Meher Marfatia: Capping it for Goregaon

Girish Samant son of socialist patriot Baburao Samant and Baburaorsquos architect brother Vinayak Samant flank a model of their ancestral Samantwadi cottage which five generations of the family occupied in east Goregaon since 1891 PicNimesh DaveYou think yoursquod know a man over 30 years I met director and film guru Vikas Desai in Europe in the summer of 1988 Young and travelling solo I was warmly embraced by his family who continue to call me ldquothird daughterrdquo Yet Irsquove only just discovered my old friend is actually Vikas Desai Topiwala greatgrandson of Anant Shivaji Desai Topiwala who left Walawal village in the then princely state of Sawantwadi at age 11 a rupee in his pocket to carve his life in 19thcentury BombayFilmmaker Vikas Desai in his Rajkamal Studio office Parel stands beneath the hanging cap of his hat maker greatgrandfather Anant Shivaji Desai Topiwala portrait inset who rose to become one of the most famous philanthopist industrialists of his day PicBipin KokateSheer grit and guts saw Anant Shivaji Desai rise to be counted among the cityrsquos richest landowners whose descendants in turn spun extraordinary success stories and charities like Topiwala Medical College at Bombay Central and Topiwala Theatre in rustic Goregaon Flooded with perfect sun and soil for mango guava papaya jackfruit drumstick toddy cashew and coconut trees to sway in its gentle breezes Goregaon was a cluster of the villages Pahadi Goregaon Eksar and AareyActivists Mrinal Gore Baburao Samant and George Fernandes at Baburaorsquos daughter Neelamrsquos wedding in the 1970sThe path of the Topiwalas runs poignantly parallel to their relativesrsquo the Samants socialist contemporaries of ldquoPaniwali Bairdquo Mrinal Gore she campaigned for drinking water in the suburbs and her husband Keshav No Goregaon isnrsquot christened after the activist couple it predates them Ghodegaon was the horse trading centre under Maratha rule Warriors bought horses from Ghodegaon market after trial trots in Ghodeghoom a rugged hilltop 10 kilometres awayGirish Samant property developer and activist guides me through Goregaonrsquos gullies The softspoken 64yearold is the son of late freedom fighter Baburao Samant revered for his entrepreneurial ethics ldquoWe are the aborigines of Goregaonrdquo Girish laughs Five generations of Samants from the Kudaldeshkar Gaud Saraswat community occupied a cottage with a scenic garden a wall away from the bungalow where Girish and wife Sukanya now live Greatgrandfather Ramchandra Samant arrived in 1891 His son Balkrishna grew up there Next was Girishrsquos father Baburao the sarpanch of 1950s Goregaon who shaped its finest democratic moments Theirs was among three pucca homes in Goregaonrsquos tangle of jungles and huts There was nowhere to go except an annual jatra between Goregaon and JogeshwariGoregaon got its railway station in 1862 From their verandah the Samants heard whistling steam engines puff grandly into platform place ldquoThe station became part of our homerdquo shares a lady of the house in a film recording the familyrsquos centenary year in that ancestral home Braving a pond full of snakes and frogs to cross before they entered the station the Samant children lolled on platform benches for fun joined by gossiping mothers and aunts who gawked as they peoplewatched Meena Kumari and Ashok Kumar were regular commuters with Filmistan Studio nearby in a level era when glam stars thought nothing of hopping aboard public transport to shootsBaburaorsquos 81yearold architect brother Vinayak tells me he and their sister Vasudha Patil deeply admired their elder sibling ldquoHe taught us honesty is everything in liferdquo he says Describing the bond between the Samants and Topiwalas Girish says ldquoVikasrsquo father Motiram held my father in high regard and assigned him responsibilities in family trustsrdquo Motiram Desairsquos mother was Girishrsquos grandfather Balkrishnarsquos cousinVaulting over flyovers to midtown Parel I stare up at the small round headgear that started it all On a wall behind Vikasrsquo desk in Rajkamal Studio hangs the cloth topi of Anant Shivaji Desai earning his scions their sobriquet It appears almost to crown his 70yearold greatgrandson in blessing from four feet above Vikas will not wear the topi out of respect ndash the last Desai to was his son Hith as a little boy tearing around to play Topiwala Topiwala Forebears looking benignly from mounted portraits include music composer Vasant Desai and the legendary V Shantaram father of Vikasrsquo vivacious wife TejashreeldquoI picked up family history from a pair of unusual sourcesrdquo Vikas says ldquoOne was an imposing dhoticlad character more major domo than cook Govind Baba in our Peddar Road bungalow The other was my fatherrsquos uncle Vasant Samant proprietor of an interesting oneman shop on Sunkersett Road in Thakurdwar a ladies specialty store stocking utensils perfumes and talcum powderCompelling circumstances led to ldquoTopiwalardquo appended to the Desai surname Eightyearold Anant Shivaji Desairsquos business acumen budded at a tiny chanakurmuri counter where he helped his father On his death he was forced to leave Walawal village for Bombay A relative pressed a rupee coin into his hand eight annas