The Final Journey

17th November saw end of an era - uncrowned monarch of Maharashtra finally breathed his last.

For a couple of days news of him being unwell was shown frequently on all TV news channels (including hindi one's) bringing many of his shiv sainiks and followers to Matoshri.VIP and VVIP personalities like Sharad Pawar,Gopinath Munde,Nitin Gadkari,Big B,Hemaji,Lataji visited Matoshri.A team of renowned doctors was attending and it is said that his room in Matoshri had virtually turned in to ICU.Many of his followers and even detractors performed pooja and other rituals praying for his life but finally the Hindu Hriday Samrat went down fighting against destiny on 17th Nov 2012 due to a cardiac arrest.

As soon as this news was flashed on all TV news channels (this was certainly much more than a BREAKING NEWS !!) Maharashtra came to a standstill especially Mumbai came to a virtual halt all shops and commercial establishments were closed.Mumbai was put on high alert and there were 20,000 Mumbai police officers, 15 units of the State Reserve Police Force and 3 contingents of the Rapid Action Force were deployed---- now that's called vat in marathi.


The usually rough and tough shiv sainik was literally crying today .....

                                                           
                                                                     Born :               23 January 1926 Pune,

          Died :                17 November 2012 Mumbai,

          Political Party : Shiv Sena

          Spouse :            Meena Thackeray

          Children :          Bindumadhav Thackeray
                                     Jaidev Thackeray
                                     Uddhav Thackeray

          Residence :        Mumbai

                                   
                                                                    Publications :     Marmik
                                                                                                Saamana
                                                                                                Dopahar ka saamana
                                                                                                                      

 
He was accorded a state funeral at Shivaji Park.It was the first public funeral in the city since that of Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1920.Approximately 1 million to 1.5 million mourners attended his funeral and believe me the man's soul must have rested in peace. A huge vacumm has been created and will remain henceforth in Maharashtra /Nation's politics.

The Parliament of India opened for its winter session on 21 November 2012. Thackeray was the only non-member to be noted in its traditional list of obituaries. He is one of few people to have been recorded thus without being a member of either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha. Both houses of Bihar Assembly also paid rich tribute to Thackrey.

                                                                 

R.I.P  ..... Balasaheb (Bal Keshav Thackeray ,age 86)