Since I blogged about Papaji and Munniji, I've got so many positive responses and return stories that it got me thinking more about them. And not only about them but about my great grandparents.
People have industrialists, freedom fighters, scientists, princesses as great-grandparents but mine was way, way, way cooler. My paternal grandmother's father was a Kabbadiwala. Sounds odd? I would be right if I said that he was a sustainability entrepreneur in the business of recycling previously loved clothes because actually he only had a shop in the Kabbari market but, I like Kabbadiwala.
Apparently, like the majority of the population then (late 1800s-early 1900s) he was a gentleman of simple means, but also quite ingenious and quite a respected "Dada" in, not only his, but also the larger area around. He would buy clothes from repatriating British soldiers and resell them for a small profit. The business did well for a while but it really took off when on one occasion he found 15000 rupees in the pocket of a coat that had been sold to him for one rupee. One rupee was worth a lot so you can imagine what 15000 was worth!
Apparently, after finding this stash he tried to find the owner of the coat (in true Bollywood style) who had (unfortunately for him) and fortunately for my great-grandfather set sail for the UK. Then he waited for a few months to hear from him and finally accepted his fate and the gift from the (Colonial) British treasury.
Needless to say, this money was put to good use, property bought and the rest is history.
Unfortunately, he didn't live long enough to enjoy his new-found wealth but he was clever enough to educate his sons and wed his daughter (nope, not clever enough to educate her) to my grandfather (the now famous Papaji).
So why am I sharing this story? Why does it fascinate me so much? It actually makes me chuckle. Maybe because in a socio-economic strata driven society one is so quick to acknowledge educated or rich ancestors that we sometimes forget to ask or hear about the not so remarkable and simple folks. People who may not have had exceptional enough lives to make a biopic but are definitely heroes of a couple of scenes if not a preface.
This gentleman's grandchildren include a doctor, a padma-vibhushan educationist, a highly decorated Air Force officer and a highly ranked government servant/UN employee. Did the 15000 rupees do it? Maybe, maybe not. But his clever and ingenious genes probably did - after all, I have them too!