A loss..

Today we witnessed the saddest day in our layout's existence. BBMP brought in JCBs and razed some portion of the clubhouse damaging a building that was visionary for the time it was built in (2000 or whereabouts) and stood for 23 years.

There are multiple layers to the story but the fault was solely with the residents getting too complacent with political assurances and connections and not taking adequate legal precautions to safeguard what was our crown jewel in many ways.

For many initial years, as a community we remained non-aligned to politics. While this had not helped, it didn't do us damage. This position had changed in the recent years. Some newer residents came in with clout (and arrogance attached to it), showed utter disrespect for existing rules and processes, others who also found the layout rules inconvenient joined them and eventually they all ended up in the committee with vested interests and their own agenda to serve and then decided just their mere presence was enough, and that complacence cost us really hard today.

Whether it is a Congress government taking revenge on a layout that has overly voted in the favour of BJP, or a BBMP trying to make this a poster punishment showing how they will serve justice, whether it is the builder trying to use this to take back the club house which is worth 100s of crores now, whether it is something else altogether, we ordinary citizens will never know but the debacle and the debris will be a sad reminder of today's events for a long time to come.

In the end, if they do end up opening the Rajakaluve from Goshala to the ORR (impacts properties all the way from Bagmane Tech Park to Bhagini on ORR), then I would still be happy for the turn of events today. But looks like just FC gate to FC back wall will be dug as a show and life will go on as usual. How that solves the Rajakluve issue in any way is an utter puzzle.

Bangalore has received a lot of bad press for the recent spate of rains. Infrastructure, apathy etc.

We have a neighboring layout, Ferns Paradise, which is a little higher than our layout - Doddanekkundi has a lot of gentle mounds - our gate is the lowest lying point between the neighboring layouts and apartments. They have been lax in managing their excess storm water and just let everything out into the street. All our requests to manage it within their premises have fallen on deaf ears. Naturally all water collects at our gate. We have ensured we properly treat sewage and also connect to Rajakaluve as per norms. But when there is a cloud burst like what we have had since two days, there is just too much water and the Rajakaluve is unable to drain it away fast enough. The night of last year's Diwali, when we had a similar outpouring, water had come up to our compound wall. But not further. Yesterday, thanks to two days' worth of onslaught, we were seeing water come up to our gate. This has never happened before.

There are also a lot of new homes in our layout which have connected their entire storm water profile to the sewage. Despite repeated requests, this problem largely still remains unattended to. As a result, the sewage chambers outside our home overflow when there is heavy rain since they just cannot hold all that storm water. Normally, the sewage water drains into the storm water drains but yesterday it just had no place to go since the drains were already overflowing.

Thanks to us, as a layout, being strict with keeping storm water drains clear at all times, our usual experience is that once this heavy downpour lets up even a little bit, water drains away nicely.  We were unsure yesterday how much longer the onslaught of rain would last so as a precaution, we moved our cars to the upper part of our street and also sealed shut our water sump with packaging material.

Luckily neither precaution needed to kick in. The Rajakaluve did it's usual magic and once the downpour let up a bit, water drained away as usual and this morning, when I ran on the layout streets, my shoes didn't even get wet.

The takeaway from this - a little less civic apathy as communities and as individuals, goes a long way. Unfortunately, this is not to be. We continue to see people push back when asked to follow rules. So, the saga repeats.

But I do have great faith in Bangalore's citizen activism. Within our community, we have been able to use the threat of stopping work to keep our storm water drains free from construction debris, for example. Hopefully, we can continue to exert pressure on the neighboring layout to manage their excess storm water without just letting it out onto the street. At a city level, we have solved many problems despite the government inefficiencies, hopefully, over time, we will take care of this too!

 

 

Remembering May 1997

It was March 1997. For our batch of students, the most frenzied phase. Entrance examinations, college examinations, board examinations, examinations, applications, admissions. We studied and prepped and we were ready.

If only..

