The author makes this claim because Iswaran gave Mahendra wonderful company. After work at night, he would have conversations with Mahendra. Mahendra would also be entertained by Iswaran's storytelling. Mahendra never experienced boredom and never felt the need to own a TV for entertainment when Iswaran was around.
(i) The kind of person the doctor is (money, possessions)
(ii) The kind of person he wants to be (appearance, ambition)