Jal Naroji and Malti Bai story

Jal had one other passion at that time, he was deeply in love with a young and very charming Maharashtrian lady, named Malti Paranjape, known to everybody as Malti Bai. Malti Bai’s family belonged to a region known as western Maharashtra, strangely enough on the eastern side of the Sahydari mountains. They were actually residents of the Kolhapur state and moved into Bombay in the early part of the twentieth centruy in search of good jobs. Jal Naroji himself was one of the most eligible bachelors in Bombay, well built and very handsome. He had been a Cambridge Blue at tennis. He was from a very wealthy family. Malti Bai’s family belonged to the very highest caste of Brahmins and she moved about in the highest social circles of Bombay where the two got to know each other. So what was the problem about their getting married? At that time a Parsi marrying outside the community was unheard of. Equally unheard was a high caste Brahmin girl marrying someone from a different caste. To make matters more difficult was the fact that Malti Bai had been married earlier to someone from a princely family who had declared to her on their first evening together that he had taken a vow of celebacy and that their marrige was not going to be a marriage in the true sense at all. He was generous enough to propose to Malti Bai that if she asks for a divorce he would grant it at once, and he lived upto his promise. And in compensation also transfered a very considerable sum of his wealth to Malti Bai. Well to do as she was as a result of this, marrige to a divorce was again something that had never happened in Maharashtra. Except in one or two cases where the woman was considered a revolutionary. Both Jal and Malti were determined to break these social barriers and this was another matter on which Jal consulted his friend Jabir who was completely in favour of mixed marriages and had known the Paranjape family for some years. Finally, the couple managed to overcome all opposition and were married in the middle of 1936. Jal had plans to build a Farm house on his property in Deonar where the couple could live in peace rather far from the madding crowd. Alas their dreams were never fulfilled. The foundations of the house had just been made when Jal felt seriously ill. It was discovered that he had a tumor in the abdominal region which required immediate surgery. Jal never recovered from the surgery and infact died soon after it was performed. Malti Bai’s life was once more in shambles. It must be said to her great credit that after consultations with Jabir she decided to carry on with the farm at Deonar, to try and put Jal’s dreams into effect and Jabir promised as much support as possible.

Although the huge funds which Jal could have provided were no longer available, but what Malti Bai had was enough to develop the property on a more modest scale and work continued on laying irrigation lines, terracing hilly areas and planting a variety of trees and crops on the farm. Four years later the Deonar farm had already acquired a reputation for producing fruits of the highest qualtiy which included chikoos, papayas, pineapples, and mangoes and a few other exoctic fruits and vegetables of many varieties not commonly available — Bell Pepers, Lettyce, Celery. The Deonar farm continued to produce quality stuff on its lands for a period of over 50 years. Jabir Ali had himself passaway in 1975 but Malti Bai bravely carried on following the methods that he had initiated and producing fruits and vegetables and flowers of excellent quality almost until the end of her life. She passed away in the 1990s and she was over 90 years of age then.