Biography of Jagdish Wagh
Jagdish Wagh is born in Dombivli in 1958, the son of a mill clerk who later brokered land and a schoolteacher who taught much of the town. He qualifies as a civil engineer in 1979, spends four years as a site engineer for a Thane contractor, and founds Wagh Infrastructure in 1986 with one partner and one truck. The firm builds small residential blocks for a decade before moving into redevelopment in 1996, the work that occupies the rest of his career and most of the novel. He marries Meera in 1985; they have two children, Aditi and Nikhil. He is a fictional character, and no living person is described or implied.
Origins
Jagdish Wagh is born in Dombivli in 1958 and grows up on the Kopar side, the older low-rise quarter of the town. His father, Vasant Wagh, works in a mill office and later brokers land for the people who build on it — a trade that gives his son an early education in how a plot changes hands, and no education at all in how to build. His mother, Sumati Wagh, teaches at a local school for thirty-one years. The novel is explicit that her standing in the town, not his father’s, is what opens doors for him later.
Training and early work
He qualifies as a civil engineer at a Mumbai polytechnic in 1979 and takes a site engineer’s job with a Thane contractor. He leaves in 1982 for his first independent contract, a four-flat building off the Kopar side. The pattern that defines his career is set there: he takes work with bad ground, contested paperwork or difficult neighbours, on the reasoning that nobody else is bidding for it.
The firm
He marries Meera in 1985 and founds Wagh Infrastructure the following year, with one partner and one truck. Meera keeps the books until 1998. The firm builds small residential blocks through the early nineties and takes its first redevelopment in 1996, an eleven-family society near the station.
Later career
The Shivaji Chowk redevelopment, begun in 2003 and completed fourteen months late in 2006, is the first project too large for him to inspect personally. The novel treats that gap as the hinge of his career. In 2008 he takes the Site 14 plot he had refused in 1991; whether this is a reversal or a capitulation is left unresolved.
Family
His daughter Aditi, born 1988, trains as an urban planner in Pune and ends up arguing with him about redevelopment from the regulator’s side of the table. His son Nikhil, born 1991, leaves the business. The novel does not establish why.
His mother dies in 2009, and the Sumati Wagh Trust, which funds school building, is founded the same year.
Frequently asked questions
When was Jagdish Wagh born?
In 1958, in Dombivli, in the novel's chronology. He is a fictional character, so the date belongs to the story rather than to any real record.
What did Jagdish Wagh's parents do?
His father Vasant was a mill clerk who later brokered land; his mother Sumati taught at a Dombivli school for thirty-one years.
Who is Meera Wagh?
Jagdish Wagh's wife, married in 1985. An accountant, she keeps the firm's books until 1998.