakti.
And then there is the Sarayu, which is an emotion and not just a river. Its vastness, its gentle, cooling waters, its quiet rhythm seem to wash away not just fatigue, but the noise within. Standing by its banks, filled me with a sense of calm. Thoughts of Sita Maiyya made me calmer even as I remembered her grace, resilience and silent strength.
I had the fortune of visiting Ayodhya eight years ago, before the temple stands in its present glory. Coming again now was like witnessing history and faith come alive together. Today, Ayodhya has transformed into a grand spiritual center yet it's soul remains unchanged. 
The Ram Darbar, the intricate carvings in the temple, the devotees full of faith, the whole temple complex fills you with a joy which can never be expressed in words.
As we celebrate Rama Navami today, I am remembering the divine experience at Ram Janmabhoomi and also remembering my father, Raman.
He was spiritual and divine  in the way he lived with love, integrity, and quiet strength. His presence, his values, his warmth echoed the ideals that Sri Ram represents.
Ultimately faith is not something we read in stories but something which exists in all of us.  It is beyond temples or rituals, among the  people who shape us. My father had shaped me in the best way possible to do my best. My Journey to 
Ayodhya was not just a religious tour but also became  a time for reflection.
A realization  that sometimes, what we consider to be an exile is actually grace in disguise. And sometimes, we find our God's living within our hearts or in the memories of those we are closest to. As my father would have said, Sri Rama Jayam...Happy Rama Navami...

R.Vimala,  IAS, 

Resident Commissioner & Secretary, 

Government of Maharashtra & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

Daring and Doing: A Walk for a Cause

Daring and Doing: A Walk for a Cause
We had never walked the ramp before.
No training, no experience, no idea of  what to expect.
And yet, we said yes.
Because sometimes, a cause is bigger than fear.
It was also the first time we were organising a saree exhibition. And despite the challenges, it turned out to be an experience so deeply fulfilling that every moment felt worthwhile.
The Maharashtra Saree Festival in Delhi is not just an exhibition. It is a celebration of identity, tradition, and the countless hands that keep our heritage alive. While many know the beauty of Paithani, we wanted to go beyond and bring forward the richness of Irkal, Khann, Himroo, Karvat Kathi, Maheshwari and handloom sarees from Solapur. More importantly, we wanted the real stars, the weavers ,to be seen and heard.
That is how the idea of a ramp walk was born.
If these sarees had stories, then the ramp would be their voice.
And if this was about belief, then we had to be part of it ourselves.
A small group of officers and spouses came together, not as professionals, but as people who cared. What followed was a journey filled with  laughter, hesitation and excitement and lots of gushing. The rehearsal, a day before was like stepping into a new world. We had to choose our sarees, match it with  accessories. We also had to understand how to walk, because the concept was new, yet deeply meaningful.
Then came the moment.
The gentle rustle of silk or the smoothness of cotton, the drape of each saree, the final touch of makeup and suddenly, we were no longer just individuals. We were carrying a story, a tradition, a purpose.
As we stepped onto the ramp, something changed and the sarees came alive. 
Two segments were presented by Shikha's Kariigarii with professional models who brought grace and finesse to the ramp. The opening segment, featuring hand-painted handlooms with Warli, Madhubani, Pichwai and other art forms, was a beautiful reminder that when art meets textile, magic happens.
The last professional segment continued that elegance, setting the stage perfectly.
Our turn came in between both and included officers or their spouses. Daughters of two of our officers represented Gen Z, reminding us that even the younger generation is rediscovering and embracing the beauty and enduring value of sarees and our traditions.

It was an occassion filled with emotion perhaps not perfect in technique, but overflowing with pride and sincerity. It was not just a walk; it was a statement of belief in the weavers, in Maharashtra’s rich heritage and in the need to preserve it.
The finale was the most powerful moment of all.
The models completed the walk and stood on stage. The weavers walked in and joined them side by side. It was a sight that stayed with everyone. Their smiles, their quiet pride and the recognition which they truly deserved was the crowning glory of the evening.
A word of thanks to the choreographer and director, who instilled confidence in all of us and made the process possible for novices like us. And above all, gratitude to God, our guiding force  behind every step.
Seeing people carrying shopping bags filled with sarees from the stalls at the exhibition made us think about the weavers with joy in their eyes.  We knew this was more than just a show. It was connection, conviction and  impact which had begun with hope.
This ramp walk was not about glamour.
It was a walk for sustainability.
A walk to preserve our culture,  to honour the hands that weave stories into every thread.
And as we look ahead, there is only one wish, may the weaves and textiles of Maharashtra travel far and wide. May they find their way into wardrobes and hearts across the world.
Today is the last day of the festival. If you are in Delhi, this is something you should not miss. Let's come together to experience the beauty of Textiles, meet the weavers, and take home not just a saree, but a story.
Because when you walk for a cause, every step matters.

