Cool ancestry.

Family tales. So cool: Found out today, that my grandfather, who died in a very early stage of my childhood, was a pretty cool person. Never knew him much, but he was this guy who did a load of things, but mostly lived of his inheritance. His various jobs included, amongst other things, designing the currency notes for out country, camerawork for Satyajit Ray (a film-maker, and a friend from Shank) and even tried a stint at becoming a magician with the Shadowgrapher, Mr. Prasanna Rao, another friend from Shantiniketan. He was also a managing trustee of Shantiniketan. So proud of him right now. I want to totally grow up and become like him…
His passion was photography too (the too, implies that the other guy is me). Even my father likes photography. He used to weave bags made out of only cloth. Will post pictures of it later. Mebbe tomorrow. He used a sewing machine extensively, and made loads of small pouches that my mother uses. Cool guy. His father, my great-grand father, also has a weird story. Can write a proper book out of it all, if I find out the details. Have to do it soon, or they will be lost. My great-grandfather was an only child to an only child, and there were twelve cousins who would have gotten a property as big as Thane if the my great-grandfather would be out of the way. So they tried to poison him and my great-great-grandfather, and both of them survived. Disgusted with it all, my great-grandfather and his father left the household, leaving everything behind. My great-grandfather ran away from home, and set out to become a Sanyasi. He was stopped from doing this by his father. There was this girl, my great-grandmother, who too had a large inheritance, it wouldn’t go to the family if she didn’t marry and had an heir. So My great-grandfather was married to her, immediately after which, he ran away and became the Sanyasi anyway. In those times, becoming a widow was a huge thing, and called for almost social isolation. Fortunately we were a broad-minded family, and she began to hold poojas waiting for her husband’s return. There was a massive manhunt, and he was eventually traced… five years later. He was told about his duties to his wife, and he returned home. My great-grandmother died one month after the birth of my grandfather. As my great-grandfather could not take care properly of my grandfather alone, he was put into Shantiniketan, and left there. My great-grandfather, meanwhile, became a principal for a school, and more or less settled down. My great-grandfather’s name was Kupuswamy, and my grandfather’s name was Muthuswamy. I don’t have a family tree on this side… or rather a very limited one, because my grandfather had only three children. Ah well. There is also some prediction that the male line will end with my children. Again, ah well…
There is an interesting story about grandparents on the other side too, great-grandparents on that side died in the plague of 1892. Was talking with my mother about native places. Strictly speaking, we hail from Madanapalle, which is my surname. A small town on the border of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. On the other side, our native place is Batadpur (meaning village on a mountain). Descendants of my great-great-great grandparents apparently STILL live there in the SAME ancestral house. Simply HAVE to visit that house. My grand-aunt, visits them sometimes, and I might go there with her… will blog how it goes.