Pune: The late cartoonist Mangesh Tendulkar’s initiative of distributing road safety awareness greeting cards to people on the occasion of Diwali is being carried forward by daughter Vandana Tendulkar-Davale. For last two days, Vandana and social organisations have decided to distribute 10,000 cards to people to spread awareness of traffic safety at Nal Stop on Karve Road.
Tendulkar passed away last year. He had been spreading the message of road safety for the last 12 years, with his cartoons depicting the risks of not following traffic rules. Every year, Tendulkar and members of Creative Foundation, Nature Walk, India Against Corruption and other social organisations, distributed the cards at Nal Stop on Karve Road. They distributes cards four days in Diwali. This year, Tendulkar’s daughter along with some social organisations started distributing cards from Tuesday.
In a series of 100 cartoons, Tendulkar set forth his concerns about the city and the preservation of Pune’s once-leafy environs with his trademark good-humoured, gentle skepticism. Especially, his cartoons on the city’s traffic issues became popular. He used to stand at traffic signals in the city and distribute greeting cards with messages of safe driving among citizens.
After Tendulkar’s demise, his daughter Vandana took the initiative and carried out distribution of cards. Vandana Tendulkar-Davale said, “To continue the initiative to spread traffic safety awareness among people, i have decided to distribute cards and relive the memory of my father. We have started from Tuesday morning at Nal Stop on Karve Road area.”
Police Inspector Pratibha Joshi, Creative Foundation president Sandeep Khardekar, Gurusiddaiah and Shasi Swami who lost their son in a road accident, Sunanda Japtiwale who lost her daughter in a road accident, Deepa Deshpande, Kiran Dekhane, Sharawani Dhavale and Subhankar Dhavale were distributing cards to people at traffic signals on Karve Road.
