* LATE JAYENDRA M. DAVE
Jayendra Motishanker Dave, son of Ratnpriyagauri & Motishanker Lalshanker Dave the Chief Police Superintendent of Khambat State, was born at Khambhat in December, 1898 at their official residence Green Bunglow. This bunglow at present is a Govt Guest House.
After studying in school at Khambhat and Surat he studied at Wilson college Mumbai and got B.A. degree in 1919. He was first married to Manjulaben, daughter of Pathakji family and sister of Shri Mangeshrao Pathakji. After delivering a son, Dharmendra in 1924, she expired. Jayendrabhai got remarried sometime in 1928 to Vidyambaraben later named as Mrudula, sister of Gajendrashanker & Dinendrashanker Pandya.
After working as a school teacher for a short time at Surat, with advise, guidance and encouragement of his maternal uncle Rao Bahadur Pandyaji, for whom he had very high regard and whom he believed most, migrated to Mumbai and joined Govt service in Public Works Dept in Govt. an assistant. After serving for about 30 years he retired in December 1953 from service as Senior Assistant Secretary to Govt, the same post that Rao Bahadur Pandyaji also had reached and had retired from same department. This post is presently named Deputy Secretary of a department.
During service he had hard and difficult periods many times as his top bosses were British officers and that the World War II, 1939-1945 and also independence movement both were in full swing. He was also assigned duties to work as supervisor in A R P, Additional Reserve Police to handle situations during the 1942 Quit India movement. Unwillingly but he performed the duties as were given without any hard actions on public.
He had a high regard and helped all gujarati engineers and officers in department and in Govt. service. Soon after retirement, he bought a house in Nagar Falia, at Surat. This house in past was a school run by Vanita Vishram. He initiated the proposal to renovate the Caste vadi at Amliran to Dinendrashanker the trustee, who accepted the proposal and took up the matter in hand, collected the funds and completed the job in 3-4 years.
In Mumbai he had moved to Tara Baug Estate near Charni Road in 1940. Here as president he actively organised cultural activities during Navaratri festivals. On one occasion he jointly, with caste companions Kaushik Pandit and Surendra Trivedi who were also staying there performed a humorous skit, extempore for about 30-40 minutes on stage that sent the audience roaring with laughter. In this act he was fully dressed as a Parsi, Kaushik Pandit as Vohraji and Surendra Trivedi as a Maharashtrian. On another occasion with his personal contacts he invited well known playback singer Mukesh, who visited his residence and sang few songs, before giving a two hour program on stage. He also participated in the activities of Samast Vadnagara Nagar Samaj at Mumbai and was also a committee member of the Samaj.
He had a wish to visit USA where his two Dr Kiran an orthopaedic surgeon and Kush were settled. However before he could fulfil this wish, he died at V.S.Hospital at Ahmedabad on 9th April 1973 as he suffered from bronchiostresses, a lung problem. He was survived by his wife Mrudula and children, Dharmedra married to Ajita, Kunta married to Bakulchandra, Bhupesh married to Jwala, Prabhuta married to Prakashchandra, Dr Kiran married to Dr Arvinda and Kush to Rekha. His wish to see his son as a senior engineer in PWD was fulfilled when Bhupesh became Executive Engineer in 1965.
