A heartfelt tribute to a lifelong friend who offered strength, laughter, and loyalty, sharing memories from film sets to letters from Lolab Valley. Vinta Nanda shares memories of her friendship with Mainak Trivedi.

Photography: Mainak Trivedi  
This tribute to Mainak Trivedi celebrates a friendship spanning decades, from the heart of Lolab Valley in Kashmir to cherished memories captured on film. As a confidant and unwavering friend, Mainak preserved moments of support and understanding, offering solace during the filming of Parbat Ke Us Paar in 1987, a difficult time marked by grief and challenges. Through letters, photos, and gestures of loyalty, this tribute honours the pure connection shared, echoing a bond sustained by forgiveness, mutual respect, and love. Enjoy this moving tale of friendship and the enduring memories that Mainak left behind.  

Remembering Lolabh Valley

In the heart of Lolab Valley, Kashmir, in 1987, I found myself at a crossroads of grief and duty, struggling to hold myself together as I worked as an assistant director on Parbat Ke Us Paar, a film directed by Raman Kumar. Only two weeks before, I had lost my father, and amidst the overwhelming weight of his absence, I was thrown into a 40-day filming schedule. The one constant, my anchor in all this turmoil, was my dearest friend, Mainak Trivedi, the person with whom I could be entirely unfiltered. Writing to him was a lifeline, a way to release the thoughts that consumed me in that remote place.

A Silent Guardian

Mainak was the friend who held my confidences and saw me through those days when I was not just grieving but navigating a challenging environment. There was a senior who attempted to isolate me—using the all-too-common tactic to make a lone woman on a production crew feel vulnerable. Nadeem Khan, our cinematographer, saw what was happening and silently took me under his wing, offering me a place of refuge in his department. While my director was too busy with his work in a place difficult to manage a unit of a hundred people to notice, Nadeem bhai’s quiet support helped me withstand and allowed me to continue doing my job without succumbing to the pressures surrounding me. Through it all, Mainak, too, kept me grounded, even from afar.  

Capturing Moments and Preserving Mementos

Once, many years later, in 1996, he visited the set where I was shooting (directing) for a series, bringing with him his camera to capture moments of me working. These pictures, which I am sharing here, are now treasures, a visual reminder of that unforgettable time. They reflect the friendship we shared and the way Mainak treated our relationship—with care and an unwavering sense of loyalty. His lens captured what he felt.

Years Apart, Bond Intact

We lost touch around 2010, for various reasons, but when we reconnected in the year 2021, it felt as though no time had passed. Mainak reached out as he prepared to leave Mumbai for Pune. He returned to me something precious—my long-playing records, which he had kept safe for over 35 years. I had entrusted them to him after my father’s passing, during a downsizing move that meant leaving behind many possessions, hoping that someday they would find their way back to me. Mainak, in his diligent way, had preserved them, returning them without a scratch as he moved to Pune from Mumbai during the pandemic, needing a cleaner environment to cope with his respiratory troubles. 

Our friendship, from 1984 to 2024, was a testament to loyalty, mutual respect, and an enduring, unspoken love. We were the best of friends who built a bond that remained pure – at the end we forgave each other for causing hurt and in the last three years, spoke intermittently on the phone, but for hours on end. Mainak was a dog lover, a trait that perhaps spoke to his own loyalty and warmth. I once gifted him a dachshund, whom he named Iago. When Iago passed away years later, Mainak was heartbroken. He channelled his love by feeding stray dogs, saying he saw Iago in them. Now that Mainak has passed away, I know he has reunited with Iago, and they are together, somewhere pure and happy.

Letters from Lolabh Valley

Below are the letters I wrote to him during those days in Lolab Valley—he held on to them all these years. Mainak scanned and sent them to me by mail on the 1st October, 2022 – he said to me that he is making a bonfire of all his writings and paperwork, so I might want the letters to keep. They, of course, are precious processions now.

