Four Generations Gather to Celebrate Vimala “JiMa”’s 100th Birthday

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: The two brothers Kabir, the elder by 2 years, and Rana, 8 did an acrobatic hip-hop dance, twisting, turning and tumbling while they sang a short poem they had penned for their JiMa.

“JiMa, JiMa, JiMa, One double zero, you are our hero; sweet as the chocolate you love to eat; now watch us a we leave our feet. JiMa, JiMa, JiMa”

And Rana threw a large, soft sponge replica of a silver covered Hershey’s Kiss at his delighted JiMa, which his older cousin, 12 year-old Avi Vir caught before it crossed the table. Their JiMa, Vimala Merchant clapped softly in her wheelchair and joined in the laughter with the rest of the guests who had gathered to celebrate her centennial!

Eighteen of her direct descendants and half a dozen more relatives along with close friends had gathered at Bhojan restaurant on Sunday, May 25 to celebrate JiMa’s 100th birthday and get her blessings. Some, like son Gautam and his daughters Manjari and Mayuri with her husband John and kids Matthew and Sarita had flown in from New York for the occasion as well as other relatives from other states..

After the centenarian had been brought into the hall, her daughter, Sita Kapadia with whom JiMa has lived for the past 25 years in Houston, spoke lovingly of her mother’s accomplishments and determined independent-minded lifestyle.

Born in Bombay in 1914 to Tara and Gurdandas Soparkar, the young Vimala was adamant to study despite her conservative and tradition-bound father’s view that “a fourth grade education was good for girls and Matric was more than enough”. She proved him wrong by going to a woman’s college and getting a degree in Humanties and later to Art School to learn painting. She became a respected painter whose works were displayed in Jury shows and a solo exhibition in New York many years after she had moved there following her husband Ishwarlal’s death in 1989.

Anand Kapadia, Sita’s son had flown in from California with his family and related how the family got together to publish their grandmother’s painting in a book and read from the dedication that his Gran had written in the copy that he has.

Great grand daughter Amrita Vir spoke on behalf of the six great grandkids. “I’ve only lived a quarter of her life and she’s seen much more than I have”, Amrita marveled, adding that she was inspired by her Jima’s spirit and spunk though she could be very opinionated, relating an incident when Jima disapproved of her clothes as her mom Arti, Sita’s daughter gave a little chuckle. Her father Atul was sorely missed as he away in India giving the keynote address to graduating seniors from the school that he had graduated from.

“After her mother passed away, Mummy helped raise her younger siblings”, Sita recalled. “She was strict and authoritarian as her household help would say but kind and affectionate”. Kapadia added that she couldn’t have finished her doctoral work without her mother’s help and sang a verse from a Gujarati poem, translated as “Sweet as honey and sweet as the rains after the monsoon; but sweeter than that is my mother”.