A Bond Across Five
Families pose for a group photo.
After Partition, my Nani Ji, Kesari Bai was allotted a 200-square-yard house at No. 20, Block I, Jangpura Extension, a rehabilitation colony in Delhi. In the early 1950s, each allottee had to pay the then-princely sum of ₹5,000, either in cash or through claims against properties abandoned in Pakistan. In return, they received a well-built house comprising two rooms, a kitchen, a veranda, and a washroom, all under a flat RCC roof.
Among her neighbors was Mohan Lal Kohli Ji, whose family lived at No. 24. Their back doors were close, but their hearts became even closer.
Revered Mohan Lal ji Kohli with young Vinod
Mohan Lal Ji lived there with his wife, Pushpa Ji, and their six children—three sons, Joginder Pal, Vijay and Vinod, and three daughters, Kamla, Bimla and Sunita. Due to size of the family and affluence in their business, Kohlis were one of firsts in Jangpura Extension to add more rooms.
Newly married Vinod and his beloved wife Ritu with his mom
Seeing Nani Ji living largely on her own, Mohan Lal Ji treated her like his own mother, with extraordinary love and respect. No important ceremony in the Kohli family was complete without her presence. She became their virtual Dadi Ji and an inseparable part of the family.
When I moved to Delhi for my first job, I stayed with Nani Ji and came to know the Kohlis closely. They were a prosperous business family in the booming motor-parts trade of Kashmiri Gate Delhi.
Harvinder and me with Vinod Ji on one of his annual trips to USA
My earliest memory of Vinod, the youngest son, is of a young man constantly absorbed in his books, often studying on the staircase landing. Soon I learned that he had entered the prestigious IIT Delhi.
Later, I moved to my own house in Jangpura A Block. With the passing of Nani Ji and Mohan Lal Ji, our contact gradually diminished. Remarkably, almost three decades later, Vinod Ji and I reconnected, and in 2005 we started a business together, an association that continues to this day. Shiv is astonished to note how partners in business are getting stronger and stronger in relation day by day.
Shiv, Shilpy with Vinod, Aman, Mitali and Arahm
Yesterday, Aman and his family visited us from Seattle, giving us another opportunity to celebrate this remarkable relationship. We gathered for dinner at Paratha House in Pleasanton, where Mitali Kohli and Shilpy Kapoor coordinated the mouth-watering paratha orders and made the evening even more enjoyable.
Arahm, Geet and Jania had a fun get-together.
Looking around the table, I realized how many generations this friendship now embraces. On our side, the chain runs from Nani Ji to my mother Savitri Devi to me, to Shiv, and now to Shiv’s three children—Gobind, Jania and Geet. On the Kohli side, it has travelled from adopted mother Nani Ji to Mohan Lal Ji to Vinod Ji, to Aman and now to Arham. We missed many Kohli family members particularly US based Sunny & Rinu; Ashish & Shilpy and their lovely kids Kiaan and Kabir
What started between two neighboring refugee homes in Jangpura has survived changing times, changing countries and changing generations.
The boys pose together after sumptuous Paratha dinner.
What a lovely union, two families connected not by blood, but by love, respect and affection carried forward from one generation to the next.
