Pappa’s friends can be seen in four groups. Pre-teen friends from Surat, University mates from Poona and Baroda, the hiking trekking gang, and the birders. I think he had entered secondary school when the family moved to Surat. His Surat friends were Shashikant (a.k.a Purushottam) Dalal, Jaidev (Chimanlal) Tijoriwala, Jainti (Jayantilal) Mamawala, Jainti Shethiyaji and V R Karnik. I have no idea of when and how they met or how they became friends. Shashikantkaka and Jaidevkaka had moved to Bombay well before pappa got there, but both the Jaintikaka’s stayed on in Surat, while Karnikkaka joined the Air Force, and went from posting to postings. “Karnik” is a family name, and I never heard anyone call him by his given name – I don’t even know what it was, although his initials were “V.R.”. Shashikantkaka lived around the corner from pappa’s place, and Jainti Mamawala lived in the family mansion nearby. I suspect that pappa met Karnikkaka at Sayajirao University in Baroda, although he was a Surat boy! Pappa would say that even though Karnikkaka was a Marathi boy, his command of Gujarati was better than pappa’s.

Pappa lived in a hostel while studying in Poona. Hostel friendships are strong bonds, as I know from personal experience of the hostels in IIT, But I remember only one good friend of pappa’s from that period: Rajabhau (Vasant Shripad) Gokhale. They must have been in the same hostel, since Rajabhau became a lawyer, while pappa was into Physics and Chem. Another friend – in faded memory - was Tambwekar, Another MS University alumnus; I suspect. His given name was probably Purushottam, although, I think papa called him Baburao. I think I met him just once at our Wilson St. house. The interesting part is that the Tambwekars are the hereditary owners of Dakor village/town, but now only of the Ranachhodji Temple premises. My “mundan” – shaving off baby hair – had been performed at Dakor. I did a bit of nostalgia travel a little while BC (Before Covid!), and visited Dakor, the town, Gomati lake, the temple, and the family home of the Tambwekars. The person I met, had scant information about Baburao.

Love of Nature is a glue that creates bonds of friendships never strained by time distance or taking offense or resentments. Jagdish Nanavati was passionate about mountains. A bond bred in our love of nature and mountains became the basis of pappa’s friendship with Jagdishbhai. Our relations with Jagdishbhai and his family grew with many hikes around Bombay, with activities of The Climber’s Clubs well as The Himalayan Club. Mummy and  Jagadishbhai’s wife Mandakini – Mandumaasi to me - got along very well. Our friendship with Ashwinbhai included photography and Hindustani classical music and Gujarati literature besides mountains and nature – and expanded after he married Tilottama: Tiluben.

These common interests were shared with Shashikant Damania, Makarand Ashok Kunte, Tiny Mazumdar, Maltiben Zaveri, Harish Kapadia, Gangotriben Garbiyal, Dr. Maniar, and many more became good lifelong friends. His devotion to bird watching got him involved in activities of the BNHS (Bombay Natural History Society), and while I hesitate to say friends, he did have warm contact with Dr. Salim Ali, Zafar Fatehally, J C Daniel, Luvkumar Khaachar and others from BNHS. It was also bird watching that got him a host of good friends in Ahmedabad: Lalsinhbhai, Dr. Ballar, Parbhubhai, and in Saurashtra:Rajkot, Morbi, Malia Hatina and other towns – Ashgarbhai, Kishorebhai, Nalinkant, Ketaki etc.

We also became close to the Mazumdar family under interesting circumstances. Matheran municipality had a tiny – but pretty -  rudimentary accommodation that was rented to visitors by the month. But only 2 families could occupy that house, and once or twice it was us and the Mazumdar family.

Ah! What a stack of fantastic friends across so many subjects that we were interested in!