2013 – In Hindsight

To say 2013 went by quickly would be the understatement of the year.

With the communication technology so vastly improved, there has been an overdose of social apps. There is little we don’t know about the connected people in our network, and at times we know a bit more than needed. But, as has been my practice over the past few year, here is a summary of what happened in the year around me.

People we lost in 2011

Nelson Mandela was perhaps the biggest news of the year, and though he had been in & out of the hospital with near death experiences, the news still created a feeling of sadness around the world for having lost one of the last great leaders.

Margaret Thatcher was another one that had impressed me with her leadership skills. The Iron Lady, as she was commonly called, had a great stint as the UK PM for nearly 11 years.

I grew up reading the books written by Tom Clancy, and his death in the year was another big loss.

  

Major news events in 2013 that made headlines, and caught my attention:

• Kumbha Mela in Prayag (Allahabad) in India
• Sachin Tendulkar retired from cricket – for me that was probably the last attraction for Indian Cricket.
• Swami Viveknand’s 150^th birth anniversary was celebrated across the globe
• Barrack Obama took the oath to continue as the USA president for the second term.
• Narendra Modi made a lot of headlines in India and emerged as a leading candidate for post of India’s Prime Minister
• Arvind Kejriwal created the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party – Common Man’s party) which swept the ruling Congress Government from power in Delhi. He seems to have a lot of charisma, and if he can remain honest, he will be able to do wonders for the India Politics.
• Obamacare ran into multiple issues – both political and logical (with the launch causing severe performance issues).

 The Kids

Shivangi is now a senior at University of Southern California (USC), majoring in Industrial Systems Engineering. She graduated earlier in 2011 from Mills College with major in Math. In the summers, she interned at Niagara Water bottling company in Ontario, California and wants to pursue a career in Supply Chain Management. She was elected the Vice President of her sorority at USC, and has built a good network for herself.

Neha, turned 21 on the last day of the year. She is now a senior in St. Mary’s college, majoring in Bio-chemistry, and is thinking about a career in medicine, genetics or pharmacology. She has continued to be very involved in the local Hindu chapter of the Hindu Volunteers Group (HSS) and helps in running its daily activities by helping her mother with the efforts in that area. Her 21^st birthday was a fun event – where Nandita had planned a surprise party for her. We had invited some of her friends, Shivangi’s friends and our close family friends over for lunch on the day, while Nandita took her out to get her nails done. It was fun to surprise her. Earlier, over the weekend, Nandita had arranged for a helicopter ride from San Carlos airport to Half Moon Bay – thanks to her friend, Terri Mead.

Both the girls will graduate in May of 2014.

Nandita and I

Nandita and I turned are inching towards our 50s. We have been married for nearly 27 years now, and have known each other a lot longer (since 1981).

We are so pleased and honored to see so many people feel comfortable visiting our humble abode and staying with us. Between April and Dec, I think there was barely a week when there was no friend/family member visiting us or staying at our place. Some of the folks that visited us were Nandita’s Cousin with her family (Rucha’s parents) from Pune; my College Professor Mrs. Sumedha Nashikkar and her husband, Anil (took me nearly 20+ years of convincing to finally get her to come); my college friend Farhan Pettiwala and his wife, Navya; Our childhood friend Sharmila Dey and her daughter; Alicia and Jeff Sandoval; Tanvi Sinha, and my wife’s neice Priyanka and her mother to name a few. It feels like a good to see people feel at home at our place, and we had some fun times with all our visitors. 

Our jobs

I changed my job last year in November, moving from Bank of America to a start up named Tria Beauty. The company makes laser operated bio-medical devices, which are FDA approved to be used for skin care like at-home Laser Hair Removal, Anti-aging and Acne treatments. I had been keen to move into the start-up sector, and this opportunity just happened to come along at the perfect time, just as both the girls were entering their final year of under-grad education. I am currently the head of IT, and am responsible for eCommerce architecture, ERP and IT Infrastructure. When I look back at what I helped the IT team achieve, I can’t help but feel proud of what the team has done this year (we saved the company nearly $1.5M by sheer negotiations and using better & cheaper options).