Starting from the day our Math paper was published on the front page in Deccan Chronicle, the iconic Hyderabad paper, our lives went on a rollercoaster. The entire Intermediate board exams were cancelled and re-scheduled to late April/early May. In what was a never-before-possibly-never-after, the IIT-JEE entrance exam was also compromised that year. Luckily the EAMCET examination was compromised just the year before so we were spared having to re-take that one as well. But the end result of all this was a medley of confusing mess of exams all sitting on top of one another, leading to a hectic May. Heck, I didn't even re-appear for the JEE since I was really exhausted and frustrated with this whole rigmarole. 

Then the results came - we basically had a fair/stalls setup in different places/districts where memorandum of marks were distributed. Students who needed them urgently had no choice but to travel to those locations to collect. If you didn't need them in a hurry, you could still wait for the usual channels. We had written umpteen letters to authorities to have the results delivered by the deadline for application to BITS-Pilani which was June-30. We got them ON June-30, thanks to then CM, Chandrababu Naidu really stepping up. From picking the marks to rushing to the only post office that was still open - Secunderabad HPO, to sending a telegram of the marks to BITS-Pilani before close of admission deadline (this was the only BITS at the time), we didn't even have enough time to look through the marks sheet and process the results and spend a moment to enjoy/relish the end of 15 years of hard work put in high school and +2. Such was the state of affairs. We went home exhausted and relieved more than anything else.

Then the local counseling got delayed. I had to make a call between taking the BITS admission or waiting for the local prospect. I had more or less decided to go to the US after engineering and so didn't want to spend even the engineering years in a hostel and so, my choice was simpler.

Local counseling started. I picked JNTU over OU - it was basically a choice between 20KM commute vs 2 KM and I picked the 20KM commute and I remember my Dad saying throughout the way back that if I have a chance, I should change it - why would I put myself through that pain for four years when I had admission to a college next door. But, I was sure I didn't want to pursue EEE, so wanted to at least give myself a chance to change it. Thank God, I was finally able to move to ECE for having picked this horrible commute, else, who knows, I might have regretted the JNTU decision big time. Or, in the very  least I would have had to listen to many "I-told-you-so", "You-should-have-picked-OU" lines. Given whom I married later, of course, now I can safely claim it was all pre-ordained that I rejected every other (and better) college to end up in JNTU - just to meet him ;)

Well, all that frenzy done and dusted. Now all set to start engineering, right? Hell, no. We joined on December-29-1997. Do NOT ask why. The local process kept getting delayed. And as if to stake a claim to being the batch of 1997-2001, we joined formally with just two days left in 1997 and went to college exactly for those two days before breaking for the new year :)))

So we ended up studying and clearing one year worth of first year engineering material in a record five months!

Anyway, rewind to that phase between July 1997-December 1997 - 6 months. A bunch of teenagers who finished college, were ready for engineering, knew which college they were going to and basically, HAD NOTHING left to do except wait. That was the time of our lives! We went to every eatery in Hyd, every movie theatre, saw all kinds of crappy movies, ate all kinds of food, basically hanged-out around the town like there was no tomorrow.

Thanks to that frenzied May, 25 years ago, we had a blissful 6 month following. The best time of our lives!

Of course, it was agonizing to live through those 6 months, not knowing when we will start (basically like our pandemic now), but thanks to being young and the advantages that come with it, we did manage to really enjoy ourselves thoroughly!

Remembering Ma, 10 years after..

This Diwali was like any other - but I couldn't shake off the thought of that Diwali 10 years ago, when we had to rush my mother-in-law to emergency at Manipal. On the way there, she kept saying, she might not survive this bout of "Amavasya" hospitalization. Her mom passed away on an Amavasya and she was somehow sure she would too. We came back - very sober, very reluctant to "celebrate". We burst a few crackers for formality and called it a night.

Although she survived that Amavasya night, she passed away exactly one Indian month later on the Amavasya following. She held on to her life so she could meet my brother-in-law one last time - till he came down, she battled hard. Not many immigrant kids are lucky like that - to find closure and be around when a parent passes away, but she made it possible for him, she wouldn't let go without him being around. 