of which was ticket money for the 13day boat trip Two months after finishing the chinchuke tamarind seeds and kilo of rice his mother had packed he fainted of hunger at Grant Road stationEmployed as a labourer at that station he learnt tailoring in a mill during his lunch break Those sewing skills won a series of orders By 1872 he specialised at stitching caps that beat competitors with their superior style Bombayrsquos best hat makerrsquos typical attire was often a pagadi turban and bhikbali earring at the top of the ear worn above a coat swathed in a jariwali uparne shawl An appreciative clientele of Parsis Muslims and Gujarati sethias paid handsomely for quality caps fashioned by Anant Shivaji Desai titled Rao Bahadur Topiwala by the BritishAnant Shivaji Desai also crucially established himself as the sole agent for Raja Ravi Varma lithographs After the iconic painterrsquos death in 1906 he acquired the rights to the Baroda and Mysore collections and published these Buying the artistrsquos studio and selling his art was an important move Prise open the frame of a Ravi Varma print you will invariably read beneath lsquoAnant Shivaji Desai Topiwala ndash Ravi Varma Pressrsquo Vikas elaborates ldquoI have memories of the Raja Ravi Varma press in Malavali being revived by my father Motiram Desai and of the picture department in our shop at Moti BazaarrdquoBesides his signature topis Anant Shivaji Desai dealt in silver copper and brass kitchen implements While his son Narayanrao continued trading in metals Narayanraorsquos son Motiram Desai pioneered anodised aluminium in India and introduced velvet fabric as well Motiram and his stepbrother Sitaram became empire builders with philanthropic zeal Not forgetting his fatherrsquos travails on reaching Bombay Narayanrao had acquired chawls residential colonies and student hostels at Thakurdwar Lamington Road and Sikka Nagar to house fellow community members migrating to seek employment in the city He also set up the Rao Bahadur Anant Shivaji Desai Topiwala Charity Trust one of the largest such trusts in the city at that timeldquoMy greatgrandfather had already started several medical educational and religious trusts around 1900rdquo says Sitaram Desairsquos daughter Janhavi Desai Topiwala His son admirably ensured that schools colleges and hospitals opened in their native district of Sindhudurg Narayanrao passing on prematurely his elder son Motiramshet illustriously managed the empire ldquoIn the 1940s my father inherited 350 forest land acres in Goregaonrdquo Janhavi says ldquoOf these about 140 were acquired by the Aarey Milk Colony The Topiwala Ganesh Temple trust was set up by him in east Goregaon But Irsquove never lived thererdquoIt is evident Janhavi is very fond of Vikas and Tejashree Her cousin shot his first feature film Shaque in the racecourse view flat of her father whom he called Bhau Kaka Vikas says ldquoOur greatgrandfather laid the foundation of high school education in his native region ndash Topiwala High School in Malwan is considered among the best in the Konkan beltrdquoMy thoughts fly to the long years Irsquove been visiting the Desais every Ganpati week always struck by this graciously understated family I was close to Vikasrsquo beautiful mother Sunita Aaiji to all yet missed connecting with her husband Motiramshet who would gravely preside over the puja So remarkably unassuming that few realised the exceptional gifts he gave the city Vikas glowingly recaps a 1946 episode Congress kingmaker and the partyrsquos star fund collector S K Patil requested Motiram Desairsquos donation towards a college for Nair Hospital The merchant magnanimously handed Patil a blank cheque to fill with any amount Patil wrote Rs 5 lakhs and the Topiwala National Medical College was born Vikas adds that cricketrsquos Ranji Trophy was actually intended as the Topiwala Trophy But Ranjitsinhji died around then and his name came to commemorate the championshipBack in Goregaon spanning the bridge that links Samantwadi in the east to the crowded west we witness more munificence Washington Plaza mall was the Topiwala bungalow where Vikasrsquo parents married ldquoMajor political agitations and elections were fought from hererdquo Girish points out Patriots and visionaries his father Baburao and the Gores staunchly stood by the common man Providing housing for the poor and protecting them from demolition drives they remain inspirational figures for their compassionArriving at Topiwala Theatre a multiplex today I learn it was constructed by Sitaram Desai in 1969 with Asiarsquos first Mirror Screen ndash two screens flashed from one projector Outside the train station at Persian Bakery Licence No 3 in gram panchayat ledgers Firdause Irani informs us his father Shapur woke Goregaon to mawa magic and khari crumbles in 1951 Girish remembers scalding his feet on hot coals as a kid unwisely sprinting across rail tracks for a birthday cake from this counterWe pass what used to be a quarry a dhobi ghat finally reaching Amba Mai Mandir the right spot to reflect on this small suburbrsquos big history To salute a humble hat tailor who made himself one of the greatest industrialists and taught his clan that conscience can be married to commerceAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiagmailcom