From my childhood I always wondered about my family history. Many questions like, who were our great grand parents and forefathers? what did they do for leaving? how was their life? from which part of India did they belong? Such were a huge bunch of questions which always boggled me from my childhood days. I don’t know how many people really do care about this kind of stuff, but for me knowing these facts gives more meaning to my life and my existence. Thus this made me to ask huge bunch of questions to my parents, relatives, senior members of family and finally was able to trace our family history up to 18th century approximately.
Ours is a Hindu Maratha Chitraghar family, specifically called as “Somavansha Arya Kshatriyas”. From ancient time this particular caste was always known for fine arts and metal work. The fine art includes making of Ganesh Idols, Gauri Idols and paintings. Metal work includes making metal horse shoes, metal rings for bullock cart wheels, etc. Our family fore fathers were originally from Solhapur (Maharashtra). During early or middle of 18th Century they migrated from Solhapur to northern part of Karnataka in search of better work and living. After touring some places they finally settled in Hubli. Before I go further, let me put my family tree,
Shri. Yellappa Jadhav ( born app 1820) migrated from Solhapur to Hubli (1850).Smt. Sitabai Jadhav
Shri. Ramchandrappa Jadhav (app 1850)
Smt. Hirubai Jadhav
Shri Tippanna Jadhav (1880-1941)
Smt. Putalabai
Shankarao Jadhav( 1920-1973)
Ambakka Jadhav
Ganpatrao Jadhav (1947)
Nirmala Jadhav
Deepak Jadhav (1982) Sundeep Jadhav(1987)
I was able to trace information about my forefather work and living up to 1880. Let me start with my dad’s grandfather Tippanna Jadhav (Early 1900). He did not had any formal school education as such but started his career in early age as a supervisor in a mechanical industry. The name of the company was GODKE INDUSTRIES. It was in Old Hubli. Later he moved to Diesel Engine Power house station. It was a private station named Amate and Company. He served for a period of approximately 10 years. During this time Hubli came under Bombay Board. After working for some good years, he left the job and started automobile workshop at backyard of his house in Kamripeth. Hubli during this time was very small. And Kamripeth was an important integral part of Hubli. Many Maratha and Pategars families resided in this area. Later his son Shankarao Jadhav i.e my dad’s father joined the MSEB (Mysore State Electricity Board) as maintenance engineer. His qualification was 8th standard. His father had engine maintenance workshop in the backyard of the house thus he gained good mechanical experience from his father. During this time, the Jog Fall Dam was not yet built and there was no hydro power station near by to supply the electricity; two big diesel engine generators of Mysore State Electricity Board which were located in Hubli supplied the electricity to the entire Hubli Dharwad houses. And Shankarao Jadhav was in charge of maintenance work of these two Diesel Engines Generators. These were two big mammoth engines operating 24/7 one after the other. MSEB had bough this engine from England.
