Baya alias Anandibai Karve: The Incredible Journey Everyone Needs To Know - I

Baya was the second wife of Maharshi Karve who was addressed with respect as Anna. After the death of his first wife, Anna decided to marry a widow, Baya, who was his friend's sister. She was almost 27-28 years old by the time they married. He didn't not want to marry a young girl though it was a quite accepted convention then. They had to face a strong reaction and resistance from society, but none of them blamed society, rather Anna devoted the rest of his life to women's education and Baya was one of the pillars of strength who offered a silent but wholehearted support to his work.

Around 1939 Baya met with an accident, she fell out of the car, which restricted her movements and activities. She was a woman of deeds, a Karma Yogini, who was a detached performer of actions. For a person like her, it was a tough phase of life. She was in a way confined to her bed, as a result, she found this writing as an activity to keep her engaged and found some solace in it. She started writing about her life starting from childhood, this occupied her to a great extent.

When her daughter-in-law, Kaveri Tai Karve read it, she thought that her life sketch was not as simple as it appears.
Her life principles were reflected throughout her writing. In her writing, many would find a guide or a mentor. Of course,  she wrote as she could remember, her age played a little mischief, some threads were missing and the writing needed a little editing. Kaveri Tai worked on it and presented it in the form of a book, she did not change the style. Baya's expressions are old-fashioned, simple, not so decorative or flashy, but the convey her thoughts with great clarity.

Kaveri Tai thinks, that working continuously, commitment to her principles, feeling of excessive concern for human beings, and love and affection for all, were the life values of Baya. She helped many orphans who had no one to get support from and to depend upon. She nursed the children with serious infections very carefully whom hardly anyone would think of. Baya was a trained nurse, she felt they too had the right to care.

She helped many orphans as she thought they too were a part of our society and also the future of our society, they should be able to contribute to society as per their ability. So nurturing them, helping them to develop was certainly the duty of the society, she thought.

When the second edition of ' Maze Puran ' was to be published, Kaveri Tai read a few things to Baya and tried to add a few necessary details. The book unfolds her life story her times and her thoughts on many points. Many well-known people wrote the memoirs then, so Baya thought,if she wrote about some incidents of her life, they might be interesting to read for many. Thus, she started writing about her life.

She noted that her maternal grandfather married a young girl of probably eight years as the children from his first marriage did not survive. He was 50 years old then, but it was an accepted norm then, as girls were married at a very young age, so finding a mature unmarried girl was almost impossible then (widow remarriage was out of consideration then). This she wrote was the situation some 150 years ago then, as a child saw such marriages. ( the book was first published in 1944, and she recorded the facts of her life very honestly in her memoir) The second wife of her maternal grandfather gave birth to 7 children,4 boys and 3 girls. Baya's father was the eldest of them. When he was hardly 18 when he lost his father, their home was gutted by fire when the animal feed caught fire accidentally. Her grandfather's father could not stand the disaster. Thus Baya's father had to shoulder the responsibility of the entire family at a very young age. His mother had just delivered her last child.

Baya's mother too gave birth to 11 children, out of them only 3 boys and 4 girls survived, and the remaining children died very young. Her father had a small piece of land, he used to perform some religious rites for the families around, except the religious rites performed after death. He was a balanced person, her mother was very efficient and looked after the household work which really required great physical energy then.
Baya and her younger sister contracted smallpox, but Baya survived.

Her description of the situation of her childhood surprises readers when one reads that sugar was very scarce then, any home would have a very small quantity of sugar to be used as a medicine or for Pooja.( rather for Panchamrut ) Homes were built using porous rock, no cement, hardly any lime. Baya belonged to a small village Devrukh, Ratnagiri district, from the Konkan region.

Children, especially girls had to help in the household work, and playing with their peers was barely possible,rather her mother could not afford it, as she was the only one to carry the entire work. Women had a lot of physical work as their daily routine.

Baya's first marriage

Her elder sister was married into the Bhave family. Her husband was an officer in Railways, she brought a marriage proposal for Baya. Shri Natu who was her neighbour, lost his first wife who was Baya's cousin. He was 20 then, had completed his graduation and Baya had reached the age of marriage. ( She was 8 then, girls used to be married around the same age, so if one had to marry a second time, it was not possible to get a mature girl. ) When on his way to the Varanasi pilgrimage, her father met Baya's elder sister, she talked to him about Shri Natu. Baya's father found the proposal good, and he accepted it. Natus belonged to the nearby village of Makhjan, the family had a better financial background too. Baya was married into the Natu family. She shifted to Makhjan Village.

Along with her story, Baya noted many points about the social and religious traditions that existed then. The book does not tell just her story, but it makes us aware of the vast social change and progress of our society. It approximately took 230 years to reach the present stage. History has to carefully analyze the changes and identify the people who invested their entire lives to help us reach the present state.