2026 Baramati Learjet 45 crash

On 28 January 2026, a Learjet 45XR operated by VSR Ventures crashed during a charter flight from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai to Baramati Airport in Maharashtra, India, killing the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar and all four other occupants.

Background- Aircraft-                                                                                                                                  The aircraft involved was VT-SSK, a 16-year-old Learjet 45XR operated by VSR Ventures. VSR Aviation provides charter and medivac flights.

Passengers and crew-                                                                                                                                  There were five people on board the flight. The pilot was Sumit Kapur, who had logged 16,500 flight hours. The co-pilot was identified as Shambhavi Pathak. The flight attendant was identified as Pinky Mali. The passengers were identified as the 8th Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar and his personal security officer, Vidip Jadhav.

Accident-                                                                                                                                                      The aircraft seconds before crashing                                                                                                          At approximately 08:44 IST (UTC+5:30), the aircraft crashed while attempting a second approach to runway 11 at Baramati Airport. The aircraft veered off the runway, burst into flames, and was destroyed on impact, resulting in the deaths of Pawar and four others on board. CCTV footage showed the aircraft flipping, losing control, crashing and exploding. At the time of the incident, Ajit Pawar was travelling to Baramati to address multiple public meetings in connection with the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections.

Aftermath-                                                                                                                                              Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of Maharashtra, announced three days of state mourning. He went on to describe the incident as "an immeasurable loss". The loss was announced by half flaring of flag of India for next three days after accident.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X that he was saddened by news of the crash and also paid tribute to Pawar.

Tributes came in from across the political spectrum including from Devendra Fadnavis, Rahul Gandhi, Amit Shah and Sanjay Raut. VK Singh, the owner of VSR Ventures, claimed technical failure was unlikely and low visibility was the primary factor behind the incident.

Investigation-                                                                                                                                                The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau arrived at the scene and is investigating the cause.

Ajit Anantrao Pawar -                                                                                                                                (22 July 1959 – 28 January 2026) was an Indian politician who served as Maharashtra's longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister until his death in 2026. He held the office for six terms under various governments including the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray, and Eknath Shinde.

He also served as Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 2022 to 2023 and represented Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in 1991.

Ancestry-                                                                                                                                                      Ajit Pawar's grandparents were Govindrao and Sharda Pawar. Govindrao was associated with worker cooperatives in Baramati, while Sharda managed the family farm. In 1938, she was elected to the Pune local board. The couple had eleven children, including seven sons and four daughters; one of their sons, named Sharad Pawar, later became the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and a four-time chief minister of Maharashtra.

Early life-                                                                                                                                                      Ajit Pawar was born on 22 July 1959 in Deolali Pravara, Maharashtra, to Anantrao and Ashatai Pawar. His father died when he was eighteen years old. He had a brother named Shriniwas and a sister named Vijaya. In 1985, he married Sunetra Pawar (née Patil), the daughter of Padamsinh Bajirao Patil, a former minister in Maharashtra.

Following the footsteps of his uncle Sharad Pawar in Indian National Congress, Ajit Pawar made his first foray into politics in 1982 when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. In 1991, he was elected as the chairman of the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank and remained in the post for the next 16 years.

Political career-                                                                                                                                            He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991 from the Baramati Parliamentary constituency. He later vacated the seat for his uncle, who then became the Defence Minister in Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao's government. Pawar was known for his blunt and pragmatic leadership style, nicknamed "Ajit Dada".

Later, he was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly seven times from the Baramati Assembly constituency. He first won in a 1991 by-election and subsequently retained it for five consecutive terms in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014. He served as the Minister of State for Agriculture and Power in CM Sudhakarrao Naik's government from 1991 to 1992.

He became the Minister of State for Soil Conservation, Power and Planning in 1992 when Sharad Pawar became the Chief Minister. In 1999, as part of the INC-NCP coalition government, he became a Cabinet Minister responsible for the Irrigation Department. He was additionally given the Rural Development Department in 2003 as part of Sushilkumar Shinde's cabinet. After the INC-NCP coalition won in the 2004 Assembly elections, he retained the Water Resources Ministry in Deshmukh's and later Ashok Chavan's cabinets.

Leader of Nationalist Congress Party, Rebellion against Sharad Pawar                                                  Main article: 2023 Maharashtra political crisis                                                                                              On 23 November 2019, he defected from NCP and joined a government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and became the Deputy Chief Minister. He submitted a paper with the signatures of NCP's MLAs to the Governor to prove the government's majority. However, the government collapsed less than 80 hours later and he resigned alongside then-CM Devendra Fadnavis. He subsequently returned to the NCP, and on 1 December 2019, it was announced that he would take over as Deputy CM for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government after the start of the winter session of the state legislature on 16 December.

In 2022, due to a split in the Shiv Sena, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed. After the rebel Shiv Sena faction and BJP formed a government with Eknath Shinde as CM, Pawar became the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

2023 party split-                                                                                                                                          In 2023, having the support of the majority of the erstwhile NCP's MLAs, he also claimed the position of president of the NCP, as well as the party's name and its electoral symbol. Pawar joined the ruling Maha Yuti coalition and took the oath as deputy CM of the state on 2 July. On 7 February 2024, the Election Commission Of India (ECI) awarded the party name and symbol to the faction headed by Ajit. The faction led by Sharad Pawar will be henceforth known as Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar). Despite his faction being routed in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, his NCP placed in third in the 2024 Legislative Assembly election, with the Maha Yuti alliance forming a landslide majority government; Pawar was again sworn-in as deputy chief minister in December, tasked with portfolios such as finance. The party also performed well in the 2025–26 Maharashtra local elections. Months before his death, reconciliation talks between the two NCP parties were reportedly occurring.

Controversies-                                                                                                                                              This "criticism" or "controversy" section may compromise the article's neutrality. Please help integrate negative information into other sections or remove undue focus on minor aspects through discussion on the talk page. (January 2026)

There were allegations that, as the minister for water resources, he helped the development of Lavasa, a project touted as a "vision of Sharad Pawar". The Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) leased 141.15 ha (348.8 acres) to Lavasa in August 2002, which included part of the Warasgaon dam reservoir. The lease between MKVDC and Lavasa was executed at rates far below the market rate.

In September 2012, there were accusations that there had been misappropriation to the tune of Rs. 70,000 crores. These allegations were made by the Maharashtra bureaucrat Vijay Pandhare, and caused the anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania to demand Pawar's resignation as a minister. However, the allegations were not proved, and Ajit was reinstated as the Deputy CM of Maharashtra.

On 7 April 2013, Pawar's statement at a speech in Indapur sparked controversy due to its alleged callousness. In response to a 55-day fast by activists protesting the Maharashtra government's inability to provide water during a drought, he asked whether he should "urinate into" to make up for the lack of water in it. After a public outcry against his statement, he publicly apologised, saying that the comment was the "biggest mistake of life".

According to reports, Ajit Pawar made a phone call to the Pune Police Commissioner on 19 May 2024, after Vedant Agarwal (son of Vishal Agarwal, owner of Brahma Realty & Infrastructure), then 17 and allegedly drunk, crashed a luxury Porsche in Pune's Kalyani Nagar, killing two IT professionals on a motorbike. Pawar allegedly urged the police not to harshly pursue the case against the minor accused. This was widely described as political pressure. Pawar did not deny calling the police commissioner, but said it was to ensure the police did not face other pressures, portraying it as routine oversight by a guardian minister rather than interference. Pawar also described the allegations as baseless.

Death-                                                                                                                                                        Main article: 2026 Baramati Learjet 45 crash                                                                                                On 28 January 2026, at approximately 08:44 IST (UTC+5:30), a business jet carrying Pawar on an air charter flight from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai to Baramati Airport in Maharashtra crashed while attempting a second approach to Baramati Airport Runway 11. The aircraft veered off the runway, burst into flames, and was destroyed on impact, resulting in the deaths of Pawar and four others on board.

