The Colossus That Was Bapurao Naik

(Arun Naik, Bapurao Naik's elder son speaks at the Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh kickstarting Bapurao Naik's centenary year celebrations).

His aunt lived at Gaondevi in a chawl with her widowed daughter who was a school teacher. Another cousin lived in Girgaon in Ramchandra Building near Portuguese Church. Her husband was in the High Court. His own sister lived in a semi-chawl in Matunga. Her husband was an accountant in the Asbestos Cement Company. Some stray relatives lived at odd places. But no one except the Gaondevi aunt would have Bapurao.

One day, Bapurao saw an advertisement in a newspaper. They wanted apprentices in the Government Central Press at Charni Road. It was a part-time job with part-time classes at the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute in Matunga/Wadala. That suited my father. He could live in Gaondevi and attend college in Matunga near his sister's house on Bhaudaji Road. He completed the five-year diploma in printing and got recruited as a junior assistant manager in the Government Central Press (GCP). This was till 1941.

The GCP is at Marine Drive alongside the Charni Road station. It was a huge press even in those days. It now extends up to the Catholic Gymkhana along the railway tracks. My father joined the institution as an apprentice and also completed his diploma at V. J. T. I. in ‘Typography'. A road leads from Marine Drive through the compounds of the GCP and Bal Bhavan; it becomes a bridge and crosses the railway tracks, and finishes at the road level between Saifee Hospital and a Muslim cemetery (where the great Hindustani classical singer Ustad Alladiaya Khan lies buried). The road becomes Kelewadi and opens out on Girgaum Road, or Nana Shankarshet Road. Beyond this is the ethos-filled locality called Girgaon. Again the road enters the dense buildings into Kandewadi and comes out after some twists and turns into Girgaon Back Road, Vithalbhai Patel Road. There still exists a small building called Narayan Sadan there. This is flanked by high buildings. It is mostly a Gujarati locality. This is where Dr. Amrut Narayan Bhalerao lived.

Dr. Bhalerao was a medical doctor who had his practice a few buildings away in Khetwadi, just beyond Wilson High School. It was a good practice. But Dr Bhalerao was not satisfied. He was a keen sportsman of cricket and tennis, and he also took a keen interest in literature and in theatre. He had found the Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh in 1935. My father too had interest in these subjects and he joined the Sahitya Sangh as a young volunteer.

My father was transferred to the famous Yerawada Prison Press in Pune in 1941, immediately after he completed his diploma from V.J.T. I. In Pune he met many interesting personalities, prominent among them, Mahamahopadhaya Datto Waman Potdar. He was a Professor of Marathi but was a keen history researcher with a special interest in Shivaji. Potdar was also involved in literary activities of the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad, almost the apex body then. Potdar was a colourful character in his costumes, his speeches, and his interest in history, literature, and education. He was the chairman or the president of all institutions in Pune even remotely connected with his subjects of interests. Though he did a lot of actual field work in research, he did not really write much. Marathi Bhashecha Ingraji Awtar and Mi Yuropat Kay Pahile are probably the only books he published.

But Potdar influenced my father in a big way and instilled in him the research instinct. My father then started thoroughly studying every subject he came across.

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The Colossus That Was Bapurao Naik(Arun Naik, Bapurao Naik's elder son speaks at the Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh kickstarting Bapurao Naik's centenary year celebrations).

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The Colossus That Was Bapurao Naik

(Arun Naik, Bapurao Naik's elder son speaks at the Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh kickstarting Bapurao Naik's centenary year celebrations).