The Adventurous Mr. Goel of Hyderabad

Our father played a significant role in setting up various social welfare organisations, clubs and banks – such as the Rajasthani Association, Agrasen Co-operative Bank and Mahesh Bank.

Apart from hosting Poetry Festivals (Kavi Sammelan), he was also responsible for establishing the Dampatti Sammelan (Couple’s festival) –  a get-together for married couples who, in that era, had no place to go out by themselves.

My parents’ unusual lives in India and Africa

In September of 1945, two months before they left for Nyasaland (now Malawi), East Africa, my parents Mangal and Madhav Thorat got this photograph taken in a photo studio in Poona (now Pune) by a photographer named Patwardhan. As the photograph may reflect, my parents liked to dress up well. What it also holds is a story of their unusual pasts, and future together.