Timtala: From oblivion to limelight
   Date :01-Mar-2021

Eknathji Ranade_1 &n
 The rock memorial situated at the southernmost point of the Indian peninsula where the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal meet. (Inset) Eknathji Ranade, who brought it to reality. (Right)
The plaque that was unveiled recently at the Rock Memorial.
 
By Vikrant Gajbhiye :
 
For most of us, one life is not enough to achieve our goals, but not for those who ‘live’ their goal. It is their unshakable self-belief, immense willpower and readiness to face any hardship that make seemingly impossible things possible. One such person, who lived his goal and worked hard to see it in fruition was Eknathji Ranade. Born on November 19, 1914 in a small village Timtala in Nandgaon Khandeshwar tehsil of Amravati district, Ranade dedicated his life to the cause of Swami Vivekanand’s rock memorial at Kanyakumari.
 
Truly inspiring also is the tale of inspiration that his story gave to a youth activist Suraj Sahare (now a railway employee) of the same village, who has made it his mission to give Ranade’s admirable story and Timtala its due recognition. It was a harsh summer day in 2010 when Suraj was towards Amravati bus depot after finishing his last HSC paper. So engrossed was he in checking if he had solved his paper correctly, that he did not even see the bus arrive. By the time his friends called his attention, the bus was already full. As he was dozing due to fatigue, a passenger offered to share his seat. After some time, the passenger struck conversation with him and when he realised Suraj was heading home to Timtala, the overjoyed passenger exclaimed that he was lucky to be born in a village where a great man Eknathji Ranade was born over a hundred years ago and who had made his village immortal and popular even in far away Kanyakumari. Before he could ask more, the bus stopped at Timtala and Suraj had to bid farewell to the man.
 
“The words of the passenger were lingering in my mind as I walked home. It was very hard to digest that a small village like Timtala with just 500 plus population, limited connectivity with buses and trains and no touch of development could be a native place of a great person. I decided to verify my information,” Suraj recalled. The following day Suraj moved to the village to ask old people about Ranade, but they knew nothing. Later, his own grandfather, who was fond of reading newspapers, advised him to use journalism as a means to get answers. “On his insistence, I got an agency of a vernacular daily. Besides delivering newspapers, I started writing news on local issues. But, grandpa died much before I could realise my dream. My father, who initially hesitated to speak on the issue Kanyakumari, finally decides to reveal everything,” Suraj added. Suraj’s father gradually unfolded the hitherto untold story. “When I was studying BSW in Amravati, our college organised a study tour to South India in 1987. We had also visited Kanyakumari and rock memorial of Swami Vivekanand.
 
There I came to know about the ‘architect’ of the great monument and the village where he was born. After returning home, I told the villagers about it, but nobody believed me. Hence I did not try further.” Some days later, Suraj went to the office of a daily in Amravati where he found some journalists preparing a report on Swami Vivekananda. Suraj told them that the great person who played a key role in establishing the rock memorial at Kanyakumari was born in his village. “Are you talking about Eknathji,” they exclaimed. “I urged them to visit my village and tell people about Ranade to which they readily agreed but the meeting was cancelled for some reasons.” Later on, he got a phone call from a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist, probably after reading news report on Timtala, and he agreed to hold a meeting in village. Finally, the day arrived and he and a team of RSS functionaries from Amravati reached Timtala to guide people about the history and unparalleled work of Eknathji Ranade.
 
They took out a rally from the village, installed a signboard mentioning that this is Eknathji’s village, near the main entry gate and recalled the life history of Eknathji. A guest started his speech, “As the country was gearing up to celebrate the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda in 1963, under the leadership of Mannath Padmanabhan, a noted social activist from Kerala, a rock memorial committee was formed to establish a memorial on the rock where Swamiji got enlightenment. Padmanabhan sought RSS’ help for the memorial as the then Union Cultural Affairs Minister Humayun Kabir and the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Bhakta Vatsalam were not in much favour of the rock memorial. The then RSS Sarsanghchalak Golwalkar Guruji selected Eknathiji, a senior RSS functionary, for the task and later gave him responsibility of Organising Secretary of the Committee. Ranade had to rush to Delhi where he collected signatures of 323 MPs in support of the memorial in just 3 days.
 
Considering public sentiments, Prime Minister Pt Nehru himself made a statement that the Central Government would like to have Swami Vivekanand’s statue on the rock. Raising funds for the grand memorial was also not an easy task. Central Government and many state governments contributed for the memorial, but it was the contribution of crores of Indians that made the difference. After crossing numerous hurdles, the memorial was finally completed in 1970 by spending of Rs 1.30 crore. Around 650 artists worked for 6 years for the rock memorial. This entire story is penned in the book titled ‘The story of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, As told by Shri Eknath Ranade’. Eknathji did not want to restrict himself to the rock memorial, but he wanted to build live memorial of Swamiji--a force of thousands of dedicated people following the path of Swamiji-- to serve humanity and the country. It resulted into formation of Swami Vivekanand Kendra on January 7, 1972. Today, over 1,000 kendras are spread across India with numbers increasing with each passing day.” (To be continued)