After some years in our Kamripeth workshop, Tippanna Jadhav (my dad’s grandfather) bought an imported lathe machine form Bombay. The specialty of this lathe was that the chuck was rotated by a foot operated pedal, same like a sewing machine. On this lathe machine he carried out machining work, such as fine threading operation for camera lens cover, projector lens cover, small machined parts of wall clocks, and balance wheel for watches. The manufactured parts were supplied to Bombay market. During this time even HMT, Kirloskar had not yet developed lathes for such fine threading operation. Simultaneously in the workshop even he carried out the repair works of oil engines of rice mills, oil mills and cotton ginning factory. During 1950’s Hubli was known for good cotton ginning mills, rice mills and oil mills. These mills required diesel engines to supply the power. Repair work involved engine crank grinding. This was a special work done from hand. The crank was supported on a V bed rotated by hand. The grinding followed by polishing work of crank was done from a hand held grinding material along with polish paper. Dial gauges were used for measurements and the parts were accurately finished. Our workshop was the only one in entire dharwad region to do this kind of specialized work. Even pedestal gun metal bearings were manufactured in this workshop. Casting of metal was done to make the pedestal bearings. Cast ingots were converted into engine piston rings. Also cylinder head seat were machined with the same above pedestal lathe. Other repair works involved valve grinding and complete assembly/testing of the engine for the customers. Our customers involved oil factories, ginning mills, cinema theatre generators. During this time the job work was all hand made. All the lathes were turned on hand/leg operated pedal wheels. In the due course hot tube ignition engine were brought, which were run by waste crude oils such as kerosene. This engine was used to power another Manchester lathe (famous lathe of that time) which was bought from Calcutta. Now instead of peddling, power was supplied to lathe from the hot tube ignition engine. While narrating the story my father always takes a pride to make a statement about his grand father that Tippanna Jadhav drove a imported car from Calcutta to Gadag. Mr. Manavi a ginning factor owner from Gadag had bought the car and Tippanna Jadhav drove the car from Calcutta to Gadag. And it was the first imported car to be brought in dharwad region. Maximum speed of the car was 20 miles/hr.
The hot tube ignition engine which was used to power the lathe machine in the workshop was also used to generate AC power for entire streets in Kamripeth. He supplied the electricity for the neighboring streets in Kamripeth. During this time there was no good electric grid connectivity around this area. A small bulb was glowed in each house, somewhere around 20 to 25 bulbs were lit in the streets by this engine. May be this was the first time that people of this area received electricity. For all these service he did not charged single paise from the neighbours. And this was done in the late evening time when the workshop was closed. My dad says that during this time the streets were lighted with a kerosene lanterns hanging over a wooden pole. A municipality servant used to come everyday in the evening to light those kerosene lamps.
My Grand father, i.e my dad’s father Shankarao Jadhav, later took care of installation and maintenance work of diesel engines at various parts of Karnataka on behalf of Mysore State Electricity Board. Since the work shop was located right behind our house, my dad too received very good exposure to the mechanical industry right from his childhood. Later he did his schooling in polytechnic school and finished his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. By this time (1970 ) the Jadhav family was quite big in number. And these Jadhav’s were known in the entire dharwad region for their superior automobile engine repair work. My dad got married in 1979. My mom is from Ramdurgakar Family, another big maratha family originally from Bagalkot. And I was born in 1982. Even I was lucky enough to spend my childhood years in our Kamripeth house and work shop. I still remember my childhood days playing with the pistons and valves at the backyard workshop making my hands dirty with grease and oil. It was in the early 1990’s when the big Jadhav families started splitting from Kamripeth house. Suddenly the house started appearing small and slowly people started moving out. By that time my dad had applied for an industrial shed in the Gokul Road Industrial Area, finally he was allocated with Industrial Shed. Here in the new industry he continued the same old engine reconditioning work and simultaneously started manufacturing work. And that’s how my dad’s industry ONKAR INDUSTRIES was born. Now in this industry various parts of ball valves are manufactured and are supplied to Microfinish Ball Valves Limited. Even the engine recondition work is still done to keep our old traditional work alive. My dad’s brothers too have their own small manufacturing industries along with the same traditional work. The workshop and the house in Kamripeth no longer exist now. All the machines are moved out from the workshop. But still our great grand father’s foot operated lathe machine is kept in our uncle’s workshop for a static display. And the dial gauge which I mentioned above is with me:-)
Being born and brought up in such a family, it’s natural that I too was thrown open to mechanical gadgets from my childhood. And that’s how my interest and passion made me to opt Mechanical Engineering. And my brother too is completing his Automobile Engineering.
My forefathers were born; they played their role and are gone. Their work is highly appreciable given the amount of resource and knowledge these people had during that time. Slowly generation after generation memory fades out. The skilled work done by these people are forgotten. For others these people may mean nothing, but for me they are the benchmarks. Thus in their memory and as a token of respect, I write this blog to keep their work and name alive.
