A Father Prayer by General Douglas MacArthur

Build me a son, O Lord, 

who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, 

and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; 

one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, 

and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone 

will not be where his backbone should be; 

a son who will know Thee….Lead him, 

I pray, 

not in the path of ease and comfort, 

but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. 

Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; 

here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, 

whose goal will be high; 

a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; 

one who will learn to laugh, 

yet never forget how to weep; 

one who will reach into the future, 

yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, 

I pray, 

enough of a sense of humor, 

so that he may always be serious, 

yet never take himself too seriously. 

Give him humility, 

so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, 

the open mind of true wisdom, 

the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”

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My loving nest - Chalisgaon

Chalisgaon...My town.

I am compelled to write this blog because I am tired of people asking me the same question over and over again. "Isn't the name of your town weird?". First of all I want to clear that it is a town, not a village. As most of you ask me that, "gaon means you live in a village?"

So here is the story of how the name Chalisgaon came into existence:

So folks, once upon a time, there was a king. He had a huge empire and he was very fond of going to the forest for hunting. Once he had gone to the forest and saw a little deer. As soon as he pulled out his arrow and aimed at him, the deer started running. King followed him on his horse for a very long time, but couldn't catch the deer. While catching the deer, king enters in the deep forest and forgets his route.

It was the time of hot summer and after the long chasing the deer, the king became thirsty. He tried to find the river or any water source but to no avail. After a few hours, when the king had almost died, a shepherd came and gave him the water and food. He took him to his hut and coddled the king. By his service and nursing, the king got happy and offers him the 40 villages (40 gaon) and asks him to come to his palace whenever he wants to take his gift. After that king went back to his palace.

After going to the palace, he thought, that, the shepherd only give him some water and food and he foolishly offered him forty villages. He called his prime adviser and told him the story. On that, the prime adviser told him the idea - "pick forty families from forty different villages and form a new village and name it as Chalisgaon. By doing this, you will fulfill your promise as well as the shepherd would not get forty villages"

That is the story of how the name Chalisgaon came into existence...Surely, I don't vouch for the authenticity of the story.

Tourist attraction:

The world famous mathematician and philosopher Bhaskaracharya (inventor of zero) is from Challisgaon. There is the place Patnadevi(15 km from Chalisgaon) where this great mathematician had lived.

Bhaskracharya

Hemadpanthi mandir:

Keki Moos art gallery:

Visit here : http://kekimoos.blogspot.in/

Patnadevi is surrounded by the dense vegetation of the Gautala Outram Ghat Wildlife Sanctuary. During the Monsoons the Dhawaltirtha Waterfall is active in the mountains.

Pitalkhora caves:

These are an early Buddhist site consisting of 14 rock-cut cave monuments which date back to the third century BCE, making them one of the earliest examples of rock-cut architecture in India. The cliff has fallen away dramatically since antiquity, and most of the carvings that existed on the face of the cliff fell with it. The quality of the stone there was not sutaible for making caves so artists preferd to carve at Ellora.

The sculptural representations here are similar to that of found in the stupas of Sanchi, Karla, Nasik, of the same period. As these Caves are carved in somewhat softer and fragile rock, here one can also see examples of ‘ancient conservation’. A feature which needs special mention is the very ingenious arrangement of diverting water that found its way into the cave through cracks; long tunnel like openings were bored into the ceilings and the water was allowed to flow fully into the cave underneath the floor in concealed drain channel cut to lead the water outside near the cave entrance (Cave 4).

Girna dam:

Patnadevi temple: 

Sai baba temple: (Tarwade) 5 km from Chalisgaon

Photo Credits: Yours truely,

~Digvijay Sanjay Patil

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