Mohana (or Mona as many of you know her) was born in 1938 in Mumbai India. She passed on peacefully with her family around her on August 12, 2025, in Calgary, Canada. She is survived by her son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, five grandchildren and another daughter in Canada.

Mohana is the eldest of seven children. At a very young age she was already playing mother to her brothers and sisters, both at play and school. She was married in 1955 and, with her husband, shaped the family into one with the right values and priorities. She was a determined woman, quick to make decisions, never hesitating to speak her mind, traits she carried with her throughout her life.

Mohana was a doer. She had little patience for moping about anything. She held few, if any, regrets, bore no grudges, and woke up each day with a fresh start. Perhaps remembering everything is a bit overrated. As we celebrate and remember her today, she would, above all, want us to move on with our lives.

We felt that Mohana was an engineer and manager at heart. She effortlessly adapted to surprises, be it a missing ingredient for a recipe or an untimely request for homework help. She was an avid reader and kept up with the times; we heard about Beatlemania from her. She could distill complex ideas into the simplest of words that unfold themselves later.

Mohana loved cooking. Her Maa Laadu (a chickpea confection) is still the favorite of her grandchildren. She has compiled her recipes (described precisely in terms of “a touch of” and “added to taste”) into a cookbook that we all dip into. One of Mohana’s favorite hobbies was needlework (be it knitting or crocheting) and she was great at it. She could even reverse engineer a design by looking at a picture of the final product.

Later in life, she moved to Calgary, endured new ranges of temperatures, made new friends and built new relationships, but still remained the same passionate person.

One of Mohana’s deepest loves was music, Indian Classical in particular. She was trained in classical violin from the age of six, and became an accomplished violinist, playing in “All India Radio,” from before she was 20. She appreciated and understood music at a level that would perhaps escape most people. She would often remark that music may exit from the mouth or fingers, but it is all in the mind; as she would call it “Manodharma,” creative expression and improvisation. To her, music was God.

Mohana lives on with us, through all the profound ways in which she has touched our lives.