After he came down, she, in fact recovered enough to spend about a week at home with his family and all her grand-kids. As soon as he left to attend to some work in Hyderabad, we had to rush her to emergency again the following day and that was the last time she was ever home. 

Ten years later, every time I see her picture or think of her, the only thought that crosses my mind is, she should have lived at least a couple more decades. She worked all her life and looked forward to retirement and spending time with grand kids. In fact she used to tell Rohan, that when he starts school, she would pack lunch boxes for him just like she used to for her boys. This morning Rohan said, Amma, she never got a chance to pack my lunch boxes. She never saw me go to school.

She should have lived, she should have been healthy and happy and lived at least a couple more decades. The last few months were tough for all of us, seeing her wither away, lose all her strength and consequently becoming miserable at her own lack of ability to perform even simple daily tasks - for someone who always was going about here and there, it really irritated her confining herself to one place the whole day. Adding to that dialysis thrice a week on top of her already weak frame - it was just painful to see her go through it all :( She wanted to do so much, she couldn't do anything, she really wished to be gone rather than live like that - she even said that ever so often.

One of the nights before we rushed her to emergency the last time, I was giving her an oil massage to ease the pain in her legs and when I was done, she said, you have done so much for me, I will come back and be born to you. When I see my younger one, I feel, she kept her end of this promise. I did really want a boy so she even became one to make me happy :)

She was one of my very vocal supporters and never spared any words when it came to praising or comforting me. I really miss that. Every promotion, every milestone, every achievement, first thing I wonder, if she was around, she would have said this and been so happy. We could have celebrated so well together. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

One of her last blogs - we all miss you Ma..

>>

Yesterday I returned from hospital after treatment fully exhausted , tired and hungry .Divya served me hot delicious lunch affectionately inspite of her busy work schedule ,Icouldnot stop myselffrom saying annadata sukhibhava .Ofcourse daily we have hot meals but when u r hungry and weak it makes alot of difference .GOD BLESS HER .

 >>

20 years

Today, it has been 20 years since I first moved out of my parents' home. From a "safe" environment into a totally unknown country and life. 

I really do miss Madison some days - I never imagined I would get nostalgic about a place that I have not many fond memories of. Those days were always filled with stress over finances, managing my entire life in my hands, uncertainty about the future, shaky employment situations thanks to 09/11 and what not. Not much time to focus on education which was purportedly the main reason I was there.

Yet, Madison was a serene, calm and a charming town - sometimes I look up the place on Google maps just to see those familiar streets, old homes, university buildings, terraces, Union buildings etc. Such a laid back place and if not for the winters, I would have loved to live there longer - Madison in particular and Wisconsin in general. I just HATED the winters though. I couldn't wait to move to sunny California, when I did in 2005. 

It is always a sentimental day for me. Although I moved back home in 2008 and spent far less time in the US than in India of the 41 years of my life, and it no longer relevant to any milestones or counts, it is still a strong demarcating line between a cocooned, secure life to a totally independent, self-reliant one. It taught me a great deal and I do think I managed reasonably well. I realized strong life lessons in those 18 months of pursuing my Masters which I would probably never have, had I not left everything behind. The strongest one which I still swear by "You cannot put any price to peace of mind". If something provides peace of mind and is within affordable range, it makes zero sense to not spend money on it. Money is nothing if it cannot afford you certain basic and attainable privileges. Even as a student struggling to make ends meet, I made sure to spend my money where my peace of mind was. 

I have many bad and in the later part, even more good memories from my life in the US. I tell everyone proudly, how, where most women migrate to where their husbands live/work, Subhash migrated to where I was because I was not mentally prepared to give up my fight to reach financial stability and eventually move back. Even on days when I would feel like giving up and moving back and  getting married comfortably and settling down here, he would say, it would always be a regret that I should never have to hold in the first place. And he wouldn't let me pick that option unless I was desperate and there was no other way. For this, I am always thankful.

