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Bhausaheb Topiwala a great Mumbaikar


Bhausaheb Topiwala a great Mumbaikar
'Life is the gift of nature; but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom',  These words are very much applicable to Bhausaheb Topiwala.
Topiwala Lane, Topiwala Theatre, Topiwala National Medical College, Topiwala College are the well known locations of Mumbai and residents  of Mumbai  especially from  Goregaon , Mulund , Mumbai Central and Girgaon are familiar with this names without knowing  this personality and thought either he was Zoroastrian or Gujarati  business man. But he was Maharastrian and his name was Anant Shivaji Desai popularly known as Bhausaheb Topiwala. 

From Yogesh Gogwekar

 Anant Shivaji Desai born on 17th October 1853 in Walawal, Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, India. in Saraswat Brahmin Family. Desai could not complete his academic education after 3rd Standard due to poor financial condition of his family. Therefore, he came to Mumbai in search of the job. In Mumbai, he had done physical work and tried to do much business. He started working as publisher and crucially established himself as the sole agent for Raja Ravi Varma lithographs but his business of manufacturing headgears known as Topis in Marathi gave him excellent financial benefits and he was known to everyone with nickname BHAUSAHEB TOPIWALA. Besides his business of topis, Anant Shivaji Desai dealt in silver, copper and brass kitchen implements.

He has done lot of social work which includes more in Education area. Since he could not complete his education, he started many schools and Colleges, libraries with the intentions to develop various thoughts of young and energetic generation to build the strong expertise society. One of them is Anant Shivaji Desai Topiwala High School at Malvan, now called after his nickname as Topiwala High School which was founded in 1911. Many roads, schools, college, libraries and other institutes are named after him.. For his notable  work towards the society, British Empire in India honoured him with the title of "Raobahadur". Due to his contribution in developing various educational institutes , his name was proposed for cricket’s Ranjit Trophy in 1934 but Ranjit Sing died around then and his name has been decided to commemorate the championship by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. This is unfortunate for a man who taught us how conscience can get married with commerce. 
Mahim,Mumbai
28/06/2019.
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