The aircraft involved was a 16-year-old Learjet 45XR, registration VT-SSK, operated by VSR Aviation.

At the time of the incident, Pawar was travelling to Baramati to address multiple public meetings in connection with the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections.

Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in cells of a table. Each cell may contain either numeric or text data, or the results of formulas that automatically calculate and display a value based on the contents of other cells. The term spreadsheet may also refer to one such electronic document.

In modern spreadsheet applications, several spreadsheets, often known as "worksheets" or simply "sheets", are gathered together to form a "workbook". A workbook is physically represented by a file containing all the data for the book, the sheets, and the cells with the sheets. Worksheets are normally represented by tabs that flip between pages, each one containing one of the sheets, although Numbers changes this model significantly. Cells in a multi-sheet book add the sheet name to their reference, for instance, "Sheet 1!C10". Some systems extend this syntax to allow cell references to different workbooks.

Spreadsheet users can adjust any stored value and observe the effects on calculated values. This makes the spreadsheet useful for "what-if" analysis since many cases can be rapidly investigated without manual recalculation. Modern spreadsheet software can have multiple interacting sheets and can display data either as text and numerals or in graphical form.

Besides performing basic arithmetic and mathematical functions, modern spreadsheets provide built-in functions for common financial accountancy and statistical operations. Such calculations as net present value, standard deviation, or regression analysis can be applied to tabular data with a pre-programmed function in a formula. Spreadsheet programs also provide conditional expressions, functions to convert between text and numbers, and functions that operate on strings of text.

Spreadsheets have replaced paper-based systems throughout the business world. Although they were first developed for accounting or bookkeeping tasks, they now are used extensively in any context where tabular lists are built, sorted, and shared.

Basics-                                                                                                                                                LANPAR, available in 1969, was the first electronic spreadsheet on mainframe and time sharing computers. LANPAR was an acronym: LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random. VisiCalc (1979) was the first electronic spreadsheet on a microcomputer, and it helped turn the Apple II into a popular and widely used personal computer. Lotus 1-2-3 was the leading spreadsheet when DOS was the dominant operating system. Microsoft Excel now has the largest market share on the Windows and Macintosh platforms. A spreadsheet program is a standard feature of an office productivity suite. In 2006 Google launched a beta release spreadsheet web application, this is currently known as Google Sheets and one of the applications provided in Google Drive.

A spreadsheet consists of a table of cells arranged into rows and columns and referred to by the X and Y locations. X locations, the columns, are normally represented by letters, "A," "B," "C," etc., while rows are normally represented by numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc. A single cell can be referred to by addressing its row and column, "C10". This electronic concept of cell references was first introduced in LANPAR and a variant used in VisiCalc and known as "A1 notation". Additionally, spreadsheets have the concept of a range, a group of cells, normally contiguous. For instance, one can refer to the first ten cells in the first column with the range "A1:A10". LANPAR innovated forward referencing/natural order calculation which didn't re-appear until Lotus 123 and Microsoft's MultiPlan Version 2.

Users interact with sheets primarily through the cells. A given cell can hold data by simply entering it in, or a formula, which is normally created by preceding the text with an equals sign. Data might include the string of text hello world, the number 5 or the date 10-Sep-97. A formula would begin with the equals sign, =5*3, but this would normally be invisible because the display shows the result of the calculation, 15 in this case, not the formula itself. This may lead to confusion in some cases.

The key feature of spreadsheets is the ability for a formula to refer to the contents of other cells, which may, in turn, be the result of a formula. To make such a formula, one replaces a number with a cell reference. For instance, the formula =5*C10 would produce the result of multiplying the value in cell C10 by the number 5. If C10 holds the value 3 the result will be 15. But C10 might also hold its formula referring to other cells, and so on.

A spreadsheet's concatenation ("&") function can be used to assemble complex text strings in a single cell. This concatenation is a variation of the chaining of formulas, for which spreadsheets are commonly used.

The ability to chain formulas together is what gives a spreadsheet its power. Many problems can be broken down into a series of individual mathematical steps, and these can be assigned to individual formulas in cells. Some of these formulas can apply to ranges as well, like the SUM function that adds up all the numbers within a range.

Spreadsheets share many principles and traits of databases, but spreadsheets and databases are not the same things. A spreadsheet is essentially just one table, whereas a database is a collection of many tables with machine-readable semantic relationships. While it is true that a workbook that contains three sheets is indeed a file containing multiple tables that can interact with each other, it lacks the relational structure of a database. Spreadsheets and databases are interoperable—sheets can be imported into databases to become tables within them, and database queries can be exported into spreadsheets for further analysis.

A spreadsheet program is one of the main components of an office productivity suite, which usually also contains a word processor, a presentation program, and a database management system. Programs within a suite use similar commands for similar functions. Usually, sharing data between the components is easier than with a non-integrated collection of functionally equivalent programs. This was particularly an advantage at a time when many personal computer systems used text-mode displays and commands instead of a graphical user interface.

History- Paper spreadsheets                                                                                                                Humans have organized data into tables, that is, grids of columns and rows, since ancient times. The Babylonians used clay tablets to store data as far back as 1800 BCE. Other examples can be found in book-keeping ledgers and astronomical records.

Since at least 1906 the term "spread sheet" has been used in accounting to mean a grid of columns and rows in a ledger. Prior to the rise of computerized spreadsheets, "spread" also referred to a newspaper or magazine item that covers two facing pages, extending across the centerfold and treating the two pages as one large page. The compound word 'spread-sheet' came to mean the format used to present book-keeping ledgers—with columns for categories of expenditures across the top, invoices listed down the left margin, and the amount of each payment in the cell where its row and column intersect—which were, traditionally, a "spread" across facing pages of a bound ledger or on oversized sheets of paper ruled into rows and columns in that format and approximately twice as wide as ordinary paper.

Electronic spreadsheets-                                                                                                                              Batch spreadsheet report generator BSRG. A batch "spreadsheet" is indistinguishable from a batch compiler with added input data, producing an output report, i.e., a 4GL or conventional, non-interactive, batch computer program. However, this concept of an electronic spreadsheet was outlined in the 1961 paper "Budgeting Models and System Simulation" by Richard Mattessich. The subsequent work by Mattessich and its companion volume, Mattessich applied computerized spreadsheets to accounting and budgeting systems (on mainframe computers programmed in FORTRAN IV). These batch Spreadsheets dealt primarily with the addition or subtraction of entire columns or rows, rather than individual cells.

In 1962, this concept of the spreadsheet, called BCL for Business Computer Language, was implemented on an IBM 1130 and in 1963 was ported to an IBM 7040 by R. Brian Walsh at Marquette University, Wisconsin. This program was written in Fortran. Primitive timesharing was available on those machines. In 1968 BCL was ported by Walsh to the IBM 360/67 timesharing machine at Washington State University. It was used to assist in the teaching of finance to business students. Students were able to take information prepared by the professor and manipulate it to represent it and show ratios etc. In 1964, a book entitled Business Computer Language was written by Kimball, Stoffells and Walsh. Both the book and program were copyrighted in 1966 and years later that copyright was renewed.

In the late 1960s, Xerox used BCL to develop a more sophisticated version for their timesharing system.

LANPAR spreadsheet compiler-                                                                                                                 A key invention in the development of electronic spreadsheets was made by Rene K. Pardo and Remy Landau, who filed in 1970 U.S. patent 4,398,249 on a spreadsheet automatic natural order calculation algorithm. While the patent was initially rejected by the patent office as being a purely mathematical invention, following 12 years of appeals, Pardo and Landau won a landmark court case at the Predecessor Court of the Federal Circuit (CCPA), overturning the Patent Office in 1983 — establishing that "something does not cease to become patentable merely because the point of novelty is in an algorithm." However, in 1995 a federal district court ruled the patent unenforceable due to inequitable conduct by the inventors during the application process. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld that decision in 1996.