Nandita has continued to work as a Director in the Clinical and Technical Affairs at Coagusense, the small start-up company based in Fremont. Coagusense continues to do well, and became profitable this year (its 5^th year of existence) – a huge step for it.

The travels

My business trips took me to Palm Springs, in California, Phoenix in Arizona, Indore and Hyderabad in India. I traveled to Los Angeles as well. During my Indore trip, I got to attend the annual events at Daly College, my Alma Mater, after a few decades. It was very nostalgic and brought back some great memories. I also got to meet some very close friends.

Nandita traveled to Seattle on business trips and Indore to help her brother who was ill.

  

Activities

I continued to be very active as the coordinator for the Contra Costa Chapter of Global Indian Technology Professionals (GITPRO). This year, we had 5 monthly events in our chapter that covered various topics like preparing for an interview, planning your career, Financial and Tax Management, Cloud Technology, Innovation, and Legal aspects of starting your own Venture etc. There is a lot planned for this in 2014.

Nandita and Neha continue to spend their weekends with the Shakha work and supporting the Sewa Project, where the volunteers prepare 75 lunch packages to go and feed the homeless in Berkeley’s People’s Park. Nandita also continued to be involved with her writer’s club, where the members (all ladies group) meet once a month on a Friday evening at someone’s home and read the write-ups that they have prepared. She also contributed a weekly column called Diary of NRI to Daink Bhaskar – a local newspaper published from Bhopal in India.

During my recent India trip, I got to spend a week with my mother. It was a good feeling for both of us, especially after her surgical repair of the thigh bone earlier in Jan 2013. She is doing great, by God’s grace and is able to walk about without the walker. I am hoping to be able to bring her to the US soon.

TV shows and Movies we saw

•   Some mentionable English movies we saw – Man of Steel, Star Trek into Darkness, Thor 2, The Wolverine, Hunger Games – catching Fire, Gravity and Oblivion.
• Hindi Movies –some Hindi movies that we saw (and recommend) – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Yeh Jawaani hai Diwani, OMG. 
• TV Serials we followed –Covert Affairs, Rizzolli and Isles, Bones, NCIS, Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, Person Of Interest, Necessary Roughness and Sherlock.

Other happenings – Sachin’s retirement from Cricket and being awarded Bharat Ratna, the highest Civilian award in India. 

Looking forward into 2014 – In the first half of the year, I have plans to travel to San Antonio in Texas, Miami in Florida, Seoul in Korea and London in UK . I am also hoping to take a cruise this year and a vacation to Australia/NewZealand as well as take my daughters for a short vacation trip to India. On my work front, I am getting ready to launch a new eShopping website that we designed and built.  Here is hoping that all these can go very smoothly, as planned. I am looking forward to meeting more of my close friends and family in 2014. Cheers!!

Can we get any more Neanderthal?

A lot is happening everywhere in the world today, and people are preparing to spend the weekend with their loved ones getting ready for the New Year which is just around the corner. Many organizations will honor people that have done something hroic for the society. CNN, for one, runs a program to honor Heroes over the world and nearly all the folks showcased in that program are true Heroes.

But then, every once in a while, there are assholes (Please pardon my French!) that prove that some humans are actually going backwards in time. first, there was the deranged soul that shot several innocent kids in Newtown (CT), and I thought that it was a new low. But then, I read about the girl who was gang-raped in a Delhi bus on Dec. 16th, then beaten and thrown out to die. After fighting for her life over the past several days, she finally succumbed today to her grave injuries amidst multiple organ failures in Singapore.

Over the past few days, I have been reading comments about the incident and following the news in the Indian/world news media. One friend suggested that the modern clothing was one of the causes for this incident or growing crimes against women in India, while another blamed Indian movies - especially the provocative songs like Sheela ki Jawani or Munni or Halkat Jawani for these increasing crimes. The weird part was that some of these comments came from women, and some from parents who themselves have daughter(s).

