Heard a most delightful ancedote this morning on how Ideal Jawa, the Made-in-Mysore motorcycle that became famous across the country as Yezdi, may have come to be called Ideal Jawa.
Apparently, the founder of the company, Faroukh Irani, was very close to Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar. The Maharaja may even have helped with some seed money to help it take off. As a mark of gratitude, if not reverence, Irani, the source said, called the company Jawa, Ja coming from Jayachamaraja and Wa coming from Wadiyar.
As Phillip Knightley says in his memoirs, A Hack’s Progress, interesting if true. I had an uncle who would often claim Lido theatre was a contraction of Lingaiah and Doddaiah. That, sadly, turned to be untrue and therefore less interesting.
Unlike in Lido’s case, there appears to be some truth about Ja-wa. I would like to add that Jayachamaraja Wodeyar had conferred Rajaseva Pramukh title on F.K.Irani. Mr. Farooq was also regularly attending the Dasara Durbar in his traditional Parsee dress and Topee.
I understand R.K.Narayan’s-Malgudi – is’n’t really fictitious, nor it is supposed to be Mysore.RKN got MALGUDI frm Malleswaram and Basavanagudi – Mal Gudi! These were and still are, very good localities of old Bangalore.
Isn’t it ironical that Ideal jawa’s land is being converted in to a Residential colony ?
Going back to Gouri Satya;s comment about the Parsees in Mysore Durbar, there was another Parsee who was quite regular. It was Ace cricketer Shafi Darashah. He also worked at Jawa and stayed at one of the Palace Bungalow on Lalitha Mahal Road. When the factory packed up the PF/ESI authorities filed a case against the Directors of the company and all other Directors escaped but Srikanta Datta’s office received the summons and promptly forgot about the summons as Dasara was round the corner. The Mysore Court was very pleased to issue NBW! SDW lost the case in SC as the Apex court blindly relied on a dead man’s signed memo that SDW as one of the responsible Directors! Yes the dead man was the loyal courtier Shafi Darashah! Stupidity of law and SDW for being a promoter’s son and director had to face the ignominy of presenting himself in a Mysore Court under NBW !
You are right Mr. Jeevarathna, Safi Darasha was another well-known Parsi in Mysore. He was the Deputy Commissioner, Private Secretary to Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar and retired as Divisional Commissioner of Mysore, later to become the Administrative Officer of Ideal Jawa under F.K.Irani. He was an ace cricketer and horse owner and loved sports.
If James Bond and Bruce Lee make a movie together, We can call it Bondlee……… (Kanndada baandli !!!!!!!!!!!)
Did not want to make this less interesting , but Ideal Jawa bikes are made in colloboration with Czechoslovakian motorcycles JAWA. The name JAWA originated from Frantisek JAnecek making WAnderer motorcycles.More details are here – http://www.cybermotorcycle.com/euro/brands/jawa.htm.
Yes ,Nataraj . I read this and it is very much true. The name ‘JAWA’ has got nothing to do with the late wadiyer .
Infact the design of the early JAWA 250CC is a direct design of the Czech mobike and the ideal Jawa had a colloboration on the technology with a Czech group .
I was a proud owner of a Yezdi Roadking 350CC until 2002 .
Prakash,
I too was a proud owner of a RoadKing until I left Mysore.
It was so much fun to ride that bike and absolutely loved the
sound it made without the muffler. It’s sad that Road Kings are not
made anymore.
hi
I was a proud owner of a yezdi 3350 till last year and still have a yezdi roadking.I am from the yezdi town also knowna s Mysore would like to point out here that the name jawa really had nothing to do with that of jayachamarajendra wadiyar and was and is a company in the slovakian and czech republics the name originated from concatenating the first letters of Janeček and Wanderer and was in 1929.
I think this story has gone around deceiving people enough…
I’am a Mysorean who feels proudly for the royal heritage of my city and have the at most respect for the Maharajas of Mysore.. and also a owner of many Jawa & Yezdi Motorcycles…
However, People should be aware the the name JAWA has nothing to do with the royal family..
Jawa is a motorcycle manufacturer from Czechoslovakia. The name was created after its founder, Frantisek Janeček, who bought the motorcycle division of Wanderer motorcycles in 1929 by concatenating the first letters of Janeček and Wanderer. Hence JA+WA = JAWA