The actual software was called LANPAR — LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random. This was conceived and entirely developed in the summer of 1969, following Pardo and Landau's recent graduation from Harvard University. Co-inventor Rene Pardo recalls that he felt that one manager at Bell Canada should not have to depend on programmers to program and modify budgeting forms, and he thought of letting users type out forms in any order and having an electronic computer calculate results in the right order. Pardo and Landau developed and implemented the software in 1969.

LANPAR was used by Bell Canada, AT&T, and the 18 operating telephone companies nationwide for their local and national budgeting operations. LANPAR was also used by General Motors. Its uniqueness was Pardo's co-invention incorporating forward referencing/natural order calculation as opposed to the left-to-right, top-to-bottom sequence for calculating the results in each cell that was used by VisiCalc, SuperCalc, and the first version of MultiPlan. Without forward referencing/natural order calculation, the user had to refresh the spreadsheet until the values in all cells remained unchanged. Once the cell values stayed constant, the user was assured that there were no remaining uncalculated forward references within the spreadsheet.

Autoplan/Autotab spreadsheet programming language-

In 1968, three former employees from the General Electric computer company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona set out to start their own software development house. A. Leroy Ellison, Harry N. Cantrell, and Russell E. Edwards found themselves doing a large number of calculations when making tables for the business plans that they were presenting to venture capitalists. They decided to save themselves a lot of effort and wrote a computer program that produced their tables for them. This program, originally conceived as a simple utility for their personal use, would turn out to be the first software product offered by the company that would become known as Capex Corporation. "AutoPlan" ran on GE's Time-sharing service; afterward, a version that ran on IBM mainframes was introduced under the name AutoTab. 

AutoPlan/AutoTab was not a WYSIWYG interactive spreadsheet program, it was a simple scripting language for spreadsheets. The user defined the names and labels for the rows and columns, then the formulas that defined each row or column. In 1975, Autotab-II was advertised as extending the original to a maximum of "1,500 rows and columns, combined in any proportion the user requires.

GE Information Services, which operated the time-sharing service, also launched its own spreadsheet system, Financial Analysis Language (FAL), circa 1974. It was later supplemented by an additional spreadsheet language, TABOL, which was developed by an independent author, Oliver Vellacott in the UK. Both FAL and TABOL were integrated with GEIS's database system, DMS.

IBM Financial Planning and Control System-                                                                                           The IBM Financial Planning and Control System was developed in 1976, by Brian Ingham at IBM Canada. It was implemented by IBM in at least 30 countries. It ran on an IBM mainframe and was the first application for financial planning developed with APL that completely hid the programming language from the end-user. Through IBM's VM operating system, it was among the first programs to auto-update each copy of the application as new versions were released. Users could specify simple mathematical relationships between rows and between columns. Compared to any contemporary alternatives, it could support very large spreadsheets. It loaded actual financial planning data drawn from the legacy batch system into each user's spreadsheet monthly. It was designed to optimize the power of APL through object kernels, increasing program efficiency by as much as 50 fold over traditional programming approaches.

APLDOT modeling language-                                                                                                                    An example of an early "industrial weight" spreadsheet was APLDOT, developed in 1976 at the United States Railway Association on an IBM 360/91, running at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. The application was used successfully for many years in developing such applications as financial and costing models for the US Congress and for Conrail. APLDOT was dubbed a "spreadsheet" because financial analysts and strategic planners used it to solve the same problems they addressed with paper spreadsheet pads.

VisiCalc running on an Apple II-                                                                                                                The concept of spreadsheets became widely known due to VisiCalc, developed for the Apple II in 1979 by VisiCorp staff Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Significantly, it also turned the personal computer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a business tool.

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet that combined many of the essential features of modern spreadsheet applications, such as a WYSIWYG interactive user interface, automatic recalculation, status and formula lines, range copying with relative and absolute references, and formula building by selecting referenced cells. Unaware of LANPAR at the time, PC World magazine called VisiCalc the first electronic spreadsheet.

Bricklin has spoken of watching his university professor create a table of calculation results on a blackboard. When the professor found an error, he had to tediously erase and rewrite several sequential entries in the table, triggering Bricklin to think that he could replicate the process on a computer, using the blackboard as the model to view results of underlying formulas. His idea became VisiCalc.

VisiCalc for the Apple II went on to become the first killer application, a program so compelling, people would buy a particular computer just to use it. It was ported to other computers, including CP/M machines, Atari 8-bit computers, and the Commodore PET, but VisiCalc remains best known as an Apple II program.

SuperCalc for CP/M-                                                                                                                              SuperCalc was a spreadsheet application published by Sorcim in 1980, and originally bundled as part of the CP/M software package included with the Osborne 1 portable computer. It quickly became the de facto standard spreadsheet for CP/M.

Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet for IBM PC DOS-                                                                                              The introduction of Lotus 1-2-3 in November 1982 accelerated the acceptance of the IBM Personal Computer. It was written especially for IBM PC DOS and had improvements in speed and graphics compared to VisiCalc on the Apple II, this helped it grow in popularity. Lotus 1-2-3 was the leading spreadsheet for several years.

Microsoft Excel for Apple Macintosh and Windows-                                                                            Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Apple Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and then ported it to Windows, with the first version being numbered 2.05 and released in November 1987. Microsoft's Windows 3.x platforms of the early 1990s made it possible for their Excel spreadsheet application to take market share from Lotus. By the time Lotus responded with usable Windows products, Microsoft had begun to assemble their Office suite. By 1995, Excel was the market leader, edging out Lotus 1-2-3, and in 2013, IBM discontinued Lotus 1-2-3 altogether.

Google Sheets, Online, Web-based spreadsheets-                                                                                    In 2006 Google launched their beta release Google Sheets, a web based spreadsheet application that can be accessed by multiple users from any device type using a compatible web browser, it can be used online and offline. Google Sheets originated from a web-based spreadsheet application XL2Web developed by 2Web Technologies, combined with DocVerse which enabled multiple-user online collaboration of Office documents.

In 2016 Collabora Online Calc was launched, notable in that the web based spreadsheet could be hosted and integrated into any environment without dependency on a 3rd party for authentication or maintenance. Collabora Online runs LibreOffice kit at its core, which grew from StarOffice that was launched 41 years ago in 1985.

Mainframe spreadsheets-                                                                                                                          The Works Records System at ICI developed in 1974 on IBM 370/145. ExecuCalc, from Parallax Systems, Inc.: Released in late 1982, ExecuCalc was the first mainframe "visi-clone" which duplicated the features of VisiCalc on IBM mainframes with 3270 display terminals. Over 150 copies were licensed. DP managers were attracted to compatibility and avoiding then-expensive PC purchases page article and advertisement.

Vasant Panchami

Vasant Panchami , also rendered Vasanta Panchami and Saraswati Puja in honour of the Hindu goddess Saraswati, is a festival that marks the preparation for the arrival of spring. The festival is celebrated in Indian religions in different ways depending on the region. Vasant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holika and Holi, which take place forty days later. The Vasant Utsava (festival) on Panchami is celebrated forty days before spring, because any season's transition period is 40 days, and after that, the season comes into full bloom.

Haate Khori is considered to be a holy start to a child's journey of education.

Nomenclature and date-                                                                                                                        Vasant Panchami is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the bright half of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month of Magha, which typically falls in late January or February. Spring is known as the "King of all Seasons", so the festival commences forty days in advance. On Vasant Panchami, the weather is generally winter-like in northern India and more spring-like in central and western regions, supporting the belief that spring reaches its peak forty days after the festival.

The festival is particularly observed by Hindus in the Indian subcontinent, notably India and Nepal. In southern states, the same day is called Sri Panchami.

On the island of Bali and the Hindus of Indonesia, it is known as "Hari Raya Saraswati". It also marks the beginning of the 210-day long Balinese Pawukon calendar.

