Kaka: Damodar Madho Mutatkar (1894-1984)

Damodar Madho Mutatkar 1894-1984

History in our parts of the world has not been an advertisement for Kakas. But if ever there was a Kaka  with enough attributes  to neutralize all the villainous Kakas of history, it was this one.

Kaka was born in 1894 as the third son/ fourth child of five (daughter was no. 2) of Madhorao Mutatkar (Kakka), Reader to the DC, Mandla. He, and his brothers, studied up to Matriculation in Mandla. In 1916/17, their father Kakka retired and shifted to Sagar where Kakka’s elder brother Lakshmanrao (Mutthe Kakka) had a successful  legal practice. Anant Mutatkar (‘Anna’, technically our grandfather), the eldest of the 4 brothers was already married  (to Anandibai Baokar)and had a son, our father Vithal in 1915. The youngest of the brothers, Trimbak left for Kashipur  near Nainital in 1916/17 to join as a Drawing Master though he used to return every year  during school breaks.

 Kaka and his elder brother Gopal (Tatya) started a cottage level  Socks manufacturing unit in Sagar  some time around 1917. Trying times were round the corner though. If the H1N1 Influenza epidemic of 1918-20 was a global tragedy, killing some  5-8 Crore people, for the  small Mutatkar family in Sagar it was a catastrophe. It took away Anandibai Mutatkar (may have been 18) and her infant second son in 1918. A distraught Anantrao took sanyas, leaving the 3 year old Vithal in the care of his parents, Kakka and Tai, and younger brothers, basically Kaka.

In the wake of the Swadeshi andolan, the socks unit did well initially and enabled the 3 brothers to get married by 1923 before it started tapering off. In 1926, a double tragedy struck in Sagar. Lakshmanrao (Mutthe  Kakka) and Kakka both died within a couple of months of each other. Before his death, Kakka called his 3 sons and told them to look after Vithal well : ‘jitna padhna chahey padhao, ye ladka khandaan ka naam roshan karega, yahee hamari vasihat samajhna’.  He must have seen some spark in the 10-11 year old Vithal and Kaka took his father’s last wish as his command.

The period around 1926 must have been very trying for Mutatkars in Sagar. Mutthe Kakka had been a very successful Lawyer and his wife and children were otherwise well taken care of but Shankar (Dada) and Sadashiv were still young, (18/15 may be) and must have needed guidance from a family elder from time to time. Kakka’s family had also been left headless with the loss of the two senior men. And the socks business was collapsing. The situation cried out for leadership and found it in Kaka.

He closed down the socks business and found a job with  Brooke Bond Limited as a Salesman. He may have had limited education but spoke good English, was always well turned out and struck a rapport with all the English officers in the company.  Vithal was doing well in school and  Kaka’s promotion to Inspector and transfer to Indore in 1930 was a godsend for Vithal’s college education. Kaka’s salary at that time must have been quite modest, with which he was supporting his growing family (Leela  born in 1928, Kamal  in 1931 and Manohar  in 1935) along with looking after Vithal’s education.   Gopalrao’s (Tatya) eldest son Ram, born the same year as Leela, was also taken to Indore ‘tyani hutt dharla hota’.

Meanwhile, with his growing goodwill in the company, Kaka had also arranged a job in Brooke Bond in Sagar for his elder brother Tatya but that was to be an intermittent happening for around 15-20 years, often requiring intervention from Kaka.

In 1935 Kaka was transferred to Nagpur but a crisis loomed ahead.  If Vithal’s  education was to continue after B.A., Allahabad was the logical place but hostels were expensive. The reasonable course for any uncle in Kaka’s position at that point would have been to ask the nephew to take up a job, but no, Kaka’s commitment to his father’s last wishes was total and brooked no compromise. If maintaining Sagar / Nagpur in addition to Vithal’s Allahabad hostel living  was to be an issue, Kaka solved it by shifting his own family to Sagar---where  the incremental expense in a running household in a family owned house would be low—and he himself lived a frugal ‘bachelor’s life’ in Nagpur. There was no compromise in Vithal’s education needs which consumed, and this has never ceased to boggle my mind, 40% of Kaka’s salary! I may add that Kaka was a big Ramayana devotee (later in life I recall his keeping  his big green Tulsi Ramayana on a custom built wooden stand every Sunday morning and reading aloud a ‘kaand’ to some of us kids) and his actions in his role as a Son, as a Brother, as an Uncle reflect that. Kaka was free from any dogma though, don’t think he ever visited any temple of his free will, he had no interest whatsoever in rituals, puja-archa and the like.

