Satyajit Patil @Satyampatil3334
wrote this story (thread) on Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule's Jayanti. January 3, 2021
An incident in Abhay Sadavarte's book Savitribai Phule testifies to Savitribai Phule's dedication, sacrifice and total involvement in women's education.
Photo courtesy: Wikipedia🖱.
"लुगड्याची गोष्ट" - "Saree Story"
Night time ... Pin-drop silence ... The light is flickering in the oil lamp. Savitribai covers herself with a bedsheet and is about to sleep. Jyotirao lovingly runs his hands on his wife's forehead.
"Savitri!" he exclaims. "My dear, your body is hot. Do you have a fever?"
"Oh, it's is nothing. I am feeling a bit feverish." she replies.
"But if you get fever, you will miss school? What about your students (girls)?" he replies.
"I am not listening to you. I am going to call the Vaidya (doctor). Take his medicines and you will get better." he says.
"Dear, this fever will not go with medicines." she replies.
"Then, how will it go?" he asks.
"If you buy me a saree to go to school, the fever will automatically disappear," she replies.
Jyotirao turns to the other side and tries to sleep. His mind is agitated. Savitri is not the type of person to feign fever to get a saree. Then, why did she ask for one? When she is having one, why is she asking for another? The money that we have is for education, not for a saree. But if Savitri is asking for a saree to go to school, then, definitely there must be a reason. He kept on thinking and fell asleep.
The next day Jyotirao places a saree in Savitribai's hands. She has tears in her eyes. Jyotirao must have had a tough time spending on a saree, as whatever money they had they would spend on education. She never had fever again.
Jyotirao felt surprised, "How's it possible? Savitri did not feign illness for a saree."
He met the school assistant at her school and narrated the incident.
The school assistant clarified: When she comes to teach in the school, people throw dung at her. She teaches with all that slime on her saree. Perhaps, that's why she gets a fever in the night. Now that you have given her another saree, when she comes to school, she washes the soiled saree and keeps it to dry. She wears the other saree and teaches. That's why now she does not get the fever.
Tears flowed down Jyotirao's eyes. In his mind, he saluted his noble wife.
Satyajit Patil ends his tweet: I bow in reverence to this great women.
Translator (with tears in his eyes): Mazha pan shashtang dandavat.