Story about Bapu Wakankar

Another Bapu in My Life!

On this important day of Gandhi Jayanti, I would like to share an interesting story about another Bapu in my life – Bapu Wakankar.

Bapu, or Lipikar as Laxman Shridhar Wakankar was more popularly known as, ran a successful cosmetics manufacturing company in the 1940s -Asha, which was way before the launch of Lakmé (Lakmé is Lakshmi in french. Lakmé, the name of the girl from the French opera was selected to blend the Indian with the French.)

Goddess Lakshmi, the wife of Lord Vishnu, is revered as the Goddess of wealth, prosperity, and beauty. Hence the name, Lakmé or Lakshmi.

Coming back to Asha Cosmetics, during World War 2, Asha exported lipsticks to UK and Europe under the brand name Julie Claire.

Till 1970s, Nivea cream was manufactured in India by Asha cosmetics under a licensing contract.

British soldiers and officers posted in India gifted Julie Claire lipsticks and cosmetics, manufactured by Asha, to their wives and girlfriends back in UK.

Julie Claire was a brand conceptualized by Laxman Shridhar Wakankar.

Asha was born in the laboratories of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in the mid-1930s while Laxman Wakankar was studying Chemical Technology and Engineering. He was a Mechanical Engineer from VJTI, Mumbai, and B.Sc. Tech from BHU.

We talk of Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, and many other successful ideas which were born on University campuses, and later became worth billions of dollars. Laxman Shridhar Wakankar was way ahead of his time and, in his own right, a predecessor to this entrepreneurial culture among college students, which is so prevalent in California and now also worldwide.

Lipikar Bapu Wakankar’s greatest contributions to our country are - discovery of Maheshwari “Lipi” or script as the mother of all Indian scripts, including Sanskrit, and putting the Devanagari script on the computer keyboard.

Laxman Shridhar Wakankar and his younger brother, Padma Shri Dr. Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar (Haribhau), were visionaries and great nationalist Indians

We are currently celebrating the centenary year of Dr. Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar.

Ashish A. Wakankar
Hon. Treasurer
Wakankar Bharati Sanskriti Anveshan Nyas

Website:
www.wakankar.org

Date:
October 2, 2018