R.Vimala, IAS,
Resident Commissioner & Secretary,
Government of Maharashtra &
PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 

A Festival of Threads: Maharashtra’s Saree Utsav at Delhi's New Maharashtra Sadan

A Festival of Threads: Maharashtra’s Saree Utsav at Delhi's New Maharashtra Sadan

There is a quiet grace in a saree that I can only feel and never be able to fully explain.
I have worn sarees to village meetings, in collector's offices and the state headquarters, Mantralay. I have also worn it to ceremonies and celebrations across the length and breadth of Maharashtra and our country. And in each one of those moments, the saree has made me belong to the place, to the people, to something larger than myself.
That is the unique and beautiful power of this six yards of cloth.
What strikes me most is that the saree never goes out of fashion because it was never simply fashion to begin with. Every generation discovers it on its own terms. Young women today drape it with imagination and ease, belted, styled, reinvented for boardrooms and runway alike. They are preserving a tradition and taking it forward. And yet, beneath every modern drape lies a deeper story. The story of the weaver.
For those of us who have spent years travelling through the districts of Maharashtra in public service, the saree is not just a garment. It is a map of the soil, the community and centuries of craft. Every region has its weave, every weave its people, every thread its memory.
It is this living map that will come alive at the Maharashtra Saree Utsav, to be held from 19th to 22nd March 2026, at New Maharashtra Sadan, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi.
Among all sarees , if there is one saree that fascinates any woman the most, it is the Paithani.
I remember the first time I saw a Paithani being woven in intricate patterns at Paithan, the weaver's fingers moving with extraordinary deliberateness with warp and weft, creating a durable and luxurious fabric where motifs are visible on both sides,
A single saree took months in the making , sometimes a full year.The peacock motifs on the pallu, the blooming lotuses, the beloved bangdi-mor design, these are not decorations. They are signatures of a craft tradition that has adorned Maharashtrian brides for generations. In many families, a Paithani is not purchased ; it is inherited. Passed from mother to daughter along with stories of the occasion when it was first worn. So wearing a Paithani is, quite literally, like carrying a legacy on your shoulders.
Yet the soul of Maharashtra's textile is not only found in grandeur but also in textiles of everyday life.
The Khann fabric from Kolhapur is always charming with bold checks, geometric patterns, colours that catch the sun. It is a fabric that working women across western Maharashtra have trusted for generations. Sturdy, beautiful, unpretentious.
Then there is the Karvat Kathi,  distinguished by that signature saw-toothed border. It does not announce itself loudly. But once you notice it, you cannot stop noticing it. A quiet, graceful presence, much like the women who have worn it through decades of daily life.
These sarees remind me that true elegance rarely demands extravagance. At time , just simplicity, worn with dignity, has its own eloquence.
The Deccan plateau has a particular quality of light earthy, ancient, rugged. And its textiles carry exactly that character.
The Irkal saree, with its bold striped pallu and distinctive body-to-silk joining technique, has the rhythm of temple architecture in its patterns. The Narayanpeth, with its rich contrasting borders in deep reds, greens, and blacks, speaks in the quiet, assured language of the plateau itself.
These are sarees worn at rituals, family celebrations, harvests, and prayers. They carry not just colour, but continuity.
Few cities carry as many layers as Chatrapati Sambhaji Nagar in art, faith, and craftsmanship. The Himroo fabric is one of those layers. Born during the Deccan Sultanate period, Himroo combines cotton and silk to produce intricate brocade patterns of vines, flowers, and geometry. It looks regal, yet it remains accessible. It is, in many ways, a perfect textile reflection of what the Deccan has always been, a place where cultures met, exchanged, and created something new. Every Himroo weave carries a whisper of that confluence.
In Bhandara, the silk story is different from anything else you will encounter.Here, Tussar and Kosa silks are produced from silkworms that feed on forest trees ,wild, natural, seasonal. The resulting fibre has a golden warmth and a texture that no machine can replicate. You feel it the moment you touch it.
These textiles are sustainable not as a marketing gimmick, but as a lived reality. They are the product of forest ecosystems, traditional knowledge and communities that have practised this craft across generations.
The Maheshwari saree carries a name Ahilyadevi we all hold with reverence, as  Maharani Holkar.
She was a ruler who understood that governance is incomplete without culture. She invited weavers to Maheshwar, gave them patronage and purpose and what emerged was a textile of rare refinement, silk-cotton, reversible borders, a drape that is effortless and elegant in equal measure.
The Maheshwari saree is a reminder that good leadership does not only build roads and collect taxes. It also nurtures the crafts that give a people their identity.
When my hand touches a handloom saree, I always feel something that I cannot quite name. Perhaps, a rhythm. The memory of the loom in the thread. The patience of a craftsperson who sat for days to create what we hold in a moment.
Each slight irregularity in a handwoven saree is not a flaw. It is a signature. Proof that a its created by a human being not made by a machine.
These sarees are not relics. They are worn every day at weddings, offices, festivals, and quiet Sunday mornings. They evolve with every woman who adopts them and makes them her own.
The Maharashtra Saree Utsav at Maharashtra Sadan is an invitation  not just to buy a saree, but to understand it.
Understand the story about the motif on the pallu. Touch the difference between Tussar and Paithani silk. Listen to the stories that no label or price tag will ever tell you.
In a city that celebrates the finest traditions of India, this is four days of something rare, a chance to encounter craft that is still alive, still evolving, still being made by human hands for the women who will carry it forward.
Bring curiosity and appreciation. Bring your daughter or daughter-in-law, your mother or sister, your colleague or your friend who has never quite understood why sarees matter.
And perhaps take home not just a weave, but a world woven with patience, heritage, and quiet, enduring pride.
Because every time we choose a handloom saree, we do more than support a craftsperson.
We keep a civilisation alive ,one thread at a time.

R.Vimala,  IAS,
Resident Commissioner &
Secretary,  Government of Maharashtra & 

PhD Scholar at IIT Bombay 
Mumbai