They were friends during their days of struggle and associates as well as when they make it big. Gulzar remembers their days of laughter and music.
     "Pancham was three-four years younger than me. He was always a kid, he remained one. He was fond of pranks, of colourful clothes and especially of the colour red. He had a nickname for me- safed kavva. He'd phone, if i wasn't at home, he'd leave a message, "Tell safed kavva that lal kavva had called."
        His sense of humour was his very own. He knew Ashaji was very particular about keeping the house clean; so he sent her a gift-two big brooms in bright wrapping paper.
One of his passions, besides music, was cooking. He grew chillies in his terrace garden-as many as 40 varieties, cross-breeding them to get new exotic tastes.
        If a friend was going abroad, he'd ask him to get back some soup packets. Like he asked Rahi Sabarwal of Air-India to bring him some soup packets which you can only find in HongKong..Pancham even sent him a telegram, "Don't forget my soup." The telegram was signed soup lover.
        Pancham was a terrific mouth organ player; he played the organ in his father's orchestra. And he was an outstanding sarod player, too..he had trained under Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
        Pancham would have his differences with his father. But he was Sachinda's only child, he was the pampered one. There'd be good natured bantering between them. "Baba," Pancham would pout,"you don't give me enough pocket money" and Sachinda would laugh back,"Oye Pancham, when are you going to contribute to the kitchen expences?" Whenver the son tried to shuffle out quietly from the music room, Sachinda would say,"Jao,jao I know you want to smoke a cigarette."
        Pancham would frequently compose his tunes in the course of car drives. He'd hum, we'd reach Film Center and he'd say, "Okay, you go home now, I've got the tune in my head. I'll try it out with the musicians." If he was especially excited about a tune, he'd scream with joy. Pancham would keep tha actor's face in mind while he was working on composition. He'd tell me that, at times, he thought of my face while conjuring a tune-which i thought was a great compliment.
        We first worked together on Parichay. It was important for me to sit with him on the music sessions. He inspired certain moments which i picturised later, his music was that visual..I went to Rajkamal studio where he was recording a background score for another film. I gave him the mukhda-Musafir hoon yaaron/Na ghar hai na thikana- and I left. That night, he woke me up at 1 a.m. and said, "Come, come down with me to the car." He'd recorded the tune on a cassette already. He started driving on the empty streets of Bandra, he played the beat on the dashboard. It was my first song with him as a director.
        In all, we did eight films together, as a composer-director team: besides, Parichay, there were Khushboo, Kinara, Aandhi, Namkeen, Libaas ans Ijaazat. As for Is mod se jaaten hain, i gave him the words from one of my poems. He composed the tune instantly, he never took time. Spontaneity was his speciality. If he struggled over a song he would prefer to abandon it. For instance, Ek hee khaab kai baar dekha hai maine (Kinara) exasperated him. He foung that meter a bit difficult, but two months later I put it before him again. He caught the scanning, the song was finally recorded.
        When i gave him Mera kuchh samaan tumhaare paas pada hai, he waved the lyric aside and said, "Huh, tomorrow you'll bring me the front page of The Times of India and expect me to compose a tune around it. What is this blank verse you are giving me!" Ashaji was sitting there she started humming the phrase, "Mujhe lauta do." He grasped it immediately; from that phrase he developed the song which was quite a feat! this time I and Asha ji got national awards. Poor fellow, he did all the hard work and we enjoyed the kheer.
        After his ailment, Pancham did feel that producers were sliding him. he did feel hurt. He would laugh, with atouch of bitterness, at new composers who copy his tunes and make a mess of them. they would even imitatehis singing style which was unmistakably his. Mehbooba mehbooba and Dhanno ki aankhon me..was his creations, but others tried to clone his styles, only to sound like amateurs.
        My last meeting with him was on December 30. He went to Sahara recording studio in Goregaon. Ashaji was recording a song for G.V.Iyer's Vivekananda. Pancham and I had gone along with Asha ji. At the end of evening, he said in his customary manner,"Milte hain."
        We never did.