“I am a refugee in love!”

This is a photograph of my paternal grandparents Kewal Krishan Puri and Reva Puri whom I call Dadu and Granny, taken at the Bombay Photo Stores Pvt. Ltd Studio in Calcutta, (Kolkata), West Bengal. My granny’s maiden name was Barbara Dorothy Reynolds, and my Dadu was devoted to her. This is their love story.

A tireless educator of Bhopal

Photographed in December of 1957, this is my mother Kaushalya Lakhani. She was adoringly known as Dadi Lakhani in the homes of Bhopal. Clad in gorgeous theatrical costume for a play, this portrait, one of the oldest in our family, is of a dynamic and versatile lady who had a lasting impact on hundreds of lives and destinies in Madhya Pradesh. The picture was taken by her husband, my father Vasudev Lakhani, an amateur yet ardent photographer.