Hinduism-                                                                                                                                                  Goddess Saraswati dressed in a yellow sari on Vasant Panchami, Kolkata. She sits in a swing, holding a Veena, with books in one corner.

Saraswati Puja being celebrated in Collectorate Public School And College, Thakurgaon, Bangladesh

Saraswati Puja-                                                                                                                                            Vasant Panchami is a Hindu festival that marks the beginning of preparations for the spring season. Celebrations vary by region. Vasant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holika or Holi, which occur forty days later. For many, Vasant Panchami is dedicated to goddess Saraswati, revered as the deity of knowledge, language, music, and all arts. She symbolizes creative energy and power in all its forms, including longing and love. The season and festival also celebrate the blooming of yellow mustard flowers, which are linked with Saraswati's favorite color. People wear yellow clothing or accessories, and eat yellow-colored foods.

Many families mark this day by sitting with young children, encouraging their children to write their first words, and some study or create music together. The day before Vasant Panchami, Saraswati's temples are filled with food so that she can join the celebrants in the traditional feasting the following morning. In temples and educational institutions, murtis of Saraswati are dressed in yellow and worshiped. Many educational institutions arrange special prayers or pujas in the morning to seek her blessings. Poetic and musical gatherings are held in some communities in her honor.

In Eastern India, primarily in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Bihar, as well as in Nepal, devotees visit Saraswati temples and also worship Goddess Saraswati at home. In West Bengal, the festival is widely celebrated by Bengali Hindus; most schools arrange Saraswati puja for their students on their premises. In Bangladesh too, all major educational institutes and universities observe it with a holiday and a special puja.

In the state of Odisha, the festival is celebrated as Basanta Panchami, Sri Panchami, or Saraswati Puja. Homas and yagnas are performed in schools and colleges across the state. Usually, children aged four or five begin their formal education, known as Khadi-Chuan or Vidya-Arambha. This is alternatively known as Haate-Khori among Bengali Hindus.

In southern states such as Andhra Pradesh, the festival is known as Sri Panchami where "Sri" refers to Saraswati as a manifestation of goddess Devi.

Other deities-                                                                                                                                      Vasant Panchami, in some places, celebrates the Hindu god of love Kama (left) with Rati, shown above at the Khajuraho temple.

Vasant Panchami is also associated with Kamadeva, the god of love. Kamadeva is reborn as Pradyumna, the son of Krishna and Rukmini. The festival is also known as "Madana Panchami". He awakens the passions of the earth and thus the world blooms anew.

It is remembered as the day when rishis (sages) requested Kama to interrupt Shiva's yogic meditation. Supporting Parvati–who was performing penance to gain Shiva as her husband–the rishis seek Kama's help to arouse Shiva's worldly desires. Kama agrees and shoots an arrow, made of flowers and bees, to stir Shiva's desires. When Shiva awakens from his meditation, he opens his third eye, and Kama is burned to ashes. This initiative is celebrated by Hindus as Vasant Panchami.

Vasant Panchami is associated with the emotions of love and emotional anticipation in Kutch (Gujarat) and is celebrated by preparing bouquets and garlands of flowers set with mango leaves, as a gift. People dress in saffron, pink, or yellow and visit each other. Songs about Krishna's pranks with Radha, considered to mirror Kama-Rati, are sung. This is symbolized with the Hindu deity Kama with his wife Rati.

Traditionally, in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, after bathing in the morning, people worship Shiva and Parvati. Offerings of mango flowers and the ears of wheat are traditionally made.

Deo temple: Sun God-                                                                                                                                  The shrine of the Sun God in Aurangabad district, Bihar known as the Deo-Sun Shrine, was established on Basant Panchami. The day is celebrated to commemorate the founding of the shrine by King Aila of Allahabad and the birthday of the Sun-Deo God. The statues are washed and old red clothes on them are replaced with new ones on Basant Panchami. Devotees sing, dance and play musical instruments.

Other-                                                                                                                                                             A kite flying at Basant Panchami event. At least since the 19th century, kite flying on Basant has been a popular event in north India well as in the region around Lahore, Pakistan. Kite flying is also traditional in west India on Uttarayan, in Mathura on Viskwakarma Puja and in south India.

People celebrate the day by wearing yellow, eating sweet dishes and displaying yellow flowers in homes. In Rajasthan, it is customary for people to wear jasmine garlands. In Maharashtra, newly married couples visit a temple and offer prayers on the first Basant Panchami after the wedding. wearing yellow dresses. In the Punjab region, Hindus wear a yellow turban or headdress. In Uttarakhand, in addition to Saraswati Puja, people worship Shiva, Parvati as the mother earth and the crops or agriculture. People eat yellow rice and wear yellow. It is also a significant school supplies shopping and related gift-giving season.

In the Punjab region, Basant is celebrated as a seasonal festival by all faiths and is known as the Basant Festival of Kites. Children buy dor and guddi or patang for the sport. The people of the Punjab wear yellow clothes and eat yellow rice to emulate the yellow mustard (sarson) flower fields, or play by flying kites. According to Desai (2010), the tradition of flying kites on various festivals is also found in northern and western Indian states: Hindus in Rajasthan and especially in Gujarat associate kite flying with the period prior to Uttarayan; in Mathura, kites are flown on Dussehra; in Bengal kite flying takes place on Viskwakarma Puja in September. The sport is also found in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and parts of south India.

On Bali and among Indonesian Hindus, Hari Raya Saraswati is celebrated with prayers in family compounds, educational institutions, and public venues from morning to noon. Teachers and students wear brightly coloured clothes instead of their usual uniforms, and children bring traditional cakes and fruit to school for offerings in a temple.

Sikhism-                                                                                                                                                Namdhari Sikhs have historically celebrated Basant Panchami to mark the beginning of spring. Other Sikhs treat it as a spring festival, and joyfully celebrate it by wearing yellow colored clothes, emulating the bright yellow mustard flowers in the fields.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire, encouraged the celebration of Basant Panchami as a social event in the Gurdwaras. In 1825 CE he gave 2,000 rupees to the Harmandir Sahib Gurdwara in Amritsar to distribute food. He held an annual Basant fair and sponsored kite flying as a regular feature of the fairs. Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his queen Moran would dress in yellow and fly kites on Basant Panchami. Maharaja Ranjit Singh would also hold a darbar or court in Lahore on Basant Panchami which lasted ten days when soldiers would dress in yellow and show their military prowess.

In the Malwa region, the festival of Basant Panchami is celebrated with wearing of yellow dress and kite flying. In Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur, a Basant Panchami fair is held. People attend the fair wearing yellow clothes, turbans or accessories. Sikhs also remember the martyrdom of the child Haqiqat Rai on Basant Panchmi, who was arrested by the Muslim ruler Khan Zakariya Khan after being falsely accused of insulting Islam. Rai was given the choice of converting to Islam or death and, having refused conversion, was executed on the Basant Panchami of 1741 in Lahore, Pakistan.

Nihangs go to Patiala on Basant Panchami and dress in pink and yellow on the month of Vaisakh.

Pakistan-                                                                                                                                                        Kite flying in Lahore goes back centuries. After creation of Pakistan it evolved into a highly competitive sport which is not limited to "basant" only. There are regional teams, competitions, and trophies. Kite And string making is an industry all over central Punjab providing livelihood to thousands.

Given the shared history and culture in the Indian subcontinent, the Punjabi Muslims in and around Lahore also celebrate kite flying as a sport in Pakistan from home rooftops during the Basant season. In 2003, the Supreme Court of Pakistan attempted to ban the manufacture, trade, and flying of kites in Lahore on the basis of fatal incidents involving 'glass-coated' stray strings originally used in kite-battles in Lahore. In 2005 Lahore announced that Vasant Panchami could be celebrated in a forest outside of Lahore. In 2017 the ban on Vasant Panchami was briefly lifted and reimposed.

