Pankhioni Bhaibandhi

Message It is my privilege to be asked to write an Introduction to this delightful book by a friend of over half a century. Even as I write these few words, I experience a huge gratitude for a man so loyal, so lacking in ego, so gentle and yet possessing such steel like strength that I wonder whether I would have achieved what little I have without his quiet support in my struggle to take on forces on several fronts in a Maha Bharat to save Gujarat’s wilderness areas.

The notification of the Hingol Gadh Nature Education Sanctuary, the Gulf of Kachchh Marine Sanctuary and National Park and the Khijadiya Water-bird Sanctuary as well as the existence of the amazing Ranmal Lake of Jamnagar are all there thanks to his efforts complementing mine.

Along with the gratitude, I experience a sense of considerable inadequacy realizing how much more indeed, I could have achieved if I could have written Gujarati with the same felicity as I do English and, Lalsinhbhai will recall my repeated urging to write pure but simple Gujarati taking utmost care not to produce the EnglishGujarati chivda being passed off as good Gujarati! Going through this compilation, a thought came to me that I would recommend to my alma mater, the Rajkumar College, Rajkot to introduce this book as a Reader! It was at Rajkumar College that we met and it was there that the seeds of outdoor exposure for young people got sown with Lalsinhbhai helping to promote the concept. We felt a great need for Gujarati books on birds and on environment issues.

When people say they are too busy to spend time out in the country side or take up the hobby of bird-watching I think of this frail man who was so involved yet never taking a day’s leave from the Government job he held. “Thank you dear friend for having been there all along and for asking me to write these few inadequate words; our jugalbandhi will soon come to an end, but the resonance will continue through this and the several other books you have written.”

Lavkumar Khachar