Neena Badhwar!
I had lost touch with Neena and Vijay Badhwar for many, many months until Vijay called me and told me that Neena was quite ill. In fact, he was more worried about the fact that she was not getting out of bed. So I went to their place and tried to charm her out of her bed, but although she did smile quite a bit, even laugh a little, she firmly stuck to her bed. I visited them quite a few times later, and then one day Vijay surprised us with a visit to our place; more than that, he brought Neena back to walking around. And so I thought our fears for Neena were ill-founded. She was back to her old self.
Everything I thought was going swimmingly until Vijay rang me a couple of days ago and told me that Neena was not getting out of bed.
So I head off to their home in Westleigh. Just seeing her there, almost stuck to her bed, broke my heart. So I tried to get her out of bed with Vijay's help or the help of their two sons. In the end, it was a hopeless task; she would not or could not get out of her bed, but she did bless me with one thing: she gave me a glorious smile. I think I even convinced myself that she was going to be OK. Didn't she just smile at me?
Two days later, Vijay called to tell that Neena had just passed away in Westmead Hospital. Felt like a hundred daggers had been smashed into my heart. It was God's will, I told myself; she has found her peace.
I cannot remember how I came to meet Vijay and Neena. We not only met them, but they went on to become our bosom buddies.
Neena was a rare creature: With no skills, no training, not even the slightest idea what it would take to produce an "Indian" newspaper in Sydney, Australia, she was nonetheless determined that it would happen.
Her husband Vijay is an engineer, well read, with a cool head and with a "let's do it, that is what Neena wants."
In the process, I became the first editor of the Indian Down Under with Vijay as writer and proofreader. There were several other clever Indians who also joined the team. Neena twisted a lot of friends into writing for the paper.
Neena's main job was twisting Indian arms and winning regular advertisements, and quite number did exactly that. On printing day, she would collect stacks of copies of the edition and personally deliver them to the advertisers. She was quite brilliant. She connected Indian Australians with India and everything Australian: the politics and politicians, rules and regulations, everything.
In the process, she was also developing her writing skills, which came in handy after I left the team and Neena took over the paper and printed it online. She was quite brilliant in dealing with anybody and everybody, especially politicians. One of the outstanding contributors was Kersi-Meher Homji, a brilliant cricket writer, every respected.
Vijay and I used to proofread and print the paper at our home and Vijay would take the finished prints to our printer. It was one hell of an adventure.
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