Basant Celebrations at the Dargah

Sufi Muslim Basant-                                                                                                                              According to Lochan Singh Buxi, Basant Panchmi is a Hindu festival adopted by some Indian Muslim Sufis in the 12th century to mark the grave of the Muslim Sufi saint dargah of Nizamuddin Aulia in Delhi and ever since, has been observed by the Chishti order. According to local Sufi traditions, the poet Amir Khusrau saw Hindu women carry yellow flowers to a temple on Basant and they were dressed in yellow, and he adopted their culture to give some happiness to Nizamuddin Aulia because his nephew died few days ago and he was not recovering from grief, one the Chishti order of Sufi Indian Muslims continue to practice.

Controversy-                                                                                                                                              Vasant Panchami has been a historic occasion of dispute at the archaeological site of Bhojshala with evidence of an early Saraswati temple. On the site of Bhojshala is a later era Kamal-Maula mosque, which Muslims use for Friday prayers. The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has provided annual guidelines, when the Vasant Panchami festival falls on a Friday, announcing hours when Hindus can worship at Bhojshala on Vasant Panchami, and when Muslims can. However, in past years, the Muslim community scheduled earlier has refused to vacate the premises, leading to riots and disorder such as in the 1980s and 1990s.

Harvest Festival

"Harvest Festival" is the seventh episode of the third season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the 37th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 17, 2011. In the episode, Leslie and her co-workers hold Pawnee's harvest festival, the success of which will determine the future of the parks department. The festival faces several obstacles, including a supposed Native American curse, a missing miniature horse and a scandal-hungry media. Meanwhile, Ann tries to cope with her recent break-up, and April confesses her love to Andy, then becomes angry with his response.

Written by Daniel J. Goor and directed by Dean Holland, the episode marked the culmination of a seven-episode story arc about the harvest festival that began with the third-season premiere, "Go Big or Go Home". Unlike the first six episodes of the season, it was not written and produced immediately following the second season, which had been done to accommodate actress Amy Poehler's pregnancy. The episode also does not feature Rob Lowe as he was originally only expected to be a guest star when the episode was conceived; however, he does return for subsequent episodes as a regular cast member.

The episode featured appearances by regular guest stars Mo Collins and Jay Jackson, as well as the first appearance by Jonathan Joss as the leader of a local Native American tribe. The harvest festival scenes were shot at Los Angeles Pierce College, and an aerial shot of the festival itself was the most expensive shot in the series. According to Nielsen Media Research, "Harvest Festival" was seen by 4.08 million household viewers, one of the lowest ratings of the series. The episode received critical acclaim, with many reviewers calling it one of the show's best episodes as well as a major turning point in the series.

Plot-                                                                                                                                                          With the Harvest Festival days away, Leslie surprises everyone by booking Li'l Sebastian, a miniature horse and legendary Pawnee celebrity. Everyone is thrilled except Ben, who doesn't understand Li'l Sebastian's appeal. The chief of the local Wamapoke tribe, Ken Hotate, visits the parks department and requests the harvest festival be moved, as it is built upon the site of a Wamapoke massacre. When Leslie explains it is too late to move the festival anywhere else, Ken warns them the festival may become cursed. Ann works the harvest festival first aid tent, where she confides in Donna that she has become depressed after Chris broke up with her. April tells Andy that she loves him, but grows angry when he replies, "Dude, shut up! That is awesomesauce!"

Joan Callamezzo arrives to report on the festival and is determined to find a negative story, although she does show excitement over Li'l Sebastian. She initially fails to find a scandal, but then overhears Leslie and Ben discussing the curse. It becomes the focus of her story, especially after Tom tells Leslie that Li'l Sebastian escaped his pen. Tom blames Jerry, although it was entirely Tom's fault. The Pawnee media swarms the festival to cover the curse, endangering its opening the next day with the bad press, with one reporter likening Ben's past as a failed teen mayor with the curse. Now believing himself to be the curse, Ben leaves the festival. As Leslie reassures the reporters there is no curse, the power generator blows out, leaving the festival dark and stranding most of the parks department on a Ferris wheel. Using the blackout as an excuse, Ann takes Donna's advice to make out with Kiley (Joey Russo), her dumb but attractive patient.

On the Ferris wheel, with April and Andy arguing below him and Tom and Jerry arguing above him, an annoyed Ron clears the air by announcing the obvious: April is mad at Andy for not telling her that he loves her back, and the missing Li'l Sebastian is Tom's fault, not Jerry’s. Andy tells April that he clearly loves her and they hug, and Tom apologizes to Jerry. Later, everyone spots Li'l Sebastian in the corn maze and they retrieve him. Leslie learns the power outage was due to television crews plugging into the grid and overloading it. The only replacement generator in Pawnee is at the Wamapoke casino, and Leslie humbly asks Ken to loan it to her in exchange for placing a Wamapoke cultural exhibit near the Harvest Festival entrance. Ken agrees, and during the festival opening the next morning, he performs a meaningless ceremony to remove the fake curse. 

People begin to swarm into the festival, and Leslie cheerfully greets them. Ben returns to apologize to Leslie for leaving, admitting that he is not over his past. She reassures him the festival is as much his accomplishment as hers, and even has Ken break Ben's "curse", although Ken's gesture is also completely meaningless. At the end, Ben appears to have been won over by Li'l Sebastian, but admits to the camera crew that he still fails to see the appeal and remains as baffled as ever.

Production-                                                                                                                                                "Harvest Festival" was written by Daniel J. Goor and directed by Dean Holland. The episode marked the culmination of a seven-episode story arc that began with the third season premiere, "Go Big or Go Home", in which Leslie and the parks department prepare to relaunch the harvest festival, which had previously been a Pawnee tradition before it ended. The storyline stemmed from serious budget problems facing Pawnee which forced a government shutdown and threatened major cuts to the parks department, prompting Leslie to bring the harvest festival back and stake the future of the entire department on its success or failure. Amy Poehler said she believed the storyline was appropriate for a series about small government and was well handled by the writers: "What I like about the show is it doesn't spend 25 episodes talking about this thing, it talks about it in the right amount of time. It happens and then there's consequences of it. The show keeps moving forward, which is always really fun."

Parks and Recreation co-creator Michael Schur described "Harvest Festival" as a particularly empowering episode for Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler.

"Harvest Festival" was the first episode of the season written and produced separately from the second season. The previous six episodes from the third season were filmed almost immediately after the second season ended as part of an early shooting schedule to accommodate Poehler's pregnancy. Series co-creator Michael Schur described it as a particularly empowering episode for the Leslie Knope character: "When you see this episode it makes you love her even more. This episode is about Leslie being noticed for the incredible hard work she does." Schur also said he believed the subplot with April and Andy was one that several young people in their situation have faced in real life: "Andy is put into a situation that a lot of people have been put into in our lives and he does the exact wrong thing you can do. 

And that's sort of the template for them going forward is what's the wrongest thing you can do? That's sort of how we follow them." Chris Pratt said he believed the conflict provided strong romantic and comedic potential for the characters: "There definitely will be conflict in their relationship there's still a lot of room for comedy in there, because we have good writers."

Rob Lowe, a regular cast member with Parks and Recreation, did not appear in "Harvest Festival" because the actor was originally slated to only appear in the first six episodes of the season as a guest star. However, after those episodes were filmed, Lowe joined the cast as a permanent cast member, and his character Chris Traeger would return in the next episode, "Camping", as well as all subsequent episodes. "Harvest Festival" included guest appearances by Mo Collins and Jay Jackson as, respectively, Joan Callamezzo and Perd Hapley, two Pawnee television journalists who appeared in multiple Parks and Recreation episodes. It also featured the first guest appearance of Jonathan Joss as Wamapoke tribe leader Ken Hotate. Joss previously voiced John Redcorn in the animated television series King of the Hill, which was co-created by Parks and Recreation co-creator Greg Daniels. 

Schur said while writing about the Native American curse, the writing staff wanted it to be the local media that turned it into an issue rather than the citizens of Pawnee, because they felt it would be too cartoonish and unbelievable for the residents to take it so seriously.

