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Pusegaon is a small town
about 40kms east of Satara in the Indian State of Maharashtra.
It is now about five hours by road from Mumbai the state capital
In 1960 when Pusegaon was an isolated village
of about 2,500 people , it was visited by a team of six graduates
from the University of Bristol / England. Mark Howell, Peter
Krinks, Malcolm McKernan, Tony Morrison, Donald Pilton and
Roger Tutt who were on a journey around the world . The team
made notes, photographs, film and sound recordings of village
life. Their work is a unique record of rural India just 13
years after Independence.
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the forty years between the first visit and a reunion in 2000
the village has grown to a town of more than 9000 and life there
has changed beyond recognition. |
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THE FIRST
VISIT 1960
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ENTIRE JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD WAS FEATURED IN THE WESTERN
DAILY PRESS , A NEWSPAPER FROM BRISTOL, ENGLAND. TWO
STORIES COVERED THE MONTHS IN PUSEGAON |
| ARRIVAL
IN THE VILLAGE |
ARRIVAL |
| VILLAGE
LIFE |
VILLAGE
LIFE |
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WELCOME TO PUSEGAON
! — SUSWAGATAM PUSEGAON
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1998 A LETTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
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| D.N.Jadhav
was a schoolboy in the village in 1960. As his family grew up he
wanted to tell them about the life in the village when he was a
boy. He remembered seeing the Bristol expedition vehicles and seeing
the team meeting local officials and Government agricultural experts.
D.N Jadhav wondered if any of the 1960 information had survived
in Bristol and in 1998 he wrote to University Registrar |
The university alumni office located
Tony Morrison and so began a correspondence lasting over a year and
led to an historic reunion in Pusegaon in November 2000
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THE REUNION, THE EVENTS
AND A CONCLUDING LETTER FROM D. N JADHAV
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DREAM COME TRUE |
DREAM |
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EVENTS |
EVENTS
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CONCLUDING LETTER |
LETTER |
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| Pusegaon
is in the Deccan , a highland region inland from the Indian Ocean.
In 1960 the local road network was poor and even modest rain made
some sections impassable for normal vehicles. The village was a
centre for agriculture and an annual religious fair in December
or sometimes in January drew thousands from the surrounding countryside.
The fair continues and has grown with importance of Pusegaon. This
part of the archive is being devoted to photographs, notes and sound
recordings made by the University of Bristol team in 1960. Many
of the photographs were taken on an early version of Kodachrome
and colour fading has been minimal. |
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PHOTOGRAPHS
FROM THE SHRI SEVAGIRI FAIR 1960
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FAIR
1960 |
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THE REUNION 2000
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| All
the members of the team were invited to return to Pusegaon with
their wives and eventually only Peter Krinks and Vera , Tony Morrison
and Marion, Roger Tutt and Gwen were able to travel . They were
met in Mumbai by representatives from Pusegaon and taken to the
village where a surprise of three days of festivities was waiting |
| The team
visited all the places they had seen in 1960 including the nearby
villages of Aundh and Koregaon, now small and very active towns.
The principal events are included on the list to the right but many
informal meetings have not been recorded here. At the conclusion
the team were honoured with Honorary Citizenships of Pusegaon and
a road near the bungalow they had used in 1960 was named 'Bristol'
--[see in Nonesuch News for June 2005]. Nonesuch News also
records the death of Mark Howell, one of the founder members of
the 1960 Trans Continental Expedition |
THE ARCHIVE WILL BE DEVELOPED
WITH MORE INFORMATION AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE OLD VILLAGE AND ITS VERY
RURAL WAY OF LIFE. A SECTION WILL BE DEVOTED TO THE PHOTOGRAPHIC, FILM
AND SOUND RECORDING MATERIALS WHICH BY TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY WERE VERY
SIMPLE.
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