Chartered Accountant & Company Secretary by profession, Mr R N kogata, having industrial experience of over 25 years at senior level positions, is presently Financial Adviser to some leading organisations. He started his research and study on Lord Ganesha from 1988 and was fortunately, joined by Lalita as his wife having similar interests Mrs Lalita Kogata is a postgraduate and part Company Secretary, presently holding the position of Director in the Udaipur Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank Limited, Udaipur. Both, RN. Kogata and Lalita are having an artistic background and actively participate in all kinds of cultural events and social activities. Mr Kogata is also a poet. They are blessed with two sons—Devashish (20) and Kushagra (15). Devashish is also a budding artist and has already more than 700 pencil sketches on Lord Ganesha to his credit.

Mr RN Kogata and Mrs Lalita Kogata probably have the-world’s biggest creation and collection of more than 9,500 types of statues idol and paintings of Lord Gariesha and their names appear in the Limca Book of Records for this great achievement.

The Kogata couple has also the honour of creating 1,000 different paintings of Lord Ganesha based on 1,000 name of the elephant-faced God.

Other books authored by them are Maa—The Mother, Pita—The Father, Pati—The Husband in the Eyes of Wife, Patni — The Wife in the Eyes of Husband, Parivaar—Family: The Art of Living Life, Bachpan—Childhood: The Gift of God, Insaan, Indian Marriage —Customs and Rituals, and few very inspiring.

It is said and we all know that a friend is a person who feels your feelings, comes in your life when the whole world walks out, he brightens your life, he believes in you and is always ready to be with you under all circumstances, positive or negative, happy or sad, good or bad.

We can define the friend as ‘F — Field of love’, ‘R Root of joy’, ‘I — Island of God’, End of sorrow’, ‘N Name of hope’ and ‘D —Door of understanding’.

Everyone knows many things about friends and friendship but usually no one practises them in practical life, We have always felt that if something is put forth in a systematic manner before anybody, he will immediately understand the meaning of the same as also realise the importance of it. We have, therefore, tried to put together and present some inspiring quotes, thoughts and sayings on friends and friendship. We believe that these expressions and representations, covering various facets of true friendship, will illuminate many more minds with love and care for unification of mankind, where more and more people become friends with no place for enmity and enemies; friends become good friends and good friends become the best friends and the world comprises only friends and no enemies.

We are sure that these incisive and insightful quotes, thoughts and ideas selected and presented in a unique way, with matching illustrations of the Lord Ganesha, in this hook, would open up new dimensions of friendship amongst the friends and that you would pass them on to others in order to inspire them to become even better individuals and the best of friends. The paintings alongside quotes, have been created by our professional artists keeping in mind the theme of each individual quote.

Some of the thoughts presented here are ours and others are from the people who have stood by and worked for the values; some were famous names and some others were ordinary people. We have tried to indicate in the acknowledgement page, names of the persons whose quote we have reproduced wherever we could remember Any amendment/addition in this regard is most welcome from the learned readers.

Our sincere thanks to Barbara Dc Angelis, William Arthur Ward, Anais Nm, Samuel Johnson, Shawn Swain, Jeremy Taylor, Thomas Wilson, James Fenimore Cooper, Stephen Ambrose, G.T Hewittlf, Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Charles Caleb Colton, C. Randolf, Epicurus, Joseph Mercier Axel Munthe, Stephanie, who have given such invaluable thoughts to this world. We prostrate before our parents Smt Kanchan Devi and Shri Bhairav Lal Kogata, and Smt Kamla Devi Nuwal and the late Prof K.M. Nuwal for their benign blessings that have guided us throughout and made us reach the stage where we find ourselves today.

With the expectation of blessings and constructive feedback from all of you.