Dharwadkar literally means from Dharwad. Dharwad is a city in the north Karnataka in India. That's where my ancestors came from almost 250 years ago. Later they migrated to Pune in Maharashtra. There they became the court astrologers for the then rulers, the Peshwas. I have been told that our surname initially was Joshi (which is a colloquial usage for Jyotishi, meaning astrologer). But the Peshwas started calling my ancestors as Dharwadkar as they came from Dharwad and so the name stuck. Who's going to challenge the ruler? Right?.

Anyway, skipping generations and years to come to my grandfather, he was the third of four siblings born to Vyankatesh and Saraswati (My great grandparents). Three sons and one sister. Born in 1916 he was named as Mukund. Later he became a doctor (LCPS - Licentiate College of Physicians & Surgeons) from Bombay (now called as Mumbai) and joined government service to serve the country's poor. He was married to Sindhu Jambhekar - later named as Mrs. Kunda Mukund Dharwadkar and they had 4 sons out of which 3 survived. They were named Arun, (Late) Pramod and Mangalmurthy (shortened to Mangal).

Arun, the eldest one, then married Shobhana and they had 3 children, Kalpana (later renamed as Supriya Bhat after marriage), Anand and Mukul (that's me here). So I am the youngest son of the eldest son of the third son of Vyankatesh and Saraswati. But we digress. So my grandfather was posted in Shevgaon as a government doctor. Later on, post independence, he resigned his post and moved on to Aurangabad for his children's education as Aurangabad had better facilities and educational infrastructure. There he started his private practice and hospital. He was a very skilled and sympathetic doctor who soon grew to fame and was liked by all (Even now, 15 years after his death, people still recognise us as the descendants of Dr. Dharwadkar).

To be continued...