Managing Committee, Mathur Association Bombay takes great pleasure in presenting the “Golden Jubilee Edition” (“50th Anniversary Year, 2020) of its member’s Directory. Its production was held up for the last two years due to Covid-19 restrictions and therefore it is being produced now in year 2023, updated till June, 2023.
Like any other institution, Mathur Association Bombay (MAB) too has its own history of about 80 years, going back to the 1930s. It is believed that it was in years 1934-35 when Mathurs started arriving and settling down in Mumbai (then Bombay). The first known among them were the films oriented Shri Tara Harish (Director), Moti Lal (Actor) and R.D. Mathur (Photographer), all Delhites. They formed the first known Mathur group in Mumbai along with one Shri Parmatma Parshad Mathur (from Kota, Rajasthan) who had come to study medicine at the Grant Medical College at Bombay and settled here. The next said to arrive (perhaps in the early or mid 1940s) was Shri S.P. Mathur (originally from Bharatpur, Rajasthan), a retiree from the then BB&CI Rly. (now Western Railway) who built his house in Mumbai’s Vile Parle - perhaps the first Mathur built, owned and lived in house in Mumbai,
As gradually more Mathurs starting arriving and settling down in Mumbai from mid / late 1940s onwards and in the next stage of the1950s, mostly for business or service in private sector as also to try their luck in filmdom, the Mathur group started developing. Notable arrivals as known in the said period, among others, were S/Shri Shiva Shankara, Permeshwar Dayal, L.N. Mathur, Brijbans Bahadur (Shanni dada), Lal Bahadur and Rajeshwar Dayal who, among some others, were later instrumental in forming the Mathur Association Bombay.
It is recalled that from the 1930s and for many years thereafter, Shri Moti Lal (by then a well known film star of those days) used to have the Janamashtmi function at his house every year to which all Mathurs were welcome and thus his house used to be a meeting place for the local Mathurs. Another popular meeting place was the premises of the Bombay branch of J.N. Singh & Co. (then Delhi based renowned Mathur paper merchants) where doors were always open to any visiting Mathur.
Later, the January Katha-cum- Lunch hosted by Shri Shiva Shankara all by himself at his place every year from 1950 onwards, open to the entire Mumbai Mathur biradri, used to provide regular and keenly looked for opportunity for local Mathurs to meet till 1984 when Shri Shiva Shankara breathed his last
It was some time in the late 1950s or early 1960s that Shri Shiva Shankara and a few other prominent community members got together to give the developing Mathur group a definite shape by forming an informal Mathur Association Bombay for which an ad-hoc Managing Committee was constituted with members as follows:
a) Shri Shiva Shankara
b) Shri Permeshwar Dayal
c) Shri A.S. Mathur, (Ambuji)
d) Shri J.S. Mathur, (Bablaji)
e) Shri L.N.Mathur
(f) Shri Rajeshwar Dayal
g) Dr. J.S. Galgotia
h) Shri Mahesh C. Mathur
Editor’s Note: S/Shri Ambuji & Bablaji were the sons of Shri S.P. Mathur mentioned in para 1. Shri L.N. Mathur was the father and Shri Parmatma Pershad (also in para 1) the grandfather of current MAB President, Shri Ajit K. Mathur
With voluntary help from some dedicated biradri members, the said informal Association started organizing two biradri get together functions each year, one Holi function in around March/April and a Dewali function in around November/December. These were always largely attended as they provided good occasion for Mumbai Mathur families to meet and know each other. In a city like Bombay where distance and time constraints often prevent people from meeting each other, these two occasions went a long way in bringing the community members closer and in many cases people even surprisingly discovering relationship with one aother, far from home.
It was actually from around 1960 onwards that Mathurs from various parts of India (notably from Delhi, U.P. and Rajasthan) started coming and settling down in Bombay in good number, either on transfer or for availing of the good job and business opportunities provided by the developing metropolis. Over a period, many of them had their own houses and became permanent settlers.
a) Finally, in the year 1970 the informal Mathur Association Bombay acquired a formal status as a social and cultural organization of the Mumbai Mathurs with Shri Shiva Shankara as its founder President and with its first Managing Committee consisting of its earlier members and a few others.
By a resolution of the Managing Committee the main aims and objectives of the Association, to start with,
were identified as follows:
b) The Association has since come a long way, managed all these years by Managing Committees of the
time with dedicated members under the able leadership of its past Presidents given below:
c) the Association owes much to its aforesaid past Presidents and also to its past Vice Presidents, Late Shri P.N. Mathur and Shi Suresh C. Mathur.
d) It owes a lot to the dedication and hard work by its past Secretaries, Late Dr. J.S. Galgotia, Late Shri Kunwar B. Lall, Shri O.P.Mathur, Late Shri Kailash B. Mathur, Late Shri Satish Chand Mathur and Shri Shamsher B.Barellia during their respective terms
e) (e) Gratitude and appreciation is also due to all the members of its past Managing Committees from time to time for its growth, development and the well groomed position the Association is in today. “
a) Our Membership:
b) Our Zones:
MAB covers Mathurs in the entire greater Mumbai and extended suburbs upto Virar on the Western Rly. and Thane, Kalyan, Ambernath and Panvel on the Central Rly. We have divided Mumbai and its said far flung suburbs in nine geographical Zones for better coordination and administrative convenience. Each Zone has a Zonal Committee headed by a Managing Committee member Incharge of the Zone and some other dedicated Biradri persons of the Zone as members, as shown in the list of Zonal Members.
