Whenever Rudi thought of India, he thought of Krishen Khanna, and a happy past – a sentiment Rudi shared in a letter addressed to his friend in 1974.
Despite the passing years and the distance between them, the warmth between the two stayed the same. Krishen Khanna was like a younger brother to Rudi, and he considered the Khanna family as his own. He adoringly called Krishen Khanna’s three children – Rasika, Malti and Karan – “Rakshasas (monsters).
He was like a grandfather figure, my father’s friend, but much older. Each time he would come home, he’d bring chocolates and gifts. He would take us out to parks to play and was affectionate towards us,” Rasika Khanna Mohan recalled.
Krishen Khanna and Rudi didn’t become friends instantly. “Our friendship grew over the years. It was given time to grow. It was unprepared, unforced and there was no obligation,’ said Krishen Khanna. Perhaps, it was the interconnected pas – the trauma of being uprooted from one’s home in their early twenties – that cemented the connection. Krishen Khanna was only twenty-two when he witnessed the tumult of Partition and had to leave his home in present-day Pakistan – an experience that influenced many of his works over the years.
Unlike his bond with Ara and Raza, Rudi’s friendship with Krishen Khanna…
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