Dilip Puranik, 68, may have spent the last two decades in career counselling and allied motivational talks across Maharashtra. But, the last few months of his retired life are too dissimilar in scope and scale.  The senior citizen has been humbled by the confidence vested in him by 500-odd Karachi-based Marathi families he hasn’t ever met in person.  These Marathi households not just keenly want to learn Marathi, but also revive their ties with a lost culture.

“I never thought I could become the go-to person for queries like ‘What is a Jogwa?’ and ‘How many days do Maharashtrians devote to post-death rites?’ I am trying my best to satisfy their curiosity,” says Puranik, who is currently providing virtual online guidance for the first-ever public Marathi Language Day celebration in Karachi’s Ganesh Math Mandir. Maharashtra celebrates the day on February 27, but it will be a day later in Karachi because of the weekly off convenience.