LETTERS TO RCB

To:
The Rotary Club of Bombay
From:
Sarla Kripalani
(wife of Rotarian past President Dr. Nari
Kripalani, Hyderabad Sindh)
(Mother of Rotarian Manjeet Kripalani)

Dear Rotary Club,
I read in the Rotarian (may 2018 issue) that the Rotarians have planted a “Tree of Friendship” in Iceland.

This resonated with me. Many decades ago, in the 1940s, my father-in-law, Rao Bahadur Dr. Manghanmal S. Kripalani, had started, as a Rotarian in Hyderabad, Sindh, a “Garden of Friendship” on a small plot of land, maybe 10ft x 10ft of lawn, in the compound of the premises of the Masonic Lodge in Hyderabad Sindh, in the camp area. He was the President of the Rotary Club and also a Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge, and the meetings of the Lodge in Sindh were held in those premises in Hyderabad.

It was my father-in-law’s dying wish that some of the ashes after his cremation be strewn in the “Garden of Friendship” in Sindh, which he started and maintained before the Partition of India.

He died in 1972 in Bombay. Mr. Kishinchand Malani, a Rotarian or a Free Mason, was leaving Mumbai for Karachi, and at our request, kindly assented to take a small urn containing the ashes of Dr. Manghanmal Kripalani.

Mr. Malani was kind enough to take the ashes to Hyderabad, and upon arriving at the “Garden of Friendship,” planted them under a shrub which by then had grown into a tree. Had he not been able to do so, then my parents, Mr. & Mrs. Gobindram Bhavnani, would have made the trip to Hyderabad, as Mr. Malani lived close to my parents’ home in Karachi.

Now I hear that the Masonic Lodge is being pulled down, and a two storey building is coming up on the ground that was a Garden of Friendship, a Rotarian’s dedication.

5th June, 2018
World Environment Day