Finally, I wrapped up that chapter, married, financially well-off (at least compared to when I started), with no job search needed afresh and happy to move home after 7 years. With ZERO regrets about whatever life had thrown my way. All in all a journey well worth it and well lived :)

 A day where I also thank the many people who made it possible for me. My family, of course, but that neighbor who sponsored funds to show in our accounts so I could get a visa and my cousin who willingly parted with 10K USD (in 2001, it was a *LOT* of money) to pay towards my tuition. Wisconsin was an expensive school. I did manage to rotate the same 10K for two semesters; getting a tuition refund at the end of each before I was finally on the UW Engineering rolls as a TA in the third semester. I finally returned it to him in 2006 - he refused to accept it before I had a stable job :) It saved me a lot of additional stress about money and finances..

13.5 years and counting - not having gone back to the US after I left it. The goal is to travel to as many other places in the world as I can before I have to go back there for personal or professional reasons. And definitely to make the first stop at Madison - where it all started. Someday, maybe in the distant future :) Thanks to this pandemic, a change in jobs didn't entail an otherwise mandatory trip to the mother-ship :)

 

40 - the decade that went by..

I wrote this piece when I turned 30. About the decade that went by. Significant in its own way and very much "sinusoidal".

In the upcoming 30s, I was expecting a lot flatter curve - and it delivered.

I lost my mother-in-law at 31 and gained her back in the form of my younger son at 33. I do believe he is "her come back" as she promised before she left..

Rest has been smooth sailing. Settling in - raising kids, moving two homes till we finally ended in the one we live in, finally changing jobs after 15 years and so on and so forth. It has been eventful, happy and content. And yet, never in spikes. And I love it that way.

If my teenage self saw my 40-year-old self, I think the teenage version would be inspired and would want to emulate the 40-year-old version. Enough said :D

Looking forward to being the same, and staying equally spirited through this next decade!!

Under lock and key for a further three weeks!

The Prime Minister of India, our beloved Modi-ji, announced lock and key for another three weeks in the interest of the country's well being. A welcome move.

I was going to ring in turning 40 this April with a dinner and a cruise and now all that is out the window. Instead I get another three weeks of guaranteed family time with husband and kids and seniors all compulsorily staying at home. Come to think of it, it would not have been possible for all of us to stay together at home for six weeks in any other permutation and combination of events! Whatsoever. Absolutely.

And for that, the big 4-0 will be remembered for a long long time to come!!

Farewell, Cisco!

In a very eerie coincidence, today, 21-March-2020, I finally formally resigned from Cisco. Should have happened a couple of weeks ago, but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic - things got pushed to the last minute. And how they landed on this very day!

15 years ago, I was due to join the company of my dreams on Mar-14-2005. After seeing a lot of rejections, 9/11-triggered unemployment and economic uncertainty, job freezes and what not, I finally landed that dream offer. Thanks to last minute H1 confusion and visa papers not coming in, the date was moved out to the next Monday, Mar-21-2005. Forced vacation for a week.

Then on 21-March-2008, after finally spending three stress-free, employed years in the US, I said bye-bye to my SJ campus since we were flying out a day later to India in what we were hoping would be a permanent move back :) Again another coincidence.

Now, after two weeks of forced staying-in, this Wednesday (25-March) would be my last day in Cisco - which also, thanks to another coincidence, was my first day with Cisco India (25-March-2008). Which also reminds me, it has been a dozen years since we moved back to this weekend! :)

Talk about coincidences and stars aligning! A new adventure starts 26-March. Looking forward to that now..

It has been a long journey, and a very cherished one. I leave behind some very good friends whom I will sorely miss and very many memories. Lot of lessons learned as well.

Finally, my marriage takes it's rightful place as the longest relationship I've had :)

US wants social media details for visa applications!

This is the only thing that could draw me back to my blog I guess :)))

Boss has been on my case to go to the US for at least half a year now. In fact one of my ex-managers and I had a bet on how much longer I can put off that trip to the mother-ship when I told him that I had never returned to the US after I moved back home for good. I "tried" opening a DS-160 in April, that is to say, I made a half-hearted attempt, filled my name and date of birth and then saw all the details they needed and just closed the application after saving the number. They want to know all details from my F-1 visa to the Green Card I abandoned, all the countries I have been to in the last five years etc etc etc. And NOW they also want this? I feel maybe getting a diplomatic passport or even investing a million dollars and getting a green card instead is a much easier option than applying for a visa :D And worse, this is when I don't even want to go :( 






It has been 14 odd years since I stood in a US consulate line and I am so NOT looking forward to it...

