# Madhu’s message to Bharat of his 65th birthday
My first memories of Bharat go back to the summer of 1953 when Yogesh Chachaji and I were sent to Bombay for sightseeing and Dada was flying for Air India and lived in Andheri. Bharat likes to play with words, and he did that even at a tender age of three. I remember him asking Chachaji or I to say something and than surprising us with wordplay based on what was said. I remember Bharat also from my years at the University of Delhi in the 60s when we would all go out for a walk and an ice cream in Diplomatic Enclave where Dada lived. And I remember him from his summer job at Expo 67 and when I came to Montreal from Chicago for the World’s fair.
Bharat and Rahul represented the Dixit family when I married Marna at Chicago and at Saint Paul Minnesota. Bharat came to New York with us when Marna and I went to India in 1972. I had persuaded Bharat to drop our car back in Vermont. I had planned to, but did not get the opportunity to let him practice driving my standard transmission Plymouth. So it was with much guilt and trepidation that I saw him drive away from JFK after we left him, with the car lurching and moving in jerks. He made it back safely through the difficult New York traffic! He practiced after he got out of the airport, he told us later.
After we moved to Ottawa in 1973, Marna and I have happy memories of weekend visits to Bharat and Rahul in their NDG apartment in Montreal, of going tobogganing at Mt. Royal and going to Quebec City for the Winter Carnival. I still have the copy of Bharat’s MSC thesis which he gave me before moving to Calgary. And I remember when Marna and I visited Bharat and Kumkum after a conference in Banff and Devika was only six months old.
I see Bharat from time to time as we have both matured and have seen our children became adults. Bharat has been a friend and someone I have always felt close to. Thank you for being there and many happy returns of the day!
— Madhu
