Revadi of Musabhai

 Revadi of Musabhai 



Elections in this year has coined a new term of Indian politics, ‘Revadi’. It was a Sindhi sweet made of sugar and sesame seeds and was made very popular in Ahmedabad by the refugees post independence. We as children used to get a pai to buy Revadi as mid day meal. Elderly persons who couldn’t afford to distribute almond and cashew but wished to gain popularity and public acceptance used to distribute Revadi. Later Revadi became popular buy to distribute amongst the children and as prasad in temples too. There is a Ravadi Bazaar near the Railway Station in Ahmedabad. 

There is another proverb in Gujarati, મુસાભાઈ ને વા ને પાણી (water and air from Musabhai). 

The political parties hv come out with great ideas of free bees and are manifesting as if they are going to give them from private funding. They do build party fund through power support and use it for winning elections but smartly present themselves as the servants of the society, dedicated their life in the love of the nation. The public treasury which they use is made of public money of which they are the trustees. Late HM Joshi (IAS Retd.) quoted from some text that money in the hands of a public servant is like a hive full of honey put in the mouth of a bear. 

As per Gandhian principle of trusteeship, an individual will not be free to hold or use his wealth for selfish satisfaction in disregard to the interests of society. But this is public wealth, where the responsibility is more, still we may find Musabhai in public administration. 

To understand this term ‘Musabhai’, please read the story below which I had posted in February 2018👇

મુસાભાઈ ના વા ને પાણી

(Water and air from Musabhai)

It is a very famous proverb in Gujarati. When I was Deputy Secretary in Revenue Department in 1990s, the FA of the department was Musabhai Patel. We used to interact with him very often. I didn’t hv clear idea of the proverb but when my inner voice pushed me forward forcefully, I asked the meaning of it from Musabhai himself. He laughed but explained. 

There was poor man named Musabhai, living in a village. He used to attend all the invitations of community meal organised by different individuals of his community. One day, some persons insisted on Musabhai to invite the community for meal at his place. He was poor and was not in a position to afford the expenditure of the community meal but couldn’t resist the pressure, therefore, said yes, and invited the community for meal at his residence. 

He started collecting utensils from the community itself for cooking and serving the food. He collected doubled the utensils of his requirement, sold off the half the utensils collected in the market and purchased the ration etc, from the market using that money. 

As per the custom, the host has to say few words before the meal. Musabhai stood up and politely said, “નાત નાતનું જમે, મુસાભાઈ ના વા ને પાણી” (the community eats it’s own meal, Musabhai has served only water and air which was free of cost.

Have you seen Musabhai/s in Public Administration? Lol😂 

Punamchand 

24 February 2018