The BIG ten!

So, it has been ten years since we moved back to India! Time flies!!

Life has never been more content - all those little inconveniences notwithstanding. In fact someone was asking when we recently visited Hyd, about whether we have plans to immigrate and settle abroad. I said we were abroad and we moved back, and were particular about not having kids in the US, and they found that strange :)

As always, I hope fervently that the kids grow up to love India like we do!

There is only one motherland, there is just one India.

And even today, when I sing the national anthem, my eyes well up.

Every. Single. Time.

Jaya He!

Thirteen and going..

Today I finished 13 years @ my corporate Alma Mater - when I joined, I knew it was a long-term relationship so no surprises there!

I nearly forgot the day though. Pathetic! It also means, it's been ten years at the job in India - when we were moving back I was mighty nervous how it would be since I had never worked in India ever before. Boy! Did that turn out well. Of course I learnt a lot of lessons the hard way, and 9 out of the 10 years here have been in a people manager role so there were a lot of nice stories along the path too!

Here is to many more :)

A dozen!

Today I finish twelve years at Cisco. That is three in SJ, and nine in India (already!). I worked very hard to land this job what with 9/11 happening and no hiring and on top of that me being an immigrant student and all that fun stuff! But when I did land the job, what a thrill that was! It was my dream company for the longest time and I was looking forward to finally moving AWAY from Wisconsin (and the winters!) Since then, there has been no looking back. There has been a lot of learning, projects, people, products, customers, situations, hours, runs, teams, sports and what not.

And not to forget, this year the CSCO ticker finally went past the elusive 32 USD mark after ten long years!!

Mad town

Last night I dreamed about being in Madison. Not sure why, just like that, out of the blue. Its been ten years since I set sight on the only American town my heart will ever belong to! The scenario was that I was just driving past my old homes and eventually going along E Washington headed towards I-90 (the Mad-Chicago drive).

Why, no idea. But I did end up waking up nostalgic. I have a love-hate relationship with that time of my life but make no mistake, I LOVE Madison. It was the place where I first flew free, tested my wings, found strength in tough times, battled gloom, faced a lot of hardship, financial, mental, you name it, but also found a lot of things that I hold dear to this day. (Did I mention Babcock ice creams, my favourite anti-depressants? :D)

Often I have wished I had more money at that time. If I was not worrying about how to manage the groceries next month or that tuition next sem, then I would have enjoyed the bliss that the town offered way more! It was a proper university town blessed with oodles of nature (of course when the sun shone) and even winter did not seem very depressing most times, thanks to the college crowd, football cheer, Halloween rackets, Christmas parades, and what not.

I did learn a lot - lived with total strangers for the first time. Experiencing how living with room-mates, all sizes and flavours of them, would be, gaining new friendships. I learned how to swim, play racquetball, went gymming for the first time ever in life, ran regularly at the student facilities (SERF, NAT, Shell) depending on where I was living at the moment and how my schedule looked like that sem. Check-out how cool SERF is - it had a heated indoor Olympic pool and also a full fledged indoor running track on one of the levels! Running and gymming is something I started way back then and have still not given up on now as a habit!

In all probability, the one and only truly foreign culture/living experience for me, will ever be in Madison. (Only saying that since I am unlikely to go anywhere in the future which will be so "white" :) ) We had an American undergrad and another gay room-mate for a sem. It was a total eye-opener. The gay roomie had to be the sweetest. Hands down. I attended an Easter service with my office mate and co-TA one year. Complete with an egg treasure hunt. She also took me to a couple of other proper mid-west type community events. The discussions and the flavour at the events were very typically mid-west. Then there was also the ECE330 class I used to TA. I learned how to say "x over y" rather than x by y" the very hard way since my students would just not get it otherwise. I learned "zee" and unlearned "zed". Several such things. If, on the contrary, I had always been in California, then I am sure I would have never been exposed to any of this great stuff!

