Our ancestors

 

There are many families with ‘Bhoraskar’ surname in Indore and nearby areas. No one knew, where they came from? Now a days, younger generation avoid using their surnames. We hear Arun, Ruchi, Siddhi, Advait… no identity by surname. Why? Is it because surname represents the ‘caste’? In our times, it had to be ‘Shashank Govind Gokhale’… relating to father’s and family name. In UP, Delhi they are names ‘Mahendra kumar, Rakesh kumar…no Mathur or Saxena or Mishra. Every fourth person is Kumar Saheb.

 

My father and atya (aunt) used to tell that our ancestors were from Maharashtra, we were ‘Dharmadhikari’ then. We were from a village named ‘Chinchodi Patil’ in District Ahmednagar. And old army parson had shown a heap of stone building as ‘Dharmadhikari wada’, he tells that these Dharmadhikaris went up North.  My father used to tell us that we belonged to ‘Saswad’ near Pune, they still have Holkar wad in Saswad. Our ancestors were ‘Pujari Dharmadhikari’ who perhaps travelled along with ‘Holkars’ to Indore. They settled in ‘Bhorasa’, a village 40 kms from Indore. Therefore we called our self  ‘Bhoraskar’ Bhorasa village was an estate of Sardar Angre of Gwalior. It later got merged with Dewas district.

We have no contact of many generations later. Perhaps my great grandfather and his predecessors lived in Bhorasa in temple as Brhamins, prior to 1850. Later their progeny moved to Dewas and Indore and settled in these places, carrying the name of ‘Bhoraskar’. One generation in Dewas and other in Indore. My great grandfather, I do not know what he did. Their life expectancy was not more than 50. There used to be many illness like typhoid, malaria, TB etc to take the toll. We may find these diseases treatable now, but they were lethal those days. Many ladies didn’t survive during their pregnancy and delivery. There were pandemics of diseases like plague, cholera clearing the whole population of villages in a row. It was devastating.

We do not have any historical document available for last 100+ years. I know this much that my great grandfather ‘Keshav Bhoraskar’ was very poor. His three sons Nanaji, Vaman & Shreedhar had tough time for their education, could hardly get one meal a day. They used to get food pass from Government food supply. One brother could eat in morning and one in the evening. Their father dies early and these orphans struggled all the way in life. Eldest brother Nanaji got a job in Holkar estate, and gradually climbed the position on his hard work. He helped his younger brother Vaman educate and serve in the Govt office. The youngest Shreedhar was very brilliant. He passed his metric board exams in merit in 1884. Shreedhar Bhoraskar was my grandfather.

There was no college for higher education in Indore. He was sent by Holkar state to Fergusson College Pune in 1886. He was one of the first student for BA in Fergusson college (established in 1885). There is an evidence in Fergusson College records, of him receiving scholarship of Rs 12/month. It was a big sum those days, since Gold was Rs 15/ tola. Today Gold is Rs 5000/tola, that makes Rs 4000/month as per present standard. Only Rs 2/month for all meals in a diner. It costed not more than 7-8 rupees for a month for room rent, books etc.  Rupees 7-8 for travelling from Pune to Indore, that too only once or twice a year.

My grandfather Shreedhar Bhoraskar returned to Indore after his brilliant education in 1890 and started working in school. He married and had two sons and a daughter. He succumbed to Plague in 1903 at a young age on 34-35, survived by his wife and three young children. Pralhad (my father) 7, Rangi (atya) 4, and Narayan (my kaka) 3months. My grandmother was grief stricken.

My grandmother had nowhere to go with three young children. Thankfully my eldest uncle Nanaji helped her out and she along with three children had a shelter. And the kids had help for their education. However my ‘orphaned’ grand mother was always insecure and worried for her children’s future… what if kaka gets annoyed and throw them out of his house? She had no income and no place to fall back on, there fore she and her children always remain timid and insecure, with no self-confidence.

 

Children had realised that they have make a mark for themselves and not remain dependant on their Kaka’s good will alone. ‘We have to work hard, educate and get a job/ wok to get out of this circle of poverty’. Eldest Pralhad passed BA and joined a school. Atya  was married and she went to her in laws. Youngest Narayan worked very hard and graduated as a Doctor. This Doctor son turned out to be the saviour of the family.

Eldest Pralhad later joined Govt job and had to travel places for his job. Pralhad (my father) married Triveni (my mother). She was a daughter of deputy collector. However, she couldn’t get along with anyone. I do not know whether she had a adjustment issues in joint family or whether she had some psychological problem. Her four sons (me included) and two daughters grew up very scared and frightened. Scared of their mother’s temper and outburst. There used to be a tense atmosphere in the house, along with the lack of basic necessity of food, clothes and education. One can say she failed in her role as a mother. Unfortunately, she later succumbed to her illness.

Eldest son (me) by then had taken over the responsibility of his younger siblings. Eldest son had met an ‘angel’ in form of his Doctor kaka(uncle). Though kaka was not making lot of money, but he was very jolly, sincere, and dedicated to his work. He personally took over eldest son’s (mine) responsibility. He took me under his wings and helped me fly. He had his five sons and I was sixth. He never considered me any different from his sons, we were treated alike…I was always his first son. Thankfully we all grew up to be able to keep the family name high!!

-RP Bhoraskar