THE big family in Aurangabad is Maharashtra energy minister Rajendra Darda�s family comprising sociable wife Ashoo, elder son Rishi and daughter-in-law Sheetal, and younger son Karan. Everybody knows them. And everybody reads them, because the Dardas are the media barons who own the popular and widely-circulated Lokmat newspaper of Aurangabad. This is the Marathwada edition. Rajendra�s brother Vijay Darda looks after the Vidarbha edition of the Lokmat which is published from Nagpur. Rajendra Darda�s family is from Yavatmal. Wife Ashoo is from Indore. About 21 years ago, they relocated to Aurangabad to start the Lokmat here.

Ashoo, proud wife and mother, said that Rajendra is in Aurangabad three days a week. Rest of the time he stays in his ministerial bungalow in Bombay. The couple�s younger son Karan, who is studying in H. R. College, stays with him. Rajendra comes to Aurangabad on Friday and returns on Monday. Ashoo said, �This is his constituency, he is active here, and to think we did not want him to get into politics. My son Rishi and I were against it. We told him, �Do what you want for Aurangabad, why do you want to be in politics?� But people forced him to stand for elections. Now we are very much a part of Aurangabad and play an important role in the city.�

She is the president of an organisation called Kalasagar and through the Lokmat, she organises various entertainment and cultural programmes for Kalasagar in which film stars and eminent citizens participate. Son Rishi and daughter-in-law Sheetal look after the Lokmat. They met in Bombay when she was a student of Sydenham College and he in H.R. Subsequently, Sheetal went to do a Masters in Accounts from Leeds University in the UK and is now in charge of the administration and finance of Lokmat. �It�s my first real job,� says the pert and attractive Darda bahu. Rishi, who keeps busy with Lion�s Club activities, is otherwise a hands-on executive director on Lokmat.

The Dardas live in a a magnificent, sprawling and tastefully-designed bungalow behind Lokmat Bhavan where the newspaper is edited and published from. The bungalow has no name but it is on the Lokmat premises. The family can hardly hear the press rumbling when the paper goes to bed. But the first copy of the Lokmat is delivered home straight off the press, still hot and wet with printer�s ink. And they entertain at this wonderful home often, inviting people from Delhi, Bombay and Nagpur to come over to Aurangabad. Most of the socialising is done at home. And the people who grace the Dardas�s table are not necessary Rajendra�s political friends, but close family friends from the past.