In a Hurry

THE Pawar legatee wants to be a Powerhouse Putri., she is ambitious, driven, purposeful and resourceful. For starters, in her education-for-all spree, Supriya has tried to bring together all those in the field to exchange ideas and co-ordinate efforts for maximum benefits.

Two months ago, she organised an interaction with educationists from 700 schools across the state in Mumbai, gushes Vijay Kanhekar, a teacher from Parbani, near Aurangabad, and they are working on a disability rights development group for ‘inclusive education’, a pet project, and a sericulture programme for the women’s self-help groups. “We have to replicate, not duplicate,” is a Supriya mantra.

Supriya is running late but she has some humdrum political obligations before her—rushing to appreciate Indapur Vidyalaya’s new grounds, inaugurating the Neelkant Clinic in the bustling bazaar and visiting a party leader’s home. “Chala, chala, chala (hurry, hurry, hurry)”, she says, before leaping into the SUV for her next meeting at Baramati, 75 km away. She will address students at the family’s new enterprise, the Vidya Vikas Pratishthan, a sprawling network of schools and technical colleges.

Refreshingly, there are no garish cut-outs and posters heralding her visit in this orderly town of quiet industry and expanding knowledge city. Her father’s power and influence in Baramati is flagrantly evident; enormous funds have poured in to make Baramati an overrun industrial township, with bougainvillea boulevards, three-lane roads, a ring road, bio-tech and art schools, even a Taj Inn.

Dad’s daughter

I AM proud of my father,” says Supriya, as she enters the cavernous convocation hall of the VVP, momentarily stunned by the 3,000-odd students gathered to hear her. “He believes everyone must earn his own stripes. I run a school and a trust, so does my father. But he never advises me how to run it. He learnt from his own experiences and so will I,” she explains. “My mother is the simplest human being, for her the family comes first, I have learned this from her.”

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