Due to budget constraints, the Parks and Recreation set department did not build the harvest festival and corn maze sets, but instead filmed the episode at the annual Halloween Harvest Festival at Los Angeles Pierce College, a community college in California. Michael Schur said the aerial shot of the harvest festival at the end of the episode was the most expensive in the entire series. The episode was filmed out of sequence from the rest of the season so the weather would be cooler when the scenes were shot; Schur jokingly said if this was not done, "the week that we would have been shooting it was like 148 degrees here and the actors would be dead now". "Harvest Festival" was screened for members of the media during a January 2011 NBC press junket. 

Afterward, the reporters were taken to the set of Parks and Recreation where they were able to greet and pose for photos with the actual miniature horse who played Li'l Sebastian. Shortly after the episode aired, a "Producer's Cut" version was made available on the official NBC website. It was about five minutes longer than the televised version and included several scenes that were originally cut due to length limitations, including an extended cold open with the parks department meeting Li'l Sebastian, and additional scenes of Leslie meeting with Pawnee constituents before the Harvest Festival.

Cultural references-                                                                                                                                    When Ben fails to understand the appeal of Li'l Sebastian, Ron explains the miniature horse has an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame, a school in Indiana, the state where Parks and Recreation series is set. In a later scene, Ben compares Leslie to a Jedi, a type of warrior in the science fiction franchise Star Wars, prompting Leslie and Tom to mock him as a nerd. During one scene, Ken Hotate says, "I know two things about white people: they love Matchbox Twenty, and they are terrified of curses." The former refers to an American rock band, which is later also featured on the marquee of an exterior shot of a Wamapoke casino. Ann claims that, while distraught from her breakup with Chris, she bought $700-worth of candles from Anthropologie, a retail store that sells women's apparel and home accessories.

One of the harvest festival booths features Pawnee celebrity Aunt Tilda, the fictional aunt of basketball player Larry Bird, who is from Indiana. "American Girl", a song by the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, plays during one scene showing an overview of the harvest festival. A news report about the supposed curse is presented in a Taiwanese animation clip featuring Leslie and Ken Hotate, in the style of the animation company Next Media Animation. While interviewing Hotate, Perd Hapley compared the curse to the horror film Poltergeist (1982). Several commentators compared the man who flirted with Ann to the characters of Jersey Shore, an MTV reality series about young people living in a house by the Jersey Shore beach.

Reception-Ratings-                                                                                                                                      In its original American broadcast, "Harvest Festival" was seen by an estimated 4.08 million household viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, with a 1.8 rating/5 share among viewers between ages 18 and 49. It was one of the lowest ratings of the series to date, and marked a 25 percent drop from the previous original episode, "Indianapolis". The ratings suffered in part because its lead-in show, The Office, was a repeat; all the other NBC comedy shows that Thursday, including 30 Rock, Community, Perfect Couples and Outsourced, also saw lower ratings than their previous episodes. Parks and Recreation was defeated in its 9:30 p.m. timeslot by the Fox comedy-drama series Bones, which was seen by 11.34 million households; the ABC medical drama Private Practice, which was seen by 5.97 million households; and CBS coverage of NCAA basketball, which was seen by 4.44 million households. In network television, it defeated only a remake of the CW Network drama Nikita, which drew 1.37 million households.

Reviews-                                                                                                                                                      What's remarkable about Parks and Recreation is how it manages to be funny without resorting to cruel, cutting humour. It's gentle and disarming, yet manages to be wry and witty at the same time.

Alex Strachan, Montreal Gazette-                                                                                                            "Harvest Festival" received critical acclaim. New York magazine writer Steve Kandell called it the most pivotal episode of the season in terms of "resolving and resetting narrative stakes", as well as the most complex from a production perspective. Kandell wrote, "There's something that feels particularly satisfying about watching a wholly sympathetic, albeit fictional, character like Leslie Knope do well by her own ambition and by her friends." Entertainment Weekly writer Ken Tucker said the episode placed Parks and Recreation "squarely in the tradition of great gentle-hearted sitcoms" that treated its characters "with equal affection, and has relatively little patience for irony and cool detachment". He praised Amy Poehler's performance, and enjoyed how the characters' excitement over Li'l Sebastian demonstrated how "in some parts of this great land, there are people who aren’t jaded, who are open to wonderment, who find vessels in which to pour their joy". 

HitFix writer Alan Sepinwall said "Harvest Festival" may be his favorite episode of the season thus far, and demonstrates how the series has evolved. While in the first season he said Leslie was too over-the-top in a relatively ordinary setting, Sepinwall said this episode showed Parks and Recreation "has successfully made the rest of Pawnee seem as believably crazy as Leslie, if not more so". TV Squad television reviewer Maureen Ryan called "Harvest Festival" a "delightful, comedically deft episode, one that depicts the mildly demented world of Pawnee in loving detail".

Joel Keller, also of TV Squad, called it one of the best episodes of the season, and that it provided each member of the ensemble cast moments to shine. He praised how the episode combined the "funny small-townness of a place like Pawnee and the realities of being in city government". James Poniewozik of Time magazine called it a "splendid" episode that "combined slapstick, authentic stakes and a holistic picture of the oddball history and commonalities that bond the folks we've come to know in Pawnee". Punchline Magazine writer Megan Gilbert said the episode featured "plenty of laugh-out-loud moments" and particularly enjoyed the "sweet non-aggressive fighting" between April and Andy. Gilbert felt Adam Scott was underused, but praised the performances of Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari and Mo Collins. TV Guide writer Damian Holbrook said the difficulties that plague the harvest festival were funny, "but like the best of Parks, these hiccups are matched with acres of heart". 

He praised the growing romantic interest between Leslie and Ben, as well as the subplot about Andy and April. Alex Strachan of the Montreal Gazette praised the show for being funny without resorting to cynicism or cruel jokes, and called the series "one of the sharpest, smartest comedies on TV at the moment". He also called the Wamapoke curse subplot "wildly politically incorrect, but funny". National Post writer Scott Stinson said Parks and Recreation "continues to challenge for the title of best comedy on television", and called the continuing romance between April and Andy a "welcome development" for both characters.

Hollywood.com writer Eric Sundermann enjoyed the new direction Ann's character was taking, as well as how "Harvest Festival" accurately portrays small-town life. Rick Porter of Zap2it said the episode "put a great cap on the first portion of the season". He called Andy and April "a recipe for excellent comedy" and called the slowly developing romance of Ben and Leslie extremely rewarding. Andy Daglas of ChicagoNow called it a "pure delight from beginning to end" and a good entry point for newcomers to the show. Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club called the episode "celebration of the whackjobs that live in Pawnee and how their singular focus can make for some adorably naive comedy". 

While he praised the main subplot, he said it was too early in April and Andy's relationship for them to declare their love for each other, and said April's declaration "came out of nowhere". Matt Fowler of IGN said it was not his favorite episode, as the jokes about Ben's past felt repetitive compared to past episodes, and the April and Andy subplot "fell a little flat". However, he said it was "chock full of dozens of little moments that make the entire episode worthwhile", and particularly praised the Native American curse and the parody of the media.

Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Rajyabhishek Din

Today, January 16, many important events took place in history. Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Rajyabhishek Din was crowned as Chhatrapati on January 16, 1681.

Today in history 16 january what happened on this day chhatrapati sambhaji maharaj rajyabhishek din death anniversary of justice mahadev govind ranade latest news 16 January In History: Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje's coronation day, death anniversary of Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade; What happened on this day in history...

