The Aundh Connection

This is a long but fascinating story... I urge you to tolerate the meanderings of my mind.

So while mom was having her yoga lesson this morning, papa and I were sitting in the living room and chatting. He was telling me about how he first learnt about Surya Namaskar when he was about 12 years old. He learnt it from an instructor who had come to teach Yoga to the Maharaja of Tehri-Garhwal.

Now if you've been following these stories carefully, you might have picked up that my Great Grandfather Ghanshyam Das was a Judge in Agra. In the early 1930s my grandfather, Brijbhushan Das - a lawyer, gave up his practice in Agra and moved to Haldwani to become a farmer. Dad stayed with Ghanshyam Das in Agra to continue his studies. A few years into this, Ghanshyam Das started to travel to Tehri to advise the Maharajah. Dad spent a couple of years in Tehri as the guest of the Maharajah.

A delegation from Aundh had arrived at the palace in the Garhwal mountains, leaving behind the Marathi speaking Yoga instructor. The Raja of Aundh - Appasaheb Pant - had a passion for the Surya Namaskar and the Maharajah of Garhwal ensured that not only did he and his family learn how to perform it, but so did all the visitors and guests at his court, including papa who at that point knew nothing about Yoga, Marathi or Aundh.

Hmm.... I said.. wasn't there a movie or something, I said ?

"Ahh yes", he said. "You know I first learned about photography when I was in Tehri. I had never seen photographs before. But all these royals were constantly being photographed, and that is where I developed an interest in still photography and motion picture".

So all those pictures we have chronicling our lives -that is all thanks to the Maharajah of Tehri...

"But Aundh....?"

"Oh yes, years later when I came to Mumbai, I decided to acquire a motion picture projector to display his 16mm movies. He had traded his Rolliflex still camera for Raval kaka's (a neighbor in Nutan Nagar) 1600mm motion picture camera. Raval kaka was a professional photographer, and it is hard to understand what he was doing with the 1600mm camera in the first place, especially if he did not have a projector to display his movies.

Anyway, papa had been looking at the shops in Opera House. Nothing was fitting the budget that he and mom had carved out for this.

One day a shopkeeper told him about a used projector that his neighbor was disposing off. Address in hand, Papa tracked down the Nepali watchman who had been given the task of disposing off the equipment. The Nepali watchman had just sold it to a shopkeeper in Chor Bazaar. Papa followed the trail to Chor Bazaar and found the next shopkeeper. This fellow had bought it just to show his kids movies.

Papa bought the projector and all the movies the guy had for Rs 400, a princely sum that was almost equal to a month's salary. He loaded into the car and brought him - and that is how come every one of my birthdays from the time I is captured in Ektachrome color.

"But Aundh..?" "Oh yes, in the stack of movies I brought back from Chor Bazaar there were 3 or 4 in which I recognized the Maharajah of Aundh, whom I had met briefly at the palace in Garhwal. There was even one which showed Pandit Nehru arriving at the Aundh railway station and being greeted by a group of lejim players and then reviewing a group of people performing the Surya Namaskar. Appa Pant's passion for Surya Namaskars was very well known by then, and he himself was a public figure." This was in the late 1950s.

These movies sat in our home in Bandra alongside my birthday movies, and movies recording our trips to Haldwani and Nainital and movies of weddings of my uncles and aunts. Cos dad was quite the avid photographer back them, and our home was equipped with all kinds of audio-visual equipment.

Years went by the 16mm projector was traded in for 8mm and then Super 8 before succumbing to the Analog Video Camera and most recently the Digital Video camera. Meanwhile this set of movies sat there being dusted occasionally and people saying "What is that ?" And mom going "Do not ask, it is your fathers and he won't let me throw it out.".

In the late 80s, papa was spending a lot of time in Pune - his company did a lot of business in rural Maharashtra. One day, the cab driver asked him if he would like to go to Pimpri via Aundh. "Aundh ? As in the Maharaja of Aundh ?" "No no sir, that Maharajah lives in another place. Yes, I know that place. In fact I know the Maharajah. " "Oh ?" "Yes, I park my cab opposite his house. The Maharajah is an avid gardener, and he likes to work in the garden. So I've even talked to him sometimes."

So papa asked the cab driver to bring the Maharajah of Aundh aka Appasaheb Pant a letter describing the movies he had in his position and where he could be reached. Appasaheb called him almost immediately upon receiving the letter. Told him he wasn't aware of any such movies. They agreed that papa would bring them the next time he came to Pune.

Appasaheb was delighted with the movies. He called up papa and thanked him for restoring what he could only describe as a family treasure. Those old movies were so precious and irreplaceable. He was convinced that he and papa must have a connection from another lifetime. Papa and mommy got invited to several events featuring Appasaheb in Bombay. And Appasaheb gifted papa with a copy of every book that he had ever had published. And everyone felt very good.

And then everyone went back to the way things were, until this morning when we started talking about Surya Namaskars!!! So if you've ever been irritated with having to pose for a photo and wait for Uttam bhai to compose the right shot, or for papa to get the light just right - we know we have the Maharajah of Aundh to thank for that. Just as much as we do for all the beautiful photos and movies that have chronicled the lives of the Chokseys and the Shahs.  That dear people is the Aundh connection.