There is so much in the print about increasing racism in the US. When I went to Europe for my first break after landing in the US in December 2001/Jan 2002, I was only too glad to come back to the US. Although nothing untoward had happened in Europe, the US somehow felt more "welcoming". More rustic, more down-to-earth. I cannot say the same for the US I left behind in 2008. The increase in racism, or the you-are-outsiders type of treatment was very palpable even in a place like Sunnyvale. I was glad in some ways to be coming back at that time. I am not sure how Madison is faring right now. From the time I landed in 2001 to when I left in 2004, it went from one Indian store to five and several Indian restaurants. Whenever something like that happens, the "natives" do tend to start resisting.

But I am hoping that if I go back some day, I would find it still the same innocent college town which welcomed everyone with open arms!

14 and counting

Today I finish 14 years of working at a desk! I still remember my first job as a co-op at GE-Lunar in Madison - the first couple of days I was totally freaked out and wondered how I would spend the rest of my working life sitting within the same building for 8 hours straight! If I sat at the desk for more than an hour, I would feel fidgety and start to feel sleepy at the same time. It was a really nerve-wracking experience - and since it was the first couple of days (plus it was winter!), I wouldn't dare to step out for lunch, which meant 9-5 in the same building, on the same floor. I was zapped. I would never survive this for long.

And yet, life moved on. I adapted. I never thought I would survive in a techie role for more than a couple of years and yet, here I am :) Getting bored of just doing a management role and so doing something technical to "keep it interesting".

Who would have thought! :)

Athens!

We (me and three other colleagues) won the Puma Urban Stampede National Finale in March 2016 in the corporate women's category which came with a prize of an all expense paid trip to Athens. Since we were going all the way anyway, we decided to extend the trip and check out Athens at leisure.

The run itself was splendid. We all ran the 10K category as individual runners and it was a huge realization to see what a well organized run looked and felt like. It was simply an amazing experience. I did my debut 10K in 50:58 and was super thrilled. This of course set the pace for the rest of the trip - to be enjoyed thoroughly.

It was refreshing to travel without kids - I have done it after 8 long years! Sleeping well, eating well, traveling well and just doing nothing else. It was splendid. Reminded me of my Europe road trip with cousins, way back in 2001-02.

Small mercies!

Thank you to God for helping me survive the worst day yet in this year, yesterday. Started with me having a nasty fall at 5 in the morning. I've been running distance since 15 years and never once did such a thing happen. One second I was thinking of Ayana's technique, next second I was wondering why I was flying, and the third I was flat on a black top road on my right hand. The only silver lining being that I had no major injuries and was able to run 5k after the fall. But the right palm and shoulder were bruised badly and hurt like hell. I get to work thinking the worst is over when my worried mom calls after a couple of hours and suggests we take my father in law to the hospital. He had fever which was down by Wednesday only to suddenly recur on Thursday. After 7-8 hours at the hospital with him, I get home to find my older one running a temperature and throwing up whatever he ate. In all this, my right palm and shoulder continued to go worse..

Phew 😌 for all that, this morning went like a dream. I was able to run my usual today. I literally single-handedly, since my right hand was of no use and Subhash was at the hospital with father-in-law, got kids ready for school, and I was actually happy that both of them were healthy enough to even be going to school! Could've danced even with my painful hand, so glad I was.

Hope to not have another day like this ever!

Like the eternal optimist, I was happy waking up this morning that things weren't much worse, they could have been, I could have broken some bones, my father in law's diagnosis could have been a lot more serious, my parents might have been out of town, and I would have had to fend for myself etc etc. Thank god for small and big mercies and thank god for family!!

Fifteen already?!

Yesterday was Dad's birthday - which means today was the day I left home to pursue my own path in life! It has been 15 years to date! What surprises me more than the fact that it is 15 years already is that it just seems like yesterday that I wrote that 10-year note - the last five years have gone by in a snap for sure - God knows where! But the point is, I had fun, I had a lot of fun. Except, of course when I had to see my mother-in-law off to the other world.

