There will always be questions about our ancestors for whom we will never have definite answers. But when we start asking questions, its as though they start speaking to us through the medium of how things are in this world.
I was always curious about the story of my great grand father, Shri Madhav Shenoy (Shanbhogue), son of Ganapayya Shanbhogue, Kaup. I remember my father telling me about what he had heard, that Madhav had a small shop and was not very well to do. He must have been married to Laxmi Shenoy at a young age and had two sons Hariappa and Anant. He passed away soon.
Considering Hariappa was born in 1913, and also a story about the couple having a daughter as their first child, assuming that Madhav was 21 when he married and had his first child in 1911 (2 years before Hariappa), Madhav would have been born between 1880 to 1890. Now Hariappa came to Bombay at the age of 13 i.e. in 1926. This was the time when Laxmi and her two sons were living in a corner in Lakshmi Venkatramana Temple in Kaup. Assuming that Madhav passed away when Hariappa was 10 would mean that he must have been less than 35 years old at the time of his death.
Now how did Laxmi and her two sons stay in the temple? If Ganapayya was a big seth, why this situation of his kin. To this, a point mentioned by Shri Panduranga Shenoy, my uncle, in 2024 came to help. He said that the original home of Ganapayya Shanbhogue was located where we have our Naga Gudi today. It was known as the Hod Ghara (big house). Laxmi and her sons had left that place and started living in the temple premises. I had visited Vaman Shenoy's home in that location in 2007. As on date, there is a new Naga Gudi (earlier it was a small shrine on the side of the property and had to be relocated due to issues with drainage flowing from the side of it. I had thrown a stone at it as a kid and my mother had asked for apology to the Naga Devata).
While i visited Mumbai in the same year for Ganeshotsava, Jaya Akka, also in the lineage of Ganapayya, told me more about the Hod Ghara. She said it was a grand structure with wooden staircase and a sort of a wall supported bridge also. Till the time it collapsed in 70s or 80s, it was a place where all important cooking used to happen for religious functions in the Ganapayya Shanbhogue extended family. One corner of the home came into the share of Ganapayya's youngest son, Keshava Shenoy.
So how did Laxmi and her sons go out of the home? A young widow is an easy target for lechers and most seemingly this may have happened with her, prompting her to take the step of leaving the home. She was known as a rude and sharp widowed lady, a quality she would have acquired to protect herself. She used to do odd jobs to survive. She got lands in her husbands share, but seemingly these lands were mortgaged to a Jaina Money lender, based on my deduction from an account shared by Shri Raghuram Shenoy, my uncle staying in Kaup. He had said that the Daiva Gudi and the attached lands were released by our Grandfather, Hariappa Shenoy, once he got funds from his hotel and catering enterprise in Mumbai.
The Daiva Gudi was originally built by Ganapayya, the land lord. Post this, Hariappa was the son of soil who gained wealth and acquired the lands again. He reconstructed the dilapidated structure. Fast forward in 2006, the descendents of Ganapayya were not willing to contribute, despite the Daiva telling all of them to come together. They were saying that this was Hariappas property and only his kin should be concerned about it. Later on, all came together and put in their money, by some unknown divine work.
As per an account by Vrinda Shenoy, wife of Raghuram uncle, - Laxmi Shenoy used to serve food to young girls during Mahalaya Paksha, on a certain tithi (Panchami mostly), in remembrance of her first daughter who had passed away when young. I had not known of this, but knew that even my grand mother, Smt. Narayani bai, wife of Hariappa Shenoy, also had a daughter as her first child, who had passed on. If memory serves me right, Hariappa and Narayani were married in 1937, so Hariappa would be 24 when he got married. Narayani was born in 1918 and was 19 during her betrothal. I too have a daughter as my first born, who we got after a lot of sleepless nights, which seems to be some divine co-incidence.
Grandfather came to Bombay as a boy of 13 and worked hard in Vasudev Ashram. His skills of 8 years of hard work and kindness from a customer paved the way to him becoming a Hotel Owner, a confectioner, a Congress party worker and a GSB samaj leader. He used to get up late and work late until night, and his kids would hardly see him. Particulary favourite of his was his 4th son Pundalik, who recounted visiting Chowpatty with him on Narali Poornima, when Hariappa used to offer milk and coconut to the Chowpatty sea.
