Thane’s ‘bhai’ is a friend in need
Thursday,
30th June, 2022
THANE: When chief minister Eknath Shinde was merely a Member of Legislative Assembly a few years ago, senior journalist Millind Ballal interviewed him for a local channel. Interestingly, Shinde was present with his wife in the interview. “I asked him who your favourite heroine is. Shinde looked at his wife and blushed, and told me to move on to the next question. I kept on insisting if it is Madhuri Dixit, or Hema Malini or Waheeda Rehman; however, he merely kept blushing. This is the real Shinde for people who know him, a very unassuming, down-toearth, and jovial person,” Ballal said.
He loves to have his tea with khari (puff), instead of buttered toast, while he has a soft corner for Thane’s famous Mamledar misal and vada pav, said the Shiv Sainiks who had worked with him for decades. The continental, Italian, or oriental cuisine is surely not for him; give him a plate of pakoras and he is happy, said a close friend of Shinde.
For the world, he might be the chief minister of Maharashtra but for Thane residents, he is just their ‘bhai’, who on Thursday
returned home victorious after 10 days. The Subhadeep Bunglow in Landmark Society, where he stays, was no less than a tourist attraction when he took oath.
Ballal said, “He is never out of his patent white kurta when he is with people. When he is not in public domain, the real Eknath Shinde loves to hang out in a T-shirt and track pants.”
A true people’s man, a friend narrated how he missed his army posting to keep a friend’s wish. “In the early 80s he got a call for an army posting and was asked to join the camp somewhere in the north. He boarded a train from Thane station. He met a friend on the train who insisted that he attend his sister’s wedding in Punjab. Bhai got down at Punjab, though by the time he reached the camp, the opening was closed.”
Shinde is a family man which was evident on Thursday when he was seen spending time with his grandson Rudransh. Farming is his second love after politics. His wife Lata is a homemaker and never much into politics. She has stood with him through thick and thin.
In 2014, when Anand Paranjpe walked out of Shiv Sena, Shinde’s son Shrikant, who was in his final year of MS orthopaedic course, was given the reign of politics by Sena’s top brasses.