Ganesh Shankar had very simple origins. His father Babu Jainarainlal belonged to a place called Mungawalo, situated in Gwalior Princely State which now is Gwalior city and the area around it forms a district. He used to live there with his family which consisted of his wife Gomatidevi and a son born before the arrival of Ganesh. The family was Kayastha by caste.
The early years
Babu Jainarainlal was a teacher. He used to teach Hindi in the small local primary school. He was very humble and a kind person. Aggression was alien to his nature. All his life he remained a compassionate soul. Those qualities endeared him to the other people who came into his contact who were not many.
The teacher’s job paid little and the people are generally attracted to those who have money or power. It has been a rule of Indian society.
A golden heart buys little social respect in real terms. Everyone takes humility to be a symptom of helplessness. So, the respect shown to the person of high character without material riches was and is a camouflaged pity.
Gomtidevi was a traditional wife who was trained to accept the husband as her lot on ‘As is whatever is basis.’ She was traditionally religious and faithful.
Daily prayers and fasts were her order of the day. Reciting scriptures and the holy books were her routines that were dutifully done.
The family never aspired for more. It was trained to be content with whatever the breadwinner earned. The members of the family were happy in just being together living in peace.
One night, Gomtidevi fed her husband and son. After eating her meals she cleaned the utensils before retiring to her bed. The cooking and cleaning had made her feel tired. While going to sleep she always had religious thoughts on her mind and prayers on her lips.
That day, She saw a dream.
She could see a woman standing at her door. The face of the woman crystalised to recognisable sharpness. It was her mother Gangadevi.
Emotions swept her body. She was seeing her after a long time. The tears welled up in her eyes, She squeaked, “M…maa!”
“I can’t come in, dear. I can’t.”
“Why?”
The mother shook her head, “I can’t. There is no time. I’m have a lot of things to do. A whole lot.”
“What whole lot of things?” Gomti was surprised at the strange behaviour of her mother whose face appeared to shift into other facial images. Sometimes she looked like that of a goddess she had seen in many calenders.
The mother said, “I have come on a special purpose to you. You must listen carefully.”
“What is it maa?”
The old woman extended her hand towards Gomti. The hand now held an idol. She pushed the brown idol in her daughter’s hand. Gomti took it and examined. It was an idol of Lord Ganesha, the elephant headed god.
Gangadevi whispered, “Gomati dear! It is the most precious thing I give you. Worship it. All your troubles will be gone and all your wishes fulfilled. Have no doubt about it. Do you understand?”
Her face had again shifted into goddess face.
Gomti nodded her head in confusion and a bit in fright. Suddenly Gangadevi collapsed to become a stream and flowed away as Gomti watched stunned.
She looked at the Ganesha idol in utter bewilderment. The idol was gurgling a laughter.
Then everything went blank.
In the morning when Gomti woke up to take her bath she remembered the dream and wondered about it. ‘Did it mean something or was there a message?’ her superstitious mind asked.
She said her prayers while her mind fantasized about the dream.
During the day she went to the market to buy rations. By chance she happened to see a shop that sold pooja items and idols. May be, she deliberately peeped into a stall under the influence of her strange dream.
She saw Ganesh idol in the shop that was exact copy of the one she had been handed in her dream by Gangadevi. May be, it was her imagination, the mind steeped in faith playing tricks. She could not help buying the idol in due respect to her belief.
Gomti installed the idol in her domestic Pooja place and began worshiping it in earnest. From Ganesha she asked to be blessed with a son worthily enough to bring glory to the family. For a traditional woman a male child was a treasure personified and the harbinger of all happiness of the world.
Now all her faith was beamed in Lord Ganesha. She had grown more pleasing and romantic disposition towards her husband.
Naturally she was, soon in a family way. The first signs of pregnancy elated her. She firmly believed that the child she was carrying was infact the blessing of Lord Ganesha. Gomti confided to her husband the dream she had seen and revealed that she infact was in the family way.
The information pleased Jainarainlal, Men generally don’t mind enjoying a bit of excitement of sharing the wishful thinking of their women. The husband and the wife spent months in daydreaming about the expected child. Their son also joined the fun.
In due course Gomtidevi gave birth to a male child in 1890 A.D. For the mother the very fact that her newborn was a son was ultimate proof that it was the blessing of Lord Ganesha. This fact made Jainarainlal and Gomti very happy.
Babu Jainarainlal was incidentally a firm devotee of Lord Shiva. Mythological theory is that Lord Ganesha is the younger son of Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati.
So, the mother and the father decided to christen their son ‘Ganesh Shankar’, a combination of the names of Lord Ganesha and Lord Shiva who is also known by the name ‘Shankar’.
The name of their elder son was ‘Shivavarta’. There again was Shiva connection which proves how deeply the couple was religiously devoted to Lord Shiva’s divine family. The religious mindset of the parents guaranteed that the little Ganesh Shankar would get the best possible care they could afford and devoted affection.
Shivavrata also loved his younger sibling and vied with his parents in doting on him. He never displayed any jealousy. The parents had encouraged him too to cultivate the belief that his younger brother was the result of the divine blessing.
Soon after Ganesh Shankar’s birth Jainarainlal got due increment in his salary. The family attributed it too to the good luck brought by the little one.
Gomati could think and talk of nothing also but her young one. She was so enthused that now she did her household chores with greater zeal and speed to spare all the time she could to attend to the unspelled out need the little one always cried for.
The family was never rich but it was never poor in love and warm feelings of its members for one another.
Babu Jainarainlal was a dedicated teacher. He taught children with great spirit and punctuality. The job was his and his family’s life support. He was not trained for any other profession, And then, jobs were hard to come by. Being a servant of the Princely State there was no security. Any employee of the state could be dismissed on the slightest pretext or a whin of the state official. He had to be very careful.