On This Day In History-                                                                                                                            Everyone wants to know what happened on this day in history (Din Vishesh). Many good and bad events have marked the dates in history. Today, January 14, many important events took place in history. January 16 is a very important and proud date in the history of India. Kalpana Chawla of Indian origin left for her second space journey on this day, January 16, 2003. The whole world is witness to the remarkable achievement of an Indian girl. Kalpana Chawla fulfilled her dream of becoming an astronaut by going to America. The American space agency NASA selected her twice for space travel. Kalpana had jumped into space for the second time in the Space Shuttle Columbia. Unfortunately, this flight turned out to be her last. Because on February 1, her spacecraft crashed. After a 16-day space mission, she returned to Earth and died along with six other crew members. Along with this, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje was crowned as Chhatrapati in 1681. Apart from this, we will know the complete information about the important events that took place in history on this day. Also, we will briefly know about the birthdays of the greats and important people who passed away on this day. 

1681-                                                                                                                                                        Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje was crowned as Chhatrapati (Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Rajyabhishek Din) 

Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje was the Maratha emperor and the successor of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. At that time, the most powerful enemy of the Marathas, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, played a major role in eliminating the power of Bijapur and Golconda from India. Sambhaji Raje had kept Aurangzeb on the run for nine consecutive years. Sambhaji Maharaj took the throne on 16 January 1681, hence 16 January is celebrated as Sambhaji Raje's Coronation Day. Sambhaji Raje fought 201 wars in his short reign and one of the main things about it is that his army was never defeated in a single battle. Impressed by his valour, Aurangzeb swore that he would not put a kimono on his head until Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje was captured. Finally, on 11 March 1689, Aurangzeb brutally murdered Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.

1901-                                                                                                                                                              Death anniversary of Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade. Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade was born on 18 January 1842. He was an Indian judge, writer and social reformer during the British era. Ranade was born in a small village called Niphad in Nashik, Maharashtra . Although he was born in Niphad, his early life was spent in Kolhapur. He started his education at Elphinstone College, Mumbai at the age of fourteen. In 1873, he was appointed Bombay Presidency Magistrate, the fourth judge of the Bombay Small Causes Court. He joined the High Court from 1885. He was also a member of the Bombay Legislative Council. In 1893, he was appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court. He died on 16 January 1901.   

1938-                                                                                                                                                              Death of renowned Bengali novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was born on 15 September 1876. He was a Bengali novelist and short story writer. He was the most popular Bengali novelist. Apart from this, a glimpse of the social life of the then Bengal can be seen through his works. Sarat Chandra is one of the most popular and translated writers of all time in India. He died on 16 January 1938. 

1943-                                                                                                                                                          American Air Force air raid on Ambon Island in Indonesia. The American Air Force conducted its first air raid on the island of Ambon in Indonesia on this day, January 16, 1943. 

1954-                                                                                                                                                Filmmaker, director, painter, sculptor and art guru Baburao Painter passed away. Baburao Painter is known as an excellent painter and sculptor. At the same time, he played a valuable role in the Indian film industry. He made a distinct mark in various fields such as painting, film production, film direction, drawing, sculpture, and photography. He is known as one of the best directors in Indian cinema. He had started his own factory for sculpture work. Along with sculpture, he was also familiar with painting. He has created sculptures of Mahatma Phule, Mahatma Gandhi, and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Kolhapur. 

1969-                                                                                                                                                              Soviet spacecraft 'Soyuz 4' and 'Soyuz 5' exchanged crew members in space for the first time. The Soviet Space Program was a rocket and space exploration program conducted by the Soviet Union from the 1930s until its dissolution in 1991. During its sixty-year history, this primarily classified military program was responsible for many pioneering achievements in space flight. On this day, 16 January 1969, the Soviet spacecraft 'Soyuz 4' and 'Soyuz 5' exchanged crew members in space for the first time. 

1992-                                                                                                                                                    Extradition agreement between India and Britain. In recent times, every country in the international community has become more economically dependent on other countries. Since the economies of all countries are on the path of internationalization, if an economic crime is committed in one country, it will also affect another country. Because all countries are members of the World Trade Organization. All countries are subject to the same economic and trade rules. That is why India had consciously raised this issue in the G20 meeting in the past. Those countries should immediately send back to their homeland the criminals who commit economic crimes from one country. Because this can happen to every country. Since this is not the case today, the confidence of these criminals has increased a lot. Especially, a country like Britain is becoming a paradise for criminals. Criminals from many countries commit economic or other crimes and flee to England. Then it takes years for their extradition. In 1992, an extradition agreement was signed between England and India and it came into force in 1993.  

1996-                                                                                                                                                              Hubble Space Telescope scientists claim to have discovered more than 100 new galaxies in space.  Scientists at the Hubble Space Telescope claimed to have discovered more than 100 new galaxies in space on this very day, January 16, 1996. 

2003-                                                                                                                                                          Indian-origin Kalpana Chawla embarks on second space mission. Kalpana Chawla of Indian origin left for her second space flight on this day, January 16, 2003. The whole world is witnessing the remarkable achievement of an Indian girl. Kalpana Chawla fulfilled her dream of becoming an astronaut by going to America. The American space agency NASA selected her for space travel twice. Kalpana had launched into space for the second time in the Space Shuttle Columbia. Unfortunately, this flight turned out to be her last. Because her spacecraft crashed on February 1. After a 16-day space mission, she returned to Earth and died along with six other crew members.

2006-                                                                                                                                                          Socialist leader Michelle Bachelet was elected Chile's first female president on January 16, 2006. 

Savitribai Phule Jayanti

Savitribai Phule 3 January 1831 – 10 March 1897 was an Indian educator, social reformer, and poet, widely regarded as the first female teacher of modern India. Along with her husband, Jyotiba Phule, she played a pivotal role in advancing women's rights and education in Maharashtra, leaving a legacy that continues to influence social reform movements across India. She is also considered a pioneer of India's feminist movement. She worked to abolish discrimination and the unfair treatment of people based on caste and gender. Savitribai Phule and her husband were trailblazers in women's education in India. In 1848, they established their first school for girls at the residence of Tatyasaheb Bhide, known as Bhide Wada in Pune. Later, she co-founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873 and led its women's wing.

Born and raised in the Mali community, Savitribai was married to Jyotirao Phule at a young age and was initially illiterate. Her education was initiated by her husband through studies at home and later under the mentorship of Sakharam Yeshwant Paranjpe and Keshav Shivram Bhavalkar. She received teacher training in Pune and Ahmednagar, becoming India's first professionally trained female headmistress and teacher. In 1848, together with Jyotirao and Sagunabai Kshirsagar, she opened the nation's first girls' school at Bhidewada in Pune on a progressive syllabus of mathematics, science, and social studies, in spite of strong opposition from society.

Savitribai’s career was marked by her relentless efforts in advancing education for girls and marginalized communities. By 1851, she and Jyotirao managed three girls’ schools in Pune with around 150 students. They opened a total of 18 schools, alongside initiatives such as "Mahila Seva Mandal" in 1851 to promote women's rights and the "Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha", an infanticide prevention center for widows in 1853. Savitribai’s literary contributions include Kavya Phule (1854) and Bavan Kashi Subhodh Ratnakar (1892). She died of bubonic plague in 1897. Today her legacy as the “Mother of Modern Education in India” endures, commemorated through memorials, institutional names, and cultural representations.

Early life-                                                                                                                                                Savitribai Phule was born on 3 January 1831, in the village of Naigaon in Satara District, Maharashtra. Her birthplace is about 15 km (9.3 mi) from Shirval, and 50 km (31 mi) from Pune. She was the youngest daughter of four children born to Laxshmi and Patil, both of whom belonged to the Mali Community. Savitribai married her husband, Jyotirao Phule, at the age of 9 or 10, when he was 13 years old.

Education-                                                                                                                                                Savitribai was illiterate at the time of her marriage. Her husband educated her, as well as his cousin sister, Sagunabai Shirsagar, at their home while working on their farm. Once she completed her primary education with Jyotirao, she continued her studies under the guidance of her friends, Sakharam Yeshwant Paranjpe and Keshav Shivram Bhavalkar. In 1846–47, she passed the third and fourth-year examinations in an English school, and in the same year, she helped Sagunabai establish a school for marginalized communities in Maharwada. She enrolled herself in two teachers' training programs; the first was at an institution run by an American missionary, Cynthia Farrar, in Ahmednagar, and the second course was at a Normal School in Pune. Savitribai was become India's first trained female teacher and headmistress.

