1. Parasnis Family

 

It was the day of Holi , the festival of colours, the year 1951. Holi, widely celebrated throughout the subcontinent celebrates the beginning of Spring. it iss identified as a festival that celebrated agriculture, commemorated good spring harvests and the fertile land. It also marks an occasion to reset and renew ruptured relationships, end conflicts and rid themselves of accumulated emotional impurities from the past. Like Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali, Holi is also celebrated in Maharashtra with great enthusiasm.

The Parasnis mansion in Satara a famed city of Maharashtra near the confluence of the river Krishna and its tributary, the river Venna was, teeming with people enjoying the festivities with a host of visitors playing colours and exchanging sweets.

Rao bahadur Dattatray Balwant Parasnis, whose mansion we are talking about , was born on 27 November 1870 in a traditional middle-class Deshastha Brahmin family. He was and continues to remain as the most authentic historial of maratta empire. In 1894, he published an authoritative biography of Maharani Jhansi Lakshmibai titled  “Maharani Laxmibaisaheb Yanche Charitra”. His book was based on interviews with Dhanodar Rao, adopted son of Rani Lakshmibai, who was still alive then. Between  1918-1925, along with Charles Augustus Kincaid, he co-authored in three volumes, A History of the Maratha people. His Poona in Bygone Times was published in 1921. 1913, he was honoured with the title Rao Bahadur in recognition of his scholarship by the British Government. Widely travelled in India and Europe, he built a huge mansion in Satara and raised a buig family. He had seven children five sons and two daughters , namely Amritrao Dattatray Parasnis , Pandurang Dattatray Parasnis, Shrikrishna Dattatray Parasnis, Raghunath Dattatray Parasnis, Govind Dattatray Parasnis, Krishnabai Kumathekar, Champutai Raghunath Deshapande. He had a vast collection of works of art and other artifacts which he donated to the museums in Maharashtra. The Salar Jung Museum at Hyderabad  also has some his collections . The then Government of Bombay granted him a  lifelong pension of two hundred rupees a month in recognition of his contribution to the museums!

After his death in 1926, the joint family did not hold together. Our point of interest is his last son, Govind Dattareya Parasnis. A flamboyant young man, Govind , fritted away his portion of his properly in business ventures like financing Marathi movies, running a Cinema  theater , running a taxi service etc and within a matter of a decade , he lost almost everything. He was married and ahad a son.   

 While the Parasnis mansion was happily celebrating the Holi festivities, Malati was in labour and gave birth to a female child on 13 March 1951. They decided to name her Ranjana after a famous yester year hero of Bollywood fame Ranjan! A film starred by him was perhaps running in the theatre managed by Govind! 

Within a couple of years after Ranjana was born, he ran into loss both in his taxi business and theater venture. The only income was his share of the pension given by the Government of Maharashtra which amounted to paltry forty rupees per month! He was averse to take  work under others Having run the taxi  service, he had gained sufficient knowledge of the working of the Regional Transport office for obtaining registration of vehicles,  getting sanction for commercial vehicles, obtaining  driving license etc. He started working as an agent for obtaining these for customers for a fee. 

Ranjana was enrolled in a government school and Malati got enrolled to become a nurse.  She got a job in the government maternity home at Satara .  She was transferred to Alandi Devachi Government maternity Home as matron. By now Ranjana had finished her schooling and having no financial backing for higher studies, he enrolled as a trainee nurse at Sassoon hospital in Pune. Finding the environment not to her liking ,she quit and joined as an assistant to a clinic of Dr. SV Karandikar at Pune. Dr. Karnandikar was a Short Service officer in the Army medical corps and quit the Army Service at the end of five years.

Acharya Yoganand alias Dr. S. V. Karandikar is a medical graduate from the University of Pune. He, after passing out M.B.B.S. joined the Indian Army in the Medical Corps In 1962.In the year 1966 he started working in the city of Pune as a family physician. He continued this work till 1996. He had undergone extensive training in the 'Science of Yoga' from 1978 to 1993. His guru Padmabhushan Yogacharya BKS Iyengar inspired him to start Yoga therapy project at Kabir Baug Sanstha in 1989.Presently he is the director of 'Sun-Jeevan' Yoga Therapy project at Kabir baug. His relentless dedication, sincere efforts to blend his knowledge of the Modern Medical Science with the traditional Science of Yoga for the last twenty years has emerged fruitful Sun-Jeevan Yoga therapy project has acquired name and fame, not only all over the state of Maharashtra but all over India and abroad. (http://www.kabirbaug.org/about%20acharya.html)

When I was posted in HQ Southern command in the rank of captain, I was looking after the functions of Rajendra Sinhji Institute at Pune and here is where I met the doctor during a social get-together. I met Ranjana in his clinic and we became friends. This was 1975.

Rao Bahadur  Dattatray Balwant Parasnis  

Parasnis authored biographies of Bramhendra Swami, Rani's Laxmi Bai of Jhansi and Baija Bai of Gwalior and works on the Mahrattas and the Nawabs of Oudh. His book “History of Maratha Empire” is a standard text book .

Dr.S. V. Karandikar(Acharya Yoganand)

http://www.kabirbaug.org/images/acharya.png