I have a cousin, Bhikhubhai Patel, who lives in Ottawa and has been in Canada for more than 65 years. He is looking for his best friend. I would appreciate if you would read his letter and see if there is any way you can help us find this man. Bhikhubhai is in his early nineties and I would love to make his dream of meeting his friend come true. So, the following is his note to me:
Around 1950-1953, I worked at Tesla Radio, located at Tardeo, Mumbai. B.J.H. Katrak was my best friend and he used to come visit me and my family at Ville Parle almost every weekends. He loved my son Mahesh, who was probably a year old at that time.
To the best of my knowledge, Katrak was from a “Dastoor (Parsi priest) family” and lived at Bandra. Around 1953 , I left Mumbai and returned to Jai Hind Radio Navsari and Katrak joined a Phillips Electric Mumbai as an electronic engineer. Head of Phillips was Nariman Modi . Back in Navsari, Naginbhai and Chunibhai needed to get dealership of Phillips and every time I go to Mumbai for business purpose, I was asked to make all attempts to meet Mr Modi.
It is a long story, I managed to talk to Mr Modi after tremendous efforts by Katrak and the rest is history.
In 1956, I immigrated to Canada and lost touch with Katrak. If my memory serves me right, I went to meet him in Delhi where he had moved but the meeting was rather brief . Every since , I regret so much having lost contact.
I would appreciate if you take some time out to trace locate Mr B.J.H. Katrak
Bhikhubhai Patel
Anyone knowing the whereabouts may write directly to : mahabanookotwal@yahoo.com