The main idea of formation of the Zones and Zonal Committees is to provide easy, convenient means of better and more frequent social and cultural contacts (Mulaqaat, aana-jaana, khana-peena) amongst Mathur families residing nearby in the Zone. It will be to our great pleasure and satisfaction if members are benefited by this Zonal system and are of help to each other in need. The number of members however, in some Zones is not as much as we would have wished. We, therefore appeal to our members, specially the younger generation ladies and gentlemen to please come forward for this voluntary assignment of Zonal membership.
c) Our functions:
It has always been our endeavour to provide opportunities to Mumbai Mathurs to meet regularly and thus get to know each other. To start with, we used to hold two functions each year to cover the entire biradri in Mumbai. Later, due to difficulty in finding a suitable venue and also due to exorbitantly high venue hire charges we had to resort to generally only one central function a year, (either centrally organized or organized by a Zone) with cultural and entertainment items by our young, talented members and, of course, food and drinks a’la Mathur palate. In addition, at times our Zones too try to organize Zonal get togethers, open to the whole biradri.
All these functions are largely attended and enjoyed by members and their families. Presence of elders and the young talent always adds a grace and glitter to our functions and they too feel happy meeting their age group.
Suggestions for improvements in our functions and offers of participation in its programmes are always solicited and welcome.
d) Our Newsletters:
Communication and exchange of information between the Management and the members are vital elements for the health and growth of the Association as also for good public relationship. For this, we issue two Newsletters each year to our members through WhatsApp (to all those whose valid mobile nos., are available with us) containing information about our functions, Zonal activities, happenings in the biradri like weddings and demises, any distinctive achievement by a member or his family members, or any other event worth reporting that comes to our notice. We also publish in our news letter articles from our Biradri Members
Though we try gathering such information on our own or being provided by the members, we may sometime miss something worth reporting but not known to us in our Newsletters. Members are, therefore, requested to please promptly convey all such items of information to us as promptly as possible for inclusion in our Newsletter.
We can be contacted by phone, email or WhatsApp to our Secretary or any of our Managing Committee or Zonal Committee member listed in the “Our Managing Committee” in this Directory
a) This Directory is corrected and updated till June, 2023 as much as possible by incorporating information supplied by members themselves or collected by our Zonal Committees. However, some discrepancies/inaccuracies/omissions (specially in phone nos., address changes, etc.) may still be existing. Also, names of some who have left Mumbai without any information to us may still be found listed. Similarly, names of the new arrivals about whom we have no information may not be found listed. We will be obliged if our readers bring to our notice any such discrepancy noticed by them for necessary correction in our record.
b) This Directory is compiled Zonewise, separate for each of its nine Zones with names shown in alphabetical order and serially arranged along with the concerned Zonal number against each member such that one can be individually identified with his particular Zonal number. For example, a number 2/6 against a member would mean a member from Zone 2 at serial number 6. A number 8/35 would mean a member from Zone 8 at serial number 35, and so on. This number will be valid as long one remains anywhere in the same Zone but if one shifts to some other Zone, he/she will be given a new number with the prefix number of the shifted Zone.
c) Members are requested to note and always quote their Zonal no., when contacting the MAB for any purpose.
d) Life Members are indicated by a letter (L) against their names in a separate column in the Zonal Directory as well as in the main Alphabetical Index.
e) This Directory is available on our website: https//www.bombaymathurs.com.
We are happy to inform that a Trust, “MAB WELFARE TRUST” established since May, 2005, funded mostly by donations from our benevolent members, is functioning alongside with the Association. The main aim of the Trust, besides charity activities is to provide medical relief to our members in distress, educational assistance, etc. We solicit our members to help in developing the Trust by generously contributing for its noble cause as also by trying for contributions from other outside sources. The Trust is registered at Mumbai under the Charitable Public Trusts Act. Donors to this Trust will be entitled to Tax Relief under Section 80G of the IncomTax Act.
We put on record our sincere thanks and gratitude to the present secretary Mr. Yogesh Mathur, Treasurer Mr. Vishwanath Mathur & Joint Secretary & Joint Treasurer Mr. Rajiv Mathur in putting in lot of efforts and time for developing this website.
We convey our best wishes to all members and their families and look forward to their continued cooperation and participation in the MAB’s functions and other activities.
For & on behalf of the MAB Managing Committee
Ajit K. Mathur (President)
Krishna Murari (Editor & Member (PR))