Ancestral Musings

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).

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.

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, he had taken it up crushed it and thrown it away saying it was just a red chilli. Quick thinking saved him the day:)

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.

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, Hariappas 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.

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 it, 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 descendents to record their ancestral history as much as possible. It should not be a subject of debate but of deliberated reflection.