  Two puzzles associated with open clusters have attracted a lot of attention
-- their formation, with densities and velocity dispersions that are not too
different from those of the star forming regions in the Galaxy, given that the
observed Star Formation Efficiencies (SFE) are low and, the mass segregation
observed / inferred in some of them, at ages significantly less than the
dynamical relaxation times in them. Gas dynamical friction has been considered
before as a mechanism for contracting embedded stellar clusters, by dissipating
their energy. This would locally raise the SFE which might then allow bound
clusters to form. Noticing that dynamical friction is inherently capable of
producing mass segregation, since here, the dissipation rate is proportional to
the mass of the body experiencing the force, we explore further, some of the
details and implications of such a scenario, vis-a-vis observations. Making
analytical approximations, we obtain a boundary value for the density of a star
forming clump of given mass, such that, stellar clusters born in clumps which
have densities higher than this, could emerge bound after gas loss, and for a
clump of given mass and density, we find a critical mass such that,
subcondensations with larger masses than this could suffer significant
segregation within the clump.
