We first met in college in July 1973 as 16 year olds. Our college lives intersected through class and exam prep for BA Eco, basketball, and Dram/Shake Soc. Apart from his puns, Mooli distinguished himself by his ability to recruit senior women students from MH/LSR/DSchool as his “aunties”, some of whom continue to be his friends till this day. Our academic and career trajectories took different paths thereafter and we only really started seeing each other regularly in Delhi when he returned in 2014. But we were able reconnect as if no time had passed and made up for lost time. He kept on trying to get me to join him on his jaunts to Arunachal Pradesh, which I regretfully was not able to do. Thanks to him we did make a trip, accompanied by Nans, to the North East to the Hornbill Festival in Kohima, which was memorable. He was very excited by the impending publication of his book on Arunachal and we had several conversations on the best way to launch it. Recently we both had developed an interest in a daily word game in the NY Times called Spelling Bee. Even while he was in Medanta, during our evening phone calls after his operation, we used to discuss the day’s puzzle. He was part of a core group of college friends and spouses with whom we shared a lot. Mooli was always easy to get along with and have an intelligent conversation with. He left us all too soon and will be sorely missed.