CHANDIGAM, LOLAB VALLEY, KASHMIR, 29/09/1987
Mainak! Mainak! Mainak!
Biggest and only regret as of now. Didn’t meet ya before coming! Never mind — I s’ppose I love doing this to myself. I love you, you old so & so! I am finding it very, very difficult to cope. Anyway - leaving out mushy shit let me tell you how this place is treating me. Fine.
It’s cold but Autumn. Green turning Yellow + suppose within days it’ll be brown on the ground. Mountains are forested + thick. Blue, almost mysteriously. Skies naturally touch their peaks & stars seem so close that one unconsciously reaches out to touch them. The moon is on its third day so a brilliant semicircle lighting up the sky. This is the night!
The Day pours in enigmatically and falls over the whole countryside. It’s cold & ferocious too. Fencing & Yellow wheat fields spread out that never end.
I've had this rollicking fight with Guess who? He’s so sick. Now it seems like I’m out from the Direction Department. So petty these cheapskates are. I really don’t care a hang. Suppose I’m alone here + going to make the best of it or at least as much as I can.
My mind is also so much full of home. The distance is much more now than it would’ve been otherwise. I almost never came here but Ma forced me to do so. Trust, that’s why I’m so cranky.
Mainak, really — if you can write to me at:
c/o MRS. R. RATTAN,
RATTAN VILLA (ANNEXE),
RAM MUNSHI BAGH,
SHIVPURA, SRINAGAR.
I’ll receive the letters. It’s my aunt's place + I have a constant connection with her. Also let me know your Delhi address. I have the telephone no. but no address. I’ll be in Delhi on 4th Nov.
Try to think of me sometimes - you might succeed.
Yours (what should I say...?)
Bebu

7/10/87, KASHMIR VALLEY
Mainak,
I wonder if you’ve written a letter to me at the address I’d told you to so far or not? I do need correspondence now. I swear — you really won’t imagine how things are here (oh) one is stuck in this godforsaken place which is cold and horrible + to top it, there’s this deadly cold war carrying on with this @#$% that is making things at work worse. Besides, I really have no communication left with anybody. I’m getting walked all over. After all, a senior AD can screw up things at work. Even if I try getting involved in anything, the @#$% in return ruins it for me. I’m really sick + tired of it all. God forbid, but for the first time I’ve been crying and that too at a time when I could easily be back home + being where I’m needed most. Turning around + leaving would mean being a defeatist + leaving me nowhere for the future, especially when it’s more important than it was earlier. Sticking around here is making me sick.
Mainak, Mainak, I wish you were here. At least I’d be able talk to you. In any case don’t be surprised if you have me back there before even this letter reaches you.
Bedi arrived yesterday. I had asked him to get some news from home & he too didn’t apparently have the time to catch up with my folks. Can you imagine, I was waiting for the news Bedi would bring like a dog waits for his meal, & ended up feeling so disappointed when he brought back no message. I guess there should be a letter coming, I just haven’t received it.
Mainak, the amount that’s built up within me, I cannot even be verbal about it. It’s crazy, crazy, crazy. The only fuckin’ solace I have is in working myself to death and the long walks some evenings.
I’m really at sea. Lost.
How’re things with you in Bombay? I hope you’ll be around in Delhi for Ashu’s wedding. Your Manoranjan stint must be over by now. Have you begun work on Honey & Daisy? I wonder.
Nadeem Khan is a mind-blowing DOP! Last night we were doing a scene, a love scene, in which his lighting blew my mind. You know, in spite of everything I’m learning lots. 35 mm is a medium I’ve hardly worked in except the Polar ad-film, so visualizing what we are making, it is interesting. Besides I’m learning 'bout lenses etc. The Assistants to the Cameraman are pretty sweet. They try to be helpful. Yesterday when that @#$% noticed me conversing with the Asst. he pulled him aside + said God knows what. Then thereafter my communication with that department ended too. He’s so petty. Best is, in front of the boss, he pretends as though nothing could be wrong. He’s plain sick.
Right now, while I’m writing to you, the whole gang is outside with Bedi - the LOP (life of the party) - cracking jokes to a dozen.
Its more than an hour later now — after the light has gone out some 20 times. Made me think of you even more - AAN, AAF, AAN AAF - Ajit Uncle…
Well - I’ll pen off now. The mood I had begun writing in has kind of changed. I’m very, very sleepy now. Planning to knock off.
You fool, this is Bebu.

Farewell, Dear Friend

These letters hold my thoughts, just as you held me up with your friendship all these years, Mainak. Thank you for being you. Rest well, my dear friend, with Iago by your side.