A Century marks a significant milestone in human life and therefore an occasion to celebrate with a large circle of family, friends and well-wishers.
Ladkuar Soni, popularly and affectionately addressed as ‘Ba,’ was the centre of attraction at her 100th Birthday, marked twice last fortnight, first by her family and then by the Soni Samaj New Zealand Inc.
The first celebration, organised by her daughter Dr Kantha Soni at Rawene Centre in Birkenhead, witnessed a gathering of relatives and close family friends. Among them were Ba’s granddaughter Sushma and her husband Coy Hile, who live and work in Philadelphia in the US.
Ba felt proud that her granddaughter is a Senior Medical Editor at an international publishing company, while her husband is Senior Unix Security Administrator at Bloomberg.
Born in Batva, near Porbandar in the Indian State of Saurashtra (now called Gujarat) in 1911, Ba was married as she stepped into her teens. Immediately thereafter, her husband Madhavji Sundarji Soni migrated to Fiji.
It was not until nine years later, at the age of 22, that she joined her husband.
Raised in a large family, Ba was a stranger to the small community in Lomowai, Sigatoka in Fiji, where solitude hit her initially.
While her husband tended to the small country store that he owned, Ba learnt Hindi, Fijian and English on her own. She helped in the family business until her husband’s death in 1973.
Kantha said her mother also learnt to read and write to keep apprised of national and international events.
“She was a voracious reader of newspapers until five years ago, when failing eyesight compelled her to cancel her subscription to newspapers from London. “My mother has always been a determined woman; she learnt to drive when she was in her mid-fifties, perhaps the first Gujarati woman to do so in Fiji,” she said.
A number of her old associates, who were in New Zealand to attend her Birth Centenary fondly remembered taking Ba to weddings, social events and to the Lautoka Hospital to visit sick friends.
Ba migrated to New Zealand in 1976 with Dr Kantha and Sushma. She obtained her New Zealand Driving License to be ‘mobile’ and to chauffeur her granddaughter to various placed in Wellington.
The family moved to Auckland in 1982.
Ba continued her social activities, establishing the Auckland Indian Senior Citizens Association.
The community demonstrated its respect and admiration for Ba by organising her 100th Birthday Party at the AMI Netball Centre in Northcote on May 7.
Photo Caption: 1. Coy Hile, Kantha Soni, family friend Winsome Shaw-Dawson, Sushma Soni, Raju Baidiani (Wellington) and Lata Raniga at the family party held on April 30. Ba is seated in front of them. 2. An impressive Century: Ladkuar Soni.
