Rewards..

Where does a fortunate person start? From Birth, School? Teens? College? University? Work? Soul-mate? Marriage? Joined family? Living Abroad? North American Work Life? Pregnancy? Layoff? Motherhood???

I'm so fortunate, I have been rewarded to Live..

At every stage quoted above, Life has been behooving me.
It has taken me through so many curves, slants, straights and pits in life, this is why I feel truly Rewarded.

Being born (21.09.1981) for a lovely couple, who wanted to have me...(they assured, I was not an accident), nurtured me with love, and let me lose to learn my own lessons.

At School - June 1987, yes I found my identity as a talkative person, tom boy, average scorer, slow..sorry rather lazy runner, partly why I used to defend under the net, while we played basket ball :-).. and a very emotional person. I made lots of friends, some of whom I treasure till date, I live by the saying "Friends for life". Buddies - Mohan, Biju & Ren...hear me loud. And the rest, we may not be in touch as often, but but but..you'll still are in my thoughts. Last to quote, I was nick named PAMBU :-((

July 1997, College was a platform for my networking skills. I joined the institute with no ease, I recall dad spending long hours outside the Principal's office asking her to consider me as a prospect student. Yes ! I was rewarded with a seat, despite a 59% in my ICSE, if not for Dad..I would have been a loooZerrr!! I bullied girls from my own batch and the seniors, had a fan club, who'd pep me up to be a rowdy.
' recall Sister Rinsey, who humiliated me in front of the whole class , some 100 students, because I score 5/100 in Accountancy. Girls shat in their pants to talk to her, wait a minute, Not Me Though. I walked out of the class and I told her " I come from a family of chartered accountants, I will prove it to you in my final". I can't thank Renuka enough to have taken the interest to teach me, & I scored 55% in 1st year. Thanks to our tutor Mr Pius, I scored 80+% in my 2nd year.
Oh my..and her efforts and patience to put up with my Hindi..THANKS REN!!

Never will I miss out on penning down a booster to my complex - Getting the MISS ST. ANNE's Tittle. La & Maal, if you guyz didn't chase me, That title would not have had a Highlight by being tagged to me :-).

My first Brahmin friend Pavithra, so pious...was from the same college, she was more like a sister than a friend..more like family I mean..

July 1999 - SJCC, Blore Univ, was fun..trust me, I am a proud Josephite. Commerce college was a piece of cake, Kudos Dad. My first day - I step in with just one motive - Will make parents proud. So did I - won the Principal's Award for Batch 2001-'02, for modesty and an Award for outstanding organization skills for leading the Business Club.

B.com-Year 1, not so great. Year 2, I was getting there, Year 3 - I was there, I was their - Unanimously elected Class Rep. HR Coordinator, loved organizing campus recruitment - Had 5- 6 jobs in hand while graduating.. ha!!

And a noteworthy event - relished leading the mass bunk to take the class to Green Valley Resort for a Picnic.
Man! Man! what fun i say :-) Some of them called me Pondy too, as I wanted to organize a class trip to Pondy. By-the WAY, I was still called pambu :-(!!

Bench mates - Kala, Athu, Ally Anneka.
Ride mate - Ranju
Gangmates - Adarsh, Ashwin, Aiyapa, Kunal, Amit...
Tutionmates - Amal
"Nag"mates- MANY MANY.

June 03, 2002 - Ernst & Young, India SSL. - US TAX COMPLIANCE :-)
This was fun guyz, all work and still all play. Made some cool friends here, Archu & Hemi to mention. Had my whole Joseph's gang too. Fooled with Tax & moved Workflow management.
Can you beleive this, I had no clue about nominations for the Culture Leader post, my CEO elected me - Hands Down, Its Gai she said. I hosted the first 2 anniversaries. Met lotsa nice, cool, & annoying people. Gave me an edge towards a lots of aspects.
There used to be an ad, I met my life at Shaadi.com, i tweaked it.. I met my life at EY.com..on SAMETIME CONNECT.

March 17, 2003 - Monday; by about 3.30pm, I sent an email out to "iyer r" which in my mind was Rohit Iyer, EY Singapore (whom I became friends with, i wanted to reach out to a collegue Rohit Bhatt on sametime - ey instant chat. and being new to the application I stared sendin msgs to Iyer instead of Bhatt, and that turned to be friendship) This was a Holi Greeting, and opening the attachement on the email will color the whole screen and any application that was opened. I was casually talking to Rohit and asked him if he got the greeting I sent, and he replied "No". I quickly checked my sent box - boooooooom!! I had sent it to Raghu Iyer instead of Rohit Iyer.