Career-                                                                                                                                                      After completing her teacher's training, Savitribai Phule started teaching girls at Pune. She did so alongside Sagunabai Kshirsagar, sister of Jyotiba Phule who was a revolutionary feminist and a mentor to Jyotirao. In January 1848, Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule, along with Sagunabai, started their own school at Bhidewada and it became India's first girls' school. Bhidewada was the home of Tatya Saheb Bhide, who was inspired by the work that the trio was doing. According to some sources, the school initially had 9 girls and later number increased to 25 students. The curriculum at Bhidewada included a traditional Western curriculum of mathematics, science, and social studies. Due to social opposition and ostracisation from orthodox community, the Phules relocated to the residence of their associate Usman Shaikh. There, Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh –Usman’s sister, continued their efforts to educate girls in the local neighbourhood.

By the end of 1851, Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule were running three different schools for girls in Pune. Combined, the three schools had approximately one hundred and fifty students enrolled. Like the curriculum, the teaching methods employed by the three schools differed from those used in government schools. The author Divya Kandukuri believes that the Phule methods were regarded as being superior to those used by government schools. As a result of this reputation, the number of girls receiving their education at the Phules' schools outnumbered the number of boys enrolled in government schools.

Unfortunately, Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule's success came with much resistance from the local community with conservative views. Kandukuri states that Savitribai often travelled to her school carrying an extra sari because she would be assailed by her conservative opponents with stones, dung, and verbal abuse. Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule were living at Jyotirao's father's home. However, in 1849, Jyotirao's father asked the couple to leave his home because their work was considered a sin as per the Manusmriti and its derived Brahmanical texts.

After moving out of Jyotirao's father's home, the Phules moved in with the family of one of Jyotirao's friends, Usman Sheikh. It was there that Savitribai met a soon-to-be close friend and colleague named Fatima Begum Sheikh. According to Nasreen Sayyed, a leading scholar on Sheikh, "Fatima Sheikh knew how to read and write already, so her brother Usman who was a friend of Jyotiba, had encouraged Fatima to take up the teacher training course. She went along with Savitribai to the Normal School and they both graduated together. She was the first Muslim woman teacher of India". Fatima and Savitribai opened a school in Sheikh's home in 1849.

In the 1850s, Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule were instrumental in establishing two educational trusts. They were entitled to the Native Male School, Pune, and the Society for Promoting the Education of Mahar, Mangs, etc. These two trusts ended up encompassing many schools which were led by Savitribai Phule and later, Fatima Sheikh.

Jyotirao summarizes Savitribai and his work in an interview given to the Christian missionary periodical, Dnyanodaya, on 15 September 1853, saying,

It did occur to me that the improvement that comes about in a child due to the mother is very important and good. So those who are concerned with the happiness and welfare of this country should definitely pay attention to the condition of women and make every effort to impart knowledge to them if they want the country to progress. With this thought, I started the school for girls first. But my caste brethren did not like that I was educating girls and my own father threw us out of the house. Nobody was ready to give space for the school nor did we have money to build it. People were not willing to send their children to school but Lahuji Ragh Raut Mang and Ranba Mahar convinced their caste brethren about the benefits of getting educated.

A statue of Jyotirao Phule teaching Savitribai Phule, at Pune.

Together with her husband, she taught children from different castes and opened a total of 18 schools. In 1852, there were three Phule schools in operation with 273 girls pursuing education in these schools, but by 1858 they had all been closed. Eleanor Zelliot blames the closure on private European donations drying up due to the Rebellion of 1857, withdrawal of government support, and Jyotirao resigning from the school management committee because of disagreement regarding the curriculum. In 1863, the Phule couple with their longtime friend Sadashiv Ballal Govande started an infanticide prevention centre called Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha mainly for pregnant widows. Pamphlets were stuck around Pune advertising the centre in the following words: "Widows, come here and deliver your baby safely and secretly. It is up to your discretion whether you want to keep the baby in the centre or take it with you. This orphanage will take care of the children." The Phule couple ran the infanticide prevention centre until the mid-1880s.

Personal life-                                                                                                                                          Savitribai and Jyotirao had no children of their own. It is said that they adopted Yashawantrao, who was the son of a Brahmin widow. However, there is no primary evidence currently available to support this. It is said that when Yashwant was ready for marriage, it was difficult to find a suitable partner because he was born to a widow. Hence, Savitribai is believed to have arranged his marriage to the daughter of Dynoba Sasane, a worker in her organization, in February 1889.

Death-                                                                                                                                                      Savitribai and her adopted son Yashwant, opened a clinic to treat those affected by the worldwide Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague when it appeared in the area around Nalasopara in 1897. The clinic was established on the southern outskirts of Pune, in an area free of infection. Savitribai died a heroic death trying to save the son of Pandurang Babaji Gaekwad. Upon learning that Babaji Gaekwad's son had contracted the plague in the Mahar settlement outside of Mundhwa, Savitribai Phule rushed to his side and carried him on her back to the hospital. In the process, Savitribai Phule caught the plague and died at 9:00 pm on 10 March 1897.

Poetry and other work-                                                                                                                        Savitribai Phule was also an author and poet. She published Kavya Phule in 1854 and Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar in 1892, and also a poem entitled "Go, Get Education" in which she encouraged those who are oppressed to free themselves by obtaining an education. As a result of her experience and work, she became an ardent feminist. She established the Mahila Seva Mandal to raise awareness for issues concerning women's rights. Savitribai also called for a gathering place for women that was free of caste discrimination or differentiation of any kind. Symbolic of this was that all the women that attended were to sit on the same mat. She was also an anti-infanticide activist. She opened a women's shelter called the Home for the Prevention of Infanticide, where Brahmin widows could safely deliver their children and leave them there to be adopted if they so desired. She also campaigned against child marriage and was an advocate of widow remarriage.

In a letter to her husband Jyotirao, Savitribai told the story about a boy about to be lynched by his fellow villagers for having relations with a woman of lower caste when Savitribai intervened. She wrote, "I came to know about their murderous plan. I rushed to the spot and scared them away, pointing out the grave consequences of killing the lovers under British law. They changed their mind after listening to me".

Views-                                                                                                                                                      Savitribai Phule is widely recognised as the "Mother of Modern Education in India". Despite often being viewed through the lens of her association with Jyotirao Phule, scholars have noted that she developed an independent perspective shaped by her lived experiences as a lower-caste woman. According to political scientist Bidyut Chakrabarty, she envisioned an India free from gender and caste oppression, and considered "education" a most powerful tool to awaken self-respect among the oppressed and challenge Brahmanical dominance. Her 1854 poetry collection "Kavya Phule" reflects her thoughts on social emancipation, particularly concerning the upliftment of Shudras and women. Chakrabarty argued that Savitribai Phule was the sole female reformer of 19th-century India to explore the interplay of patriarchy with caste. 

Biographer Dhananjay Keer, in his work on Jotirao Phule, expressed regret over the inadequate recognition given to Savitribai’s contributions. He highlighted her decision to leave the security of her in-laws' home, endure hardships alongside Jotirao, and become the first native female teacher in India. Keer remarked, "There is hardly any parallel example in the nineteenth century that can be compared to Savitribai's noble life devoted to the cause of the uplift of the Indian woman."

Savitribai Phule, in addition to her pioneering role as a teacher and champion of girls' education, also founded the "Mahila Seva Mandal" and the "Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha" to support women's rights, widows and the victims of sexual violence. Contemporary English newspapers like the Poona Observer and Deccan Weekly Reporter described the Phules' efforts as "the heralding of a new age in the history of Hindu culture".