Appa Redij was working tirelessly till the last days of his life for "intercaste marriage". The promotion and spreading this thought of intercaste marriage of his life-mission and the work he did for this unusual but worth social cause was just remarkable. We find a lot young couples marrying out of caste today, but those were the days, some 30 years back, when the married couples used to be lone, helpless and without any support because of the rejection by their parents and society because they married out of caste. (Still today, the caste plays fundamental role in marriage and the other important aspects are ignored, matchmaking today is still caste-matching). He started on this mission when he retired and instead of enjoying with grand children and family he worked day and night till his last breath. He never got much of the support or appreciation from the fellow progressive social movements of Maharashtra. But we carried on, spending from his pocket and arranging matches for all those like his own children.
His contribution to the society must be remembered. He used to move all around in spite his old age not worrying about his age. He used to arrange programmes, get-togethers, meet families of those married, take help of renowned social activists and ask them to write letters of support & we, very few of us who used to work with him, always envisaging this social movement reach the nooks and corners of our state and country.
He started an organization of all those who got married through Sugava Mishra Vivah Mandal, their families & named it as "Sugava Parivar". All those who believe in this social cause and wish that caste should not be main criteria in match-making, were also part of this Sugava Parivar. He was head of this big family of young families, well-wishers. Sugava Parivar was instrumental in many of nice initiatives in progressive social movements in Maharashtra. As a member of this Sugava Parivar, I thought it as my duty to record all those past programmes, past events and past initiatives on net, so that the new generation comes to know about the life of Appa Redij.
On the second death anniversary of Late Appa Redij, I proudly announce the publishing of blog of Sugava Parivar, a blog related to Sugava Parivar events, programmes.
Please visit www.pratibimb.info/sugava, please be member of the blog to be part of this growing Parivar.