Good times seemed to have arrived  for the family in Nagpur in late 30s (and mid-40s) with Vithal, or Bhaiyya as everyone called him, getting a Rs. 25 teaching job (after completing his M.A. from Allahabad) in a night college where he was doing his L.L.B.   It was possible now for the family to rent out the Annexe of Gharpure’s bunglow in Dhantoli for Rs. 25 and for Kaka’s family to move in from Sagar. After passing his Law exams  with flying colours,  Bhaiyya got a job with Hindustan Insurance Company, got married and Shashi was born in 1946. Then came a twist – some nepotism case in the company upset Bhaiyya.  In customary display of his guts, Kaka told Bhaiyya to leave his job and study some more(!!!), never fretting that he would have 3 more members to support on his Inspector’s salary.  That is how Bhaiyya came to do his FCII (London)--exams were held in India—and he was among the first Indians to have a proper Insurance qualification. By 1951,  problems cropped up in the larger family, the Sagar establishment was coming apart, the eldest son Ram was unwell and by 51 end Tatya with wife and the other 3 children had shifted to Nagpur with Kaka. Ram died in 1952 at the young age of 23.

After clearing his FCII  Exams , Bhaiyya  got a job  in ESIC, Delhi,  I was born in 1950, Sheela was born in 1952 but by 1956 it was clear that our mother’s health was indifferent and needed constant family support.  So we were all packed off to Nagpur.  For a child of 6 or 7 there was little to be unhappy about. Plenty of kakas and atyas to pamper one, the anticipation of opening Kaka’s tiffin carrier when he returned from a ‘daura’ (he used to travel 20-25 days in a month) to find goodies like Khawa Jilbi, or Chironji, or Chikoos looked like happy times.  Running a huge establishment of about 12-15 people from a small, rented place in Dhantoli must have been very daunting  but  I do not recall a crease on the brow of Kaka or Kaku ever. They were always cheerful and it was all done ever so gracefully, without the slightest hint of a condescending attitude towards what may be termed as pile-ons today.  It can hardly be over-stressed that Kaku was the key here, she was the centre around which the Nagpur universe revolved- her story needs to be told separately by me or someone else.

In 1958 Kaka built his house  at 19, Shankar Nagar around his retirement from Brooke Bond as Controller of Stores. There are more competent persons than me to talk of the Shankar Nagar days so I will leave it there. In 1963, Bhaiyya was transferred to Ahmedabad,  our mother joined him there but that was not to last. She passed away in ‘63, Kaka/ Kaku joined  us there and stayed with us  in Ahmedabad and later in Delhi till the very end.

Cut to 1980. I was then doing well in a private company in Mumbai , Bhaiyya had been diagnosed with Cancer and after a painful struggle in Delhi/ Mumbai for a year, passed away early morning on April 12^th. By that time, Bhaiyya had been the highest ranked UN Expert on  Social Security  in the world and had served in that capacity in different countries, validating Kakka’s bhavishya-vani.  But  Kaka  clearly had a huge role in making it happen. We were all of course totally shattered  by Bhaiyya’s death; Kaka Kaku both broke down for about 30-45 seconds and then the steel in Kaka came out. ‘Nahin Radhabai, ab rona band! Sambhalo apne aap ko, abhee Vithal ke bachchon ko hamari zaroorat hai’. He was 86, I was 29.

Kaka and Bhaiyya’s relationship was unique, the bond was easily stronger than most Father-Son’s could be. I spent more of my formative years with Kaka than with Bhaiyya and while both were strong influences, Kaka was the one whose clear values and uncomplicated approach to life have been ingrained deeply, not just in me but in a whole lot of us. ‘Family first’ ‘darna naheen’, ‘jo hota hai wo achche ke liye hota hai’, ‘hunda dena naheen, hunda lena naheen’’ mard aurat barabar’…the list is endless and hardly a day goes by when he is not remembered.

After the mourning period in 1980, Bhaiyya’s will was opened and the first sentence addressed to his legatees (his children) was to the effect that Kaka- Kaku were to be taken complete care of for their lifetimes. The instruction was unnecessary, as Bhaiyya  must have known. Kaka was puzzled for a moment and then wondered aloud: Vithal ko pata tha kya kee wo hamare pehle jaane waale hain?

Kaka died in 1984 in Delhi at the ripe old age of 90. In the terminal stages,  Kaku, Shanta Kaku (Late Tatya’s wife), Shashi, Sheela, Balendu Kher, Manya Kaka (Kaka’s son), Sujala Kaku waited on him tirelessly in the house that Bhaiyya had built in Saket  (I was only an intermittent visitor from Mumbai). He breathed his last, appropriately enough, on Ramnavmi, April 10, 1984.

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