2010 - a year that just buzzed by too fast

To say that 2010 has been a year of lot of changes would be an understatement. As always, like every year, we felt that this year too went by too fast – but then 2010 was really a fast year for us. A lot happened this year – I changed my job after spending nearly 9.5 years with AT&T, we sold our house and bought a new one, our younger daughter left for college, we (both Nandita and I) traveled to several places for business and personal reasons. Above all, we reconnected with a lot of friends from the past, and present – thanks largely to the social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.

The Kids

We only need to look at our daughters to realize that time really does fly. Shivangi turned 19 years old while Neha turned 18. Wow – they are almost out of their teens. Both have been tremendous help and have turned out to be very good kids. We are always thankful that we have been part of their lives and that they have turned out to be good, responsible kids.
Shivangi is now a sophomore at Mills College, as part of her three year dual degree program. She completes her BA in Math from Mills in 2012 and will go to USC, to complete her Industrial Engineering in another 2 years. She has gained a lot of confidence and enhanced leadership skills. She traveled, all by herself, to Florida & Oregon, to attend conferences for the shakha related activities – which she continues to be greatly involved in. She also manages the planning for the local chapter of the shakha in San Ramon.

Niharika or Neha, as we call her, turns 18 on the last day of the year. She graduated from California High School and decided to join St. Mary’s college. She will major in Bio-chemistry. She also continues to be involved in the local shakha and helps in planning activities. We see a lot of changes in her, with just six months of college dorm experience. She has gained a lot of confidence and now has opinions and contributions to all our conversations. She still continues to be the baby of the family though 

Nandita and I

Nandita and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary this year. Considering that we are both 46 years old, we have been married for half our lives so far. We have come a long way since 1981, when we first met over the dissection of a frog. (You can read about that here). It still feels like it was only yesterday that I met her and it has been a great ride - I’d do it again in a flash, if I had to.

2010 completes our 10th year in the US and in San Ramon. Life has been good to us here and we are thankful for it every day. In July, we sold the house, in which we had stayed for seven years and bought another one in August. For a short period of three weeks, we had to rent a house – and we’d discourage all our friends to from attempting a move twice in a period of 4 weeks. The new house is great, we have great neighbors here too and we love it. The house is almost an empty nest, as Shivangi too will leave for the dorm in 2011, but we are getting used to it and starting to plan for our life after the kids move out. We can see a lot of travel, reading, pursuing old hobbies in the next several years.

Our jobs

I worked for AT&T as a Technical Director until Mar of 2010 – and that was a good nine and a half years. I loved my job and my team there. However, one of my previous bosses asked if I was interested to work for her again. It is not very often that you get to work with a person you respect, you enjoy working and, with whom, can be on the same mental frequency. It took me some time to figure out that it was worth the risk and today, I am glad that I decided to switch to the Bank Of America. I work there in the eCommerce team as a Sr. VP and am responsible for the delivery of projects. Simply put – I love my job and my team.

Nandita has continued to work as a Director in the Clinical and Technical Affairs at Coagusense. It is a small startup company, based in Fremont and is just getting the product established. The company’s product was approved by FDA and the future looks bright as orders have started coming in.

The travels

In Jan, we returned from a three week long India trip that we took with our friends, Sue and Rory. It was a fun trip and we loved every day there. It was good to reconnect with old friends and visit new places. There is always a lot to see in India. I revisited India in July, though for an official trip. It was a hectic 5 day trip, and I covered Hyderabad and Chennai in those 5 days. I also traveled to Charlotte, NC (about 6 times) and Evergreen (Colorado) on official trips.

Nandita traveled to New York, New Jersey, Princeton, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, Detroit, Indiana, and San Diego on business trips. Her trips are shorter and more for trials or training of a new customer. She also traveled with Neha to visit Drexel University in Philadelphia, and they visited a few other towns in the neighborhood. She also made a two week trip to India, to visit her mother and brother during their health crisis – both are doing better now.

Shivangi attended a Shakha Yuva Varga (Youth conference) for the West Coast in Oregon and also a national one in Florida. Neha traveled to Philadelphia, to see Drexel University, where she had been accepted, and also visited New York, New Jersey, and Princeton.
We took a short family vacation to San Diego in the last few days of the year.

Activities

We did a lot of things – but nothing beats the concert that Nandita and I attended. It was Paul McCartney’s concert in AT&T Park in San Francisco, where he performed after nearly 40 years. I had wanted to watch him perform since I was 18 years old – and we finally got the chance to do that on the 9th of July, the day after I returned from a very hectic India trip. But, the jet lag vanished when he came on the stage and we sang and danced to all the 45+ songs he sang in a three hour concert - definitely one of the highlights of the year for us.

Nandita participated in the Ekal Marathon – she and her group of friends practiced every Saturday for several months to complete the 13 miles half marathon to support the Ekal Vidyalaya in India. Unfortunately, at the last minute she had to leave for India, to attend to her mother’s health – but thanks to all our friends, she was able to contribute towards the cause to support 3 schools this year (they need $365 per school per year).

The whole family (Nandita more than all of us put together) contributed time and effort in the Sewa project – which is a volunteer effort to feed the homeless in Oakland’s People’s park. We sponsored the food on Shivangi’s birthday and will be sponsoring the lunch in the Livermore temple for Neha’s birthday.

Nandita and the girls continue to be very active members of the Hindu Shakha in San Ramon and Bay area.

I have been very actively involved with the organization GITPRO (Global Indian Technical Professional) chapter in Contra Costa. We had a few meetings his year and plan to have regular monthly meetings in 2011. The intent of the group is to bring together the Indian Technical professionals and guide them to work together to build a solid network across the world. It is a nice group with no political and no religious affiliations/aspirations and only aspires to help Indian Technical professionals.

On the extended family front, things are ok. Nandita’s mother fell and broke her shoulder. Her Alzheimer is worsening with age and there are good days and bad. We are learning to take the good days and making the most of them. One of Nandita’s brothers suffered a heart attack and recovered successfully. My mother is doing fine in Indore, and plans to visit us in early 2012 – by the grace of God, she is quite active and passes her time by reading and painting.

Movies we saw
Some mentionable English movies we saw – Iron Man 2, Harry Potter – Deathly Hallows part 1, The A Team, Eclipse – the twilight Saga, Inception, Expendables, Prince of Persia, Despicable Me, Green Zone, Shutter Island, Mega mind, Date Night, Knight and Day, The Bounty Hunter
Hindi Movies – Only some old Hindi movies

Some good Books we readEat Pray and Love, Katha, The winner stands alone,
Leading by questions, Astronomical dating of Mahabharata, Life of Ved Vyas, Strategic Thinking: A Nine Step Approach To Strategy And Leadership For Managers, Our Iceberg is melting, Goal.