India is not alone in seeing these crimes spurt. Just a couple of years back, there was a similar incident in Richmond, California where 6 highschool students gangraped a fellow student after a highschool party where they were all drinking together. Date rape is also a fairly common thing in the wild west. And rape is still a stigma all over the world, which prevents the victims from coming forward to report it. But what makes the case in India more barbaric and deplorable, is the way the girl was treated. Without going into the details (I am sure you can read about the gory details by Googling the news), let me just state that the girl was raped, then beaten with iron rods and then thrown out in the bushes from the moving bus.

The girl fought bravely her sever injuries for several days. During this time, several of the women's group finally decided to stand up and take the up the fight. There have been demonstrations all over the country. My wife and I were talking about the case just a few nights back, and we discussed her remote chances of survival as she struggled with speticemia and organ failures. For the first time, the Indian Government sponsored a civilian to be sent to Singapore for treatment. During her flight, she collaped and the doctors were able to revive her. So, the odds were always against her.

Over the next few days, there will be many discussions, arguments, and demonstrations on this topic. There will be "experts" willing to share their wisdom, and then there will be the news media goons who will keep sensationalizing the event. People will dissect every statement, move including the decision to send her to Singapore. But where do we go from here? Can we really blame the "clothing" or the "movies" for such deplorable acts? Is it not our lack of respect for women that is the real reason? What is the punishment for this crime? Many angry people have said that the perpetuators should be castrated and then tarred! Is that the right thing to do?

Lot of questions and I don't really see any immediate answers. One can't change the mindset by just bringing in laws and rulings. It takes a more sustained effort at a grassroot level - and unfortunately, no body is really talking about that. As a father of two beautiful daughters, I often worry about their safety - but I know I have brought them up well, they are strong, and that they are in a place where women are somewhat respected -- not because of what they wear or how they dance or sing - but just because they are who they are. That said, I am hoping that India can use this incident to come up with a movement to bring back the respect for women in the Indian Society.

I pray that the girl's soul her family can find some peace!!

If I were the Prime Minister of India

It is never an easy job running an organization of any size – leave alone a country especially if it is as diverse and large as India. Given its history of corruption, misuse of power and lack of foresight amongst its leaders, this would take a very skilled person to run this country and bring it to the path of advancement that the people in India truly deserve.

Here is what I’d do if I were to ever become the Prime Minister of India.

I.                    Constitution:

a.       Form a committee to rewrite the constitution in 2 years. Major changes –

                                                               i.      Mandatory requirement for becoming a MP or hold a public post – person must be born in India, to Indian parents and should NOT have a partner or spouse born in another country.

                                                             ii.      Build a mix of parliamentary and presidential form of government. The parties fighting the election will need to declare a leader beforehand.  No person can hold a post for more than 8 consecutive years, with elections occurring on a fixed date every year and the country electing the full parliament every 4 years. Villages should choose Panchayats and vote for people, not parties. Every town and city will have MLAs and MPs based on population.

                                                            iii.      Ministers will need to be subject matter experts in the field and will be advised by experts in that area. E.g – defense minister will need to be a defense expert with experience of defending the country and will be aided by a council of former chiefs of armed forces.

                                                           iv.      Member of Parliament can only have power to vote yes or nay on the issue in front of them. They can ask or question the reasoning behind the bill and also form parliamentary committees to question anyone on the happening in the country. They can also introduce new bills for the parliament to discuss. They do not get to allocate utilities like gas distributors or fuel stations.

                                                             v.      NO regional parties – only national parties or independents can fight the elections. There will be three national parties. Regional parties only create division of the country.

                                                           vi.      Leaders and people causing factionalism (on basis of cast, creed, and language) will be dealt with severely.

