This, my first post, is for and about Padma!

I'll tell you how I first met her...
I was already married and living in Baroda; but couldn't have done without those yearly visits to my "Maher", mom's home, in Marathi.
Neela Maushi's home in Sai Baba Colony was a second "maher" for me. I used to hear a lot about the A-14ers from her but had never met any of them till one day I bumped into this girl wearing a saree and riding a bike. We exchanged pleasantries and that was it.
Some time later I relocated to CBE for a couple of years, Shruti was born, Neha was studying in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, in general I was engrossed in my own concerns.
Didn't meet Padma or think about her again till the earthquake at Latur in Maharashtra.
Now you'll be wondering what this girl had to do with an earthquake!
Well, apart from the fact that she could quite easily cause one if she set her mind to it, apperently quite a lot as I came to realise later.
Immediately after that calamity, I received a phone call from her at my mom's place, asking me if Rajendra was OK! Now dumbo that I am, no bells rang and I told her he was OK as far as I knew. I met Ravindra immediately after this incident and even commented about this phone call but still the other shoe did not drop. And Ravindra, veda - ganda - chapla that he is, did not enlighten me!! All this while I was very generously lending my Kinetic Honda to Rajendra on his visits to CBE and he was driving around with Padma unknown to me! (Rajabhau you still owe me a tyre for that!)
You could have knocked me down with a feather when I heard that Rajendra was getting engaged to Padma of A-14!!