Aunty Naju Passes On

Hootoksi Tyabji - Mumbai, 14 August 2014

Our dearest aunty Naju Pundole passed this morning. Her loving, sweet and gentle presence will be deeply missed by us all. May her soul rest in peace.

Here are some pictures of Aunty Naju. The first is a rare shot of her with siblings Maki, Noshir and Rusi. The next three were taken in Malaysia when she came for ma and pa’s 60th wedding anniversary in 2005, and two more recent ones taken in Mumbai with Lale, and her devoted carer Josephine.

Soft spoken, gentle, kind, loving, graceful, caring and even tempered are some of the words I would choose to describe my dearest Aunty Naju. She loved her clothes and jewelry and was always dressed perfectly even when she was home! Sundays were kept for grooming and as I child I loved to watch her paint her nails, something my mum never did!

One memory that stands out among all the others is the time my cousins and I were spending the night and there were several of us sharing Naju auntie’s bed. As you can imagine, there was a lot of jumping and screaming and running around and after much cajoling she finally managed to calm us down and soon we were all fast asleep around her. I remember waking up with a start when I heard a loud scream from my aunt and we found her sitting bolt upright in her bed one hand on her bum! Cousin Shireen had been scratching Naju aunty’s bottom thinking it was her own! How we all laughed and laughed! it took her quite a while to calm us down the second time that night, but she did it in her gentle, sweet way, the only way she knew to be - she will be greatly missed.