New Delhi, July 11 -- Life does not end when the body rests. It does not dim when the breath quiets. For those who've loved, for those who've lived with grace, for those who've given of themselves unstintingly, unflinchingly, unselfishly -- they live on in ways no flame can ever snuff, no night can ever eclipse. When someone like my maa jaisi, my like-a-mother, my Maasi, my Aruna Maasi leaves, she does not leave us smaller -- she leaves us infinitely bigger, infinitely richer, infinitely fuller, even as we grieve.

Aruna Lakhwara -- Boo Maasi, Babbu, Boo -- was not just one woman. She was many women in one. A woman who could wear a chiffon sari with the elegance of an empress and slip into a little black dress and look like a million doll...