How did the family come to Mumbai? Until 1940s, it was all about working in the city and sending money back home to Kaup (i am not sure about the channels but those were days when migrations were a norm and someone was constantly travelling). Their surviving first child, Kamalaksha was born in 1940, post which Narayani had her fears of Hari having an affair in Mumbai, like all other hotel wallah's. Most probably Hari had a mistress. So Narayani boarded a steamer without prior intimation and came unannounced. Hari had to make temporary arrangements in the kitchen of his cousin brother, Chardappa Shenoy, who used to stay in Babulnath in a 1 room kitchen setting. Couple of months in the future, our current residence in Mumbai was vacated by the occupants and Hari moved in with Narayani and his kid, after bribing the rent collector for a good sum in those days. Since then, the 1 room house has been the fort of the Shenoy's in Mumbai, which came in my father's share eventually.
So what about the mistress? Narayani had got her father to also come to Mumbai who helped sort the matter and Hari promised never to get into those zones ever. It seems in those day's, people were more relaxed than today in these matters. Hari's brother Anant too had a wife back home, but he was busy in enjoying himself with ladies in Mumbai. Hari helped him start something of his own, but every time Anant used to destroy it (in the words of my father, he used to set it on fire). Father recounts seeing Anant bappa once in embrace of some unknown lady in a gully. He seemed to have become a purohit in some temple and raised his kids Narayana and Ashok. Narayana was a straightforward man, but Ashok was known to be another crook, Govardhan Shenoy (another cousin) being his chaddi buddy.
Father had told of an incident when someone had seen a cockroach in the kitchen and made a hue about it. In order to keep all customers and others from panicking, Hari had taken it up crushed it and thrown it away saying it was just a red chilli. Quick thinking saved him the day:)
How did Hari become a confectioner? Hari had a business named Hurricane Products (remembered as Haricane by his sons who could not even remember the spelling correctly). The main products were candies and toffees and it had business in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat. Hari had acquired the premises for Central Health Home in 1942, when people were leaving Bombay due to the uncertainties of WW2. He started a thali place there where lunch was served. Afternoons were free and Hari started experimenting with confectionery, he learnt with the help of Muhamaddan confectioners in Null Bazar area (there are still couple of them there like Zahoora). One thing led to another, and eventually he acquired a place near JJ hospital and established Hurricane products. This was closed after his demise.
He visited Varanasi once in 1948 and second in 1958, on the return of which he got embroiled in a cruel twist of fate. Due to animosity between the CA and Hariappas brother in law, the CA exposed some accounting issues to the authorities which led to an arrest warrant for Hariappa. On return he was welcomed with a prospect of spending time behind the bars. Already a respected fellow, stressed out and not in the pink of health meant that he was not equipped to deal with this shock and sufferred a heart attack. He spent some days in the hospital and passed away.
Father was not aware of the details of grandfather's passing (or maybe he hid it from us). He used to attribute Hari's early passing away to his erratic work schedules, bad nutrition and habit of smoking beedies. Father had told about spending some days with Hari in the hospital and also having picked some money from his pocket as a child. But not much of interaction ever happened between father and son, as was a norm in those 7 kids on an average days.
On the day of his passing, father and Pundalik mhant were so hungry that they purchased samosa from Dave's shop and were eating it, while everyone else was looking at the naive kids, not knowing what to day. Narayani had also attempted suicide by ingesting powdered diamond on that day, due to the utter shock of her predicament, but was saved by quick thinking relatives.
The Brother in Law and team had a plan to send Narayani and her children back to village, a kind of back to square one scenario, which was prevented by the intervention and encouragement of Chardappa Shenoy, Hariappa's cousin, who pushed Hari's eldest son, Kamalaksha to swift and intelligent action in driving the entire Bro in Law gang out of the concerns of Hariappas flourishing business.
Beyond this, Kamalaksha kept the fire burning, ensured his siblings got education. Eventually by God's grace and Hari and Narayani's punya that all turned out well.
There are so many shades to a person's character because a person is after all a frail human being, victim of his life conditions. Someone may label my grandfather as a womanizer (due to the mistress episode), or a cheat (due to the cockroach or the fatal accounting errors). My aunt had once labelled him as a humbug, as Hari had promised monetary compensation to a squatter aka tenant on one piece of land he had reclaimed, but did not respect the promise made. What is of importance is to remember a person's greatness, emulate the good things he did and learn from his mistakes.
The amount of apathy, difference in accounts, lack of knowhow of history of a great man who passed away in 1958 is so much that i believe that History is always about speculation. We may say that the written word saves us from much trouble, but how much of the written word is true can never be substantiated. The reason why we peek into the past to it see patterns of thought and action which may bless us or wreck us, so that we can learn from it and set our future course. If the history of my ancestors is worthless, so is the history of the World. In other words, it is equally important for all descendants to record their ancestral history as much as possible. It should not be a subject of debate but of deliberated reflection.
