There was a lot of fear when war was declared as the Italians were to the north in Italian Somaliland (present Somalia). In 1940 Pappa took the family to India (they used to go every 4 years). Pappa also wanted to buy roofing tiles from Mangalore. These tiles required careful arrangements for transport as only dhows were cheap enough to transport the tiles at a reasonable cost. The family stayed in a rented house in Karachi (which was part of India) for 4 months. Kamufaiba and Pappa’s Gaurifaiba lived nearby.

After the family came back to Mombasa bombs were dropped in Malindi. As a result ladies and children were evacuated to Kampala. P.I. Patel (Prabhulalkaka) was their next door neighbour and they became good friends. At that time P.I. Kaka was managing Mengo Trading which was a textiles shop. The family stayed in Kampala for about 4 months.

Adda was a diabetic and his diet was strictly controlled. In 1941 he started getting boils which were treated by surgery. This was very painful but Adda never complained. At a time when Pappa was on jury service, Adda went into coma. Pappa knew that the end was near and asked to be excused for one day, but the authorities refused. Pappa came home a few hours after Adda had passed away. Pappa was devastated and later the court officials apologised, but what good was that?

In 1942 after Ashwinkaka’s birth there was another evacuation of Mombasa. This time the family went to Nairobi for over 6 months. They first stayed at Chandukaka’s (C. K) house and then in an outhouse belonging to P.M. Patel.