Those days anyway were heady for the family. Just a look at the child made everything else immaterial. Gomti would serve meals to her husband as soon as he arrived home hungry from school.
Jainarainlal would eat food from his thali in squatting position while his wife would narrate all the little childish miracles enacted by the young one during the time he was away on duty. He would listen to all those small things done by his son wonder eyed every now and then exclaiming between the morsels. Several times he would suspend chewing food to give his full attention to interesting details. Sometimes his fingers would forget to prepare next morsel in the thali.
All those juicy tit-bits made the food tastier like it never before was.
It is very strange how a common man fills his empty life with such tiny and trivial pieces of happiness. Yet in the final analysis those very moments add up to redeem his life making it feel so rich that the rich one’s life in comparison looks so much the poorer. The soul of the truth is that the little things of life is full of the riches of the pure joy of natural feelings that the artificiality of material riches can never hope to duplicate or come anywhere near it.
On one scorching summer afternoon Jainarainlal came home from school thoroughly exhausted and beaten by the heat.
He washed himself and took a breather. The sun went down. Breeze was starting to blow.
The husband and wife went up on the roof. Gomti was carrying infant Ganesh Shankar. Jainarainlal sat on the mat. The wife placed sleeping child by the side of his father. Shivavarta was out in the neighbourhood playing with his pals.
Gomati went down and took the meal for her husband up to the roof. Jainarainlal took his meals while his wife kept fanning him telling tit-bits of the antics of their son. After eating the tired teacher sprawled on the mat by the side of his sleeping son.
He slipped into the dreamland in no time with his arm on his son put protectively.
Meanwhile Gomti took her meals and after cleaning up the utensils went to the roof to lie down. She was carrying a piece of a sheet to spread on the floor.
The scene on the roof horrified her. A snake was slithering on the roof a little distance away from where her husband and son lay. For some moments she stood frozen. The snake that happened to be a cobra raised its hood and began to hiss. Its beady eyes were flashing ominous signals and its tongue darted out and in as a forked menace.
The cobra was planning an attack.
A chill went down the spine of Gomtidevi at the very thought of losing her husband and her darling child. The hooded death could kill her warm world.
Sometimes desperation triggers off an incredible courage. So it did in the case of the religious Gomti. Her mind flashed an idea and she unwrapped the head covering end of her save and tossed it towards the cobra in the fashion of a fisherman casting his net.
The saree fell on the cobra luckily to prove the point that the luck favoured the brave.
The confused cobra flip-flopped and got bundled up in the saree end. The lady seized the opportunity, grabbed the squirming bundle and hurled the cobra off the roof.
The reptile appeared in the air like a piece of twisting cable and then disappeared.
Gomti stood shivering in the post-act fright not believing at their own daring. Her mind was getting benumbed. Darkness spread before her eyes and her knees buckled.
Gomtidevi collapsed with a whimper on her husband.
Babu Jainarianlal woke up with a start. To his surprise he found his wife loaded on him and upper half of her saree lay spread around.
He muttered, “W…What! What happened, mother of Ganesh?” as he shook her up.
Gomti opened her eyes and looked around uncomprehendingly. Then suddenly the memory of the hissing cobra came back to her mind in a flash and she began to sob. The sobs soon turned into wailing.
She did not speak being too taken up with crying.
Jainarainlal was puzzled. He picked up the displaced part of her saree and put it over her shoulder as a comforting gesture.
Then, he spoke, “Look! The weeping won’t solve your problem. I don’t know what is making you cry. Tell me everything. There is nothing to be so worried over. What happened?’
Gomti tried to stifle her sobs bravely and revealed in mutilated sentence, “The cobra snake…coiled up all…you and Lulla near…dd died almost! All ready to strike…b…b…black cobra…big hood…Oi ma!”
The husband looked around slightly panicked. There was not trace of snake.
“So, there was a cobra here,” he remarked and added, “So?”
“So, so what? I almost died of fear.”
“Don’t worry. You are alive. Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“How? You were fast asleep alongside Lulla. And the cobra was hissing nearby. My movement could have…Oh God!” Gomati literally shivered.
The husband nodded his head understandingly. He could not help smiling. “You were worried it would bite Lulla, huh? I can understand. But dear woman, what happened to the murderous cobra? I don’t see it here. Did it take pity on us and helpfully decided to retreat?”
Gomti angrily protested, “It did not take pity. I gathered the devil in my saree and tossed it down on the back side.”
“What?” Babu Jainarianlal looked incredulously at his supposedly timid wife.
“Yes, I did that. You won’t believe it,” Gomti bellingerently insisted. She was telling an unlikely truth.
The husband stared at his wife.
He began to understand how desperately his wife wished to save her husband and the darling son. A mother or an Indian wife could wage a do-or-die battle to save the very basis of her existence. There was no doubting the commitment of his wife, to her child.
He looked at his wife with admiration.
Then, he patted her and made her recount the entire episode. She revealed how she netted the snake in her saree corner and bundled it away. It was amazing how a woman who would scream at the sight of a mouse could turn an amazon when it came to defend her brood. For a teacher it was a lesson of a practical life reality.
Gomtidevi picked up her child whom she used to call Lulla endearingly and kissed him charged with motherly affection. Little Ganesh could not understand the reason of his mother’s overdose of love to him.
Due to some reason Ganesha was not a healthy boy inspite of his mother’s extra care.
Gomti would feed him choice food items she could prepare. The kid specially loved Gujjia, a sweet item which the mother never denied him. It gave her great joy to see her darling enjoy the treat but it failed to fill up the skinny body of the kid.
The kid survived the poor health and continued to grow up on his family’s love and devotion. The true love for one another among the members of close knit family made up for all the physical and the material handicaps.
That is the basic strength of Indian families.
