Whether their children choose to settle abroad or move to other cities is immaterial to most of the grand old Maharshtrians of our city. Most of them told City Express that this city is their home and went on to explain exactly why they believe that.
When Indu Phadke came to Chennai in 1956, she was a young Maharashtrian woman who wanted to support her husband’s new business venture in the city. After having lived in Chennai for 57 years, she is now a consummate Tamil-Maharashtrian and proud mother of three children, who have excelled in varied fields. Phadke’s story is a leaf out of the lives of several generations of Maharashtrians who have made Chennai their home.
Phadke (now 77) one of the trustees of the Maharashtra Mandal, says, “When we settled in Chennai, we realised Chennai was a quiet and safe place to bring up children. We believed in giving absolute importance to education and got our children educated in the best institutions. A similar decision by most of us has ensured that the Maharashtrian community in Chennai is a well-educated lot.”
Most of the elders in the community want their children to get educated abroad and find a job there, though they have settled down in Chennai. “The idea of good education these days is incomplete without education abroad. So, at least one child in a family is sent to a foreign country or North India for education. I have lived here for more than 50 years. It is a modest ‘home away from home’. I live here with my younger son, while my elder son stays in the United States and my daughter stays in Bangalore. My grandchildren have also planned their careers outside Chennai, but I will continue to stay here,” she adds.
And there are those like Vinay Kumar Apte — who was born in Chennai and for whom the word home can only mean Chennai — despite being a Maharashtrian by birth. While Apte studied in a Tamil-medium school, he spoke Marathi at home. He says, “My father moved down to the South during the pre-Independence era. He was an active freedom fighter and made the city his base. And now for me and my children, this is home.”
Snehalata Datar (78), who came with her husband when he started a business venture in Chennai, says the older Maharashtrians prefer living in Chennai, to returning up North. Datar’s children too have settled elsewhere, but the city is her home. “We have a negligible participation by the youngsters in the Mandal’s activities and they are most often engaged with their work. They have little time to participate. It is the older people like me and others who have kept the Maharashtrian culture intact in the city through its activities,” she says.