O M G!! I quickly sent Raghu an email, asking him to ignore my email, he got back asking me who I was, I shivered, thought he was an Oldie- Partner or some Senior guy...and I explained myself, and that it was an error. We went back n forth - to my luck, I noticed his signature - Raghu Iyer- IT Manager, New Delhi, and my fear reduced, knew he was in a higher position, but not so high that I could be in trouble :-)
He seemed friendly, and took my mistake lightly. I had organized Holi Celebration for the firm, so I had to cut shot the conversation with this hunk:-d!
Tuesday- 10.30 am to 6.pm, all that i did was chat with Mr Iyer, this routine continued for the next 3 days, by then I was addicted to the chat or the person chatting , if I have to be precise ;-)
He told me he had to leave work soon for he had to go to the embassy to collect his Visa...VISA VISA I said, and he smiled back saying he was leaving to London on Monday, and shared his number with me to talk to him over the weekend.

I remember, texting him on Sunday morning while watching the movie- 5star at 7.45 am..and trust me it went on n on n on n on till 8.30pm, it was world-cup match and everybody was hooked on to the TV but we were to each other.

After all the texting the whole day, Raghu decided to call me and he returns drunk from the worldcup match viewing & started talking to me from 8.30pm to 11.30 that night.
Least expected a North Indian guy to talk such clear english. Relished talking to the flirt.

On 24th March, Monday 2003 - He left to UK, it is his absence that made me restless. I was not sure what I missed, but I was not myself, My Mom was not in town, and it all together hit me..UNEXPLAINED.

April 14, Monday 2003 - A month passed, and he came down to visit me. All the feelings that I had put together, fooled me when we met at the Cantonment Railway Station. He looked so much differnt. Much older than I expected. I could barely talk with him. Despite all this, he proposed to me the next morning. You must listen to this..hehehe very funny..atleast to me.
This is how the proposal happened :
Raghu - So madame X, not X anymore..tell me what do you think..
Me - Think what?
Raghu - Haa.. well about us,
Me - About us what?
Raghu - Ok, Tell me, whats next..
Me - Next what.. I dont know!! Just cant decide...I dont want to be taking the wrong stand.
Raghu - I am clear, I like you - ( well, I knew he did, as he had told Renuka this the previous evening, and she insisted I went around with him.)
Me - Raghu, I don't know...
Raghu - I am ok with any deciosn you take. For I have the will to accept it.. I know you dont..

This went on..over and over ..I was so full of his gyaan .. I am not trying to say that i didnt like him, I did, infact the % of liking was 90 for me and only 75 for him (eheh ya we asked each other how much of a probability it was te night before he saw me..)

Me- Fine Fine..what do you want, that we both move on make kids? Well lets do it..

HAHAHAHAH, I think this would have been the most unromantic way of proposing and agreeing, yet cute and I must admit, from then till date, Raghu has always based it on my emotions.

Rest of our courtship is a treasure between us two only, trespassers restricted :-)

Soon we were married, and everything fell in place well. I had a nice time being in a joint family in Delhi. Yes, must admit, for a 23 year girl, I handled in-laws very well. Thanks to my upbringing. I was appreciated , welcomed and loved.

Raghu had moved to Canada, and what do I have to do in India without him, so I cam trumbling after.

Halifax- hehehe funny place. Downtown Dartmouth, is where we stayed. I was surrounded with senior citizen and only lovely friend Annie Andrews. She was a blessing in disguise, Raghu She & I would go for walks every night. They both would laugh at my jokes sitting on the waterfront..
We discused all kinds of issues. It was a world with just 3 of us in it.. and occasionaly Dr Malik's daughter Yasmin would join us for a taste of Indian food and movies.

3 months, and thats it I said..was a punishment for a jovial person like me. To my luck, Sharda Cherwoo our CEO of SSL was then heading operations in NY for Americas. So she had referred me and gottenme a job in EY Toronto.

September 1, 2006 - Toronto here I come - I said loudly.
Beautiful, big, fast, and crowded, no comparison to place I came from. Meena Ganatra from SSL had introduced me to a girl also from SSL but then in Toronto - Sushma Srinivas..
ehhe not Su-su to me. She & I met the very 2nd day I came to Tornto. From then till this minute, we laugh n roll and scream n yell in both joy and pain...

Sush and I could talk about anything and everything under the sun. I would reserve myself from talking anything sensitive to her and I don't know if she had any such topics she reserved from talking with me.. But we spoke..we speak and we shal speak....n speak n speak.
Our conversations are never short. Luckily we both sat in the same floor, sometimes took the same train.. we had the world ahead of us to mock and mimic.