So, thank you life! And Happy Birthday Dad! Unlike when I wrote that 10-year note, now we spend all your birthdays together, and that is priceless!

And a shout-out to all my engineering buddies. It also means we finished that engineering course 15 years ago! Gosh, we are growing old..

Mr Darcy's Diary

I'm a great fan of Jane Austen sequels - I'm a little picky since I don't want the variation to be too wild in imagination, but once I am convinced, I go right ahead and buy :)

The latest one :

Mr. Darcy's Diary -is a wonderful re-telling of Pride and Prejudice from Mr Darcy's point of view. Its really nice and sweet, just perfect. I read through it in 2 sessions and am now doing a third round :) Well worth it.

Cup of joy!

Several months ago, I read this article on Citizen Matters -

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/switching-to-sustainable-menstruation

I had heard about menstrual cups about twice by then, but had no idea how they worked - I just assumed they were another thing like Tampons.

After I read this article, I was struck very much by the fact that it is ZERO menstrual waste to landfills. I was determined to at least give it a shot, although I was always weary of even using tampons and never switched to them.

I knew if I thought too much, I would just keep postponing it, so I just went ahead and bought a Diva cup without thinking further, almost with a fierce determination.

I was a little nervous. I wanted to give it a trial once before the real deal. It was not a great experience. People did say everywhere that it would be a steep learning curve but I was more than sufficiently shaken.

Yet when the time came, I braved it, and I am so happy I did!

There is of course the ZERO guilt about generating menstrual waste month after month. And that is not even the best part! It is so amazingly convenient and comfortable, you can just forget that you are going through it! After a long long time, I've stopped cursing god/nature/whoever it is that is responsible for making women go through this pain month after month, and that is saying a lot!

Of course, when I went running there would still be some mishaps, but after 4-5 months of experience, finally the last time, even with running, it was amazing!

Ladies, if not all of you, at lease those of you who are married and definitely those with kids, please, do not make any more excuses, switch, and figure out the happiness! And of course, help in a big way with the environment :)

8

Eight years ago on this day, we took a flight out of SFO to Bangalore (never to go back - to this day at least!). We were coming back home, for me, after a seven year stint in the US.

I was a little nervous - we heard so much and yet so little. So few people moved back for good. Would we like it? Would we hate it?

Adding to that, I had never worked in India before - my first job and entire career had been in the US. People warned about things being different. There being more politics. The whole "sir", "madam" culture. Phew!

We came, we landed at a friend's place (of course all this is history, anyone can read it on my blog if they scroll back eight years!), they were gracious enough to host us for a week. Next day we set out with the friend's car and driver, spanned the length and breadth of Outer Ring Road and by evening had actually signed the lease for an apartment.

I still miss that apartment, so roomy, and airy. On the tenth floor, with a beautiful view of Bellandur Lake every morning!

Then we hunted for a house to own, bought one, had a kid, lost mother in law, had another kid, moved (in some direction at least) in careers and what not. Its been a blissful journey, one that I would not alter for anything.

It definitely helped me that most of the management at work here was from SJ and had worked there predominantly - the culture was exactly the same, made it a lot easier to blend in. My first and last day at Cisco SJ were exactly the same - 3/21. Exactly three years. I still miss that team, I have often said, the team and manager were the only things I ever missed from the US ;) But now I can confidently say, I have had many experiences here which help alleviate the longing for being back in a team exactly like that!

After we lost my mother-in-law, we often wondered, at least in the first couple of years, if we should move back. We have even traveled places to see if we would like to live there. Till date, we have not found another country we would like to immigrate to (US was anyway ruled out, been there done that, it wouldn't be exciting anymore unless some day we are forced to go back because of a super lucrative offer ;) ;) ). End of the day, polluted, or dusty, or crowded, or hot, we love this land, we want to be a part of its journey to greatness - we hope we will journey to greatness in our lifetimes and our kids will be happy and proud to have been born here!

To that day, cheers!