Ashok Gowariker

Ashok Gowariker was born on 20th September 1935 at Karad, District Satara in Maharashtra. His father was Ranchhod Hari Gowariker who was working in P.W.D. as an Engineer, a department of the then Govt. of Bombay Province, in British India. Ashok’s mother was Narmada Ranchhod Gowariker.

In the year of his birth, 1935, Ashok’s father retired from the Govt. Service and shifted to Kolhapur. Ashok had four brothers and five sisters. All the five sisters were elder to him. He was ninth among the siblings.

Ashok’s eldest sister's name was Saalu AKA Sarojini. All the siblings called her Mai. No. 2 was Maina. These two names of these sisters were kept as a pair of "SAALU-MAINA" (names of birds). The third sister was Shanta, then Tara and the fifth was Kamal. The eldest brother being Gajanan, then Shankar, third was Vasant, Ashok was the fourth and the youngest among the siblings was Milan.

When Milan was born, the marriage of the eldest sister Mai (Sarojini) was fixed with Moreshwar Ganesh Talwalker. And therefore, Dada (Ranchhod — everyone at home called him “Dada”, while people used to refer to him as "Rausaheb") named the newborn child as "Milan".

Maina (sister no. 2) was born in 1919, got paralysis when she was only two years of age. It was not polio, but the whole body was affected. In those days, almost a hundred years ago, the then doctors advised a mercy killing rather than keeping her in this condition. There was no medicine. But Dada rejected the advice and went on to study Homoeopathy through books and gave her treatment. After a few years, she recovered 70% and from the age of 10, she became self-dependent and was a good help around the house and learnt cooking. However, there was a permanent limp in her walk, and hence marriage eluded her.

At the age of five, Ashok joined a Marathi school named Harihar Vidyalaya. For one year (in 1944) he studied in Shahu Dayanand Free School (SDF) and then joined Vidyapeeth High School. He passed his S.S.C. in 1952.

After that Ashok joined Gokhale College, which was a morning college. Rest of the day, he was helping in the family business, the Gowariker Lucky Photo Studio - a still photographic studio - helping his eldest brother, Gajanan.

In 1945, Ashok lost his father due to a heart problem, and ten years later, in 1955 he lost his mother, after a brief illness. A couple of days before Dada passed away in 1945, Gajanan who was only 16 years old had passed his Matric Exam (S.S.C.) on 4th June. Dada was incredibly happy and excited, and distributed sweets to all, though he was not well, and bed ridden. And unfortunately, he passed away on 6th June 1945.

When Ashok’s mother passed away on Diwali Padwa day in 1955, he went to stay at Jalgaon, where his third sister, Shanta was staying with her husband, Sadashiv Kulkarni, a District Collector. Ashok then joined the second term of Jr. BA with Economics — Politics in Mulji Jetha College, Jalgaon. And after that term, he joined Sir Parashuram Bhau College (S.P. College) Pune for Sr. BA. He was there for six months and then came to Kolhapur and joined Gokhale College again for the 2nd term of Sr. BA. All this running around was more due to paucity of funds and financial crisis at home. The Studio was in a bad shape. The import of Photographic material was drastically reduced, and it was exceedingly difficult to run the studio.

Ashok started looking for a job. He read an advertisement in the local paper about the requirement of Police Sub Inspectors. He applied for it, got selected in two interviews and joined the Nasik Police Academy (known as Police Training School in those days) on the 1st of January 1959. It was a course of 18 months with examinations every month, the result of which was considered at the time of final exam. His batch was of 160 Cadets divided in three platoons. Ashok stood 1st throughout all the exams, and in the final exam, he was the winner of the "Sword of Honour" and a "Cross Belt".

It was the end of May 1960, and Ashok came to Kolhapur on a month’s holiday. He was very much interested in getting his official appointment in Kolhapur, which was rejected, since it was his hometown. Ashok’s second choice was Sangli or Satara or maybe Ratnagiri which places were close to Kolhapur. But in that year, the I.G.P. took a decision that the cadet — officers who were ranking first 24 in the merit list should be appointed in Bombay, since it was an international city. Though Ashok was top in the merit list, his English was bad. A conversation in English was a difficult task. So, he concentrated on it, studied it and within a year's time, he became conversant in it.

Ashok’s first posting on 1st July 1960, was at Bandra Police Station on probation under Inspector Santan Peter Mathias D'Souza and Dy. Inspector Norbert D'Souza. Insp. Pinto was his superintendent (which designation changed to Asst. Com. of Police in late sixties). These 3 bosses of Ashok took a fancy for him and taught him all the workings of a Police Station. How to write an F.I.R., how to write a Charge sheet, how to make diary entries etc. Insp. S.P.M. D'Souza gave him sharing accommodation with two other cadet officers, in a neighbouring bungalow where he was living, opposite Bhabha Hospital, in Bandra. After about 2 months they were shifted to the ground floor of another bungalow, behind "Coin Tea" on Station Road, near S.V. Road and Linking Road signal. Ashok stayed there for about a year.

For a few months, Ashok’s elder brother, Shankar stayed with him, when he was working in T.I.F.R. (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) at Gateway of India. Shankar’s immediate boss was Dr. Raja Ramanna (Eminent Scientist), and the top boss was Dr. Homi Bhabha. Later on, Shankar got a Govt. accommodation and he shifted there.

While staying in this bungalow behind Coin Tea (belonging to one Mr. Samant), Ashok came to know that there was another Govt. accommodation for the Police Dept. in cine actress Kumkum's Bungalow on 16th Road, Bandra. It was getting vacated by an officer named Pathak who was transferred, on promotion. Police Station officers were reluctant to go there, as it was more than a mile away from the Police Station, at a remote place at the foot of Pali Hill, surrounded by paddy fields and buffalo stables. Ashok immediately requested Insp. D'Souza that he was ready to occupy it - since he was a bachelor, he did not bother about these inconveniences.

Ashok got those quarters in the beginning of 1962. It was on the first floor of the bungalow, and the landlady Kumkum was staying on the ground floor. There was another flat on the ground floor occupied by another actress Ms. Sarita Chatterjee. All these three flats were of the size of 690 sq. ft. each. Bandra then was a predominantly Christian area, which helped Ashok practice his English.

A year later, Ashok got married to Kishori Dhawale (from the erstwhile publishing house Keshav Bhikaji Dhawale). They have two children – Ashutosh Gowariker and Ashlesha Gowariker.

Ashok Gowariker lives with his family in the same house to this day.

Ashok Gowariker Biography

This article "Ashok Gowariker" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Ashok Gowariker. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---