                                                          vii.      Move away from division of states based on language.  States will be made larger, and pool in resources. People will elect their own leaders, based on their personal appeal rather than party guidelines.

b.      Elections will be clean, less noisy and parties will be held accountable for cleaning the banners, slogans etc. with a heavy penalty for noise and graffiti.

c.       Filing of taxes over the age of 18 mandatory. All cash transactions will be tracked and limited to certain value ( 

II.                  Law and Order

a.       Give autonomous status to CBI and EOW to investigate crimes.

b.      Create a committee to revise the criminal law – use experts in criminal law to fill loopholes. Devise a faster mechanism for verdicts. Investigation agencies will spend time to analyze the cases before presenting it to court.

c.       Maintain a full database of every Indian with Biometrics and DNA record. All indivisuals will be required to carry a photo-id at all times (driver’s license or voters card) will be made mandatory.

d.      Install Closed circuit TV on all major roads and crossings of the country.

e.      Civil cases over property which have been in the court for over 10 years will be given 6 months to reach an amicable settlement. After which, the property will be taken over by the government for public use.

f.        Improve road and traffic laws. Implement a new driving license system and everyone will need to reapply. Make person approving the driver’s license responsible for the driving capabilities of the driver -- a track record will be publicly available of who approved most accident prone drivers. Also, during the driver’s test, the approver will need to ride with the person applying for the license.

g.       Implement strict copyright laws and track internet piracy.

h.      Crack down heavily on resources causing riots based on religion.

III.                Anti - Corruption

a.       This is easier said than done. But it needs a strong leader with a strong will power. I’d declare that anyone in the public figure (from a Babu to a leader) willing to acknowledge every having taken any bribe or favors from public will have 30 days to acknowledge and return the money to the Government. No penalties or fines will be assessed on what was declared. However, after the 30 days period, I’d ask the public to file anonymous complaints on the incidents when they had to bribe to get the work done – all they’d need to submit is when, how much, to who and for what. Immediate enquiry will ensue and leaders will be fined by up to 5 times the said amount.

b.      All government employees will be deemed as public figures and what they say or do will be open to public under the right to public information. Only the defense personnel will be excluded from this. What this means is that if you are a minister or a secretary, you’d be under the scanner at all times and your phones, offices, homes and cars will be tapped.

c.       Property taxes will be assessed based on market prices. All transactions will be recorded directly by companies which will research ownership history and provide insurance against legal issues around ownership. Failure to record real prices will result in fines equivalent to twice the difference, and on repeat failures, withdrawal of license to do business. Also, buyers will need to be recorded by biometrics methods (retinal scans, in addition to other means). This will ensure that multiple property owners will be taxed at higher rates.

d.      All MPs will have to declare their property and earning details every year.

e.      Whistle blowers will be eligible for up to 33% of the yield in the raid. Example - Charge of traffic tickets will be distributed 3 way, with the cop getting 33%, 33% going to the state police benefit fund and remaining for the state public benefit fund.
f.    News media will be encouraged to investigate and publish information about scams. Journalists and media providing details about scams will be awarded with a portion of the total amount recovered.
g.   Indian Government will go after money stored in foreign banks, and if the owners can't reveal the source of that money or proves that they had paid taxes on it, the assetts will be confiscated.
h.   Plan for ways to force out the hidden black money in the country -- example, by introducing new currency notes, and mandating registration of property owners using biometrics etc.

IV.                Energy and natural resources

a.       Green energy will be leveraged wherever possible. Focus will be on Solar, wind, and Nuclear power wherever possible.  Reduce reliance on imported fuel.

b.      Every household will need to install water conservation methods. This will include Energy efficient appliances, methods of conserving rain water

c.       Cities will need to plan for rain water conservation – including but not limited to rain gutters on every building, storing rain water, increasing catchment area and marking green belts. Every road should be lined with native trees that have been cut over the years.

d.      Citizens will be encouraged to plan a tree for every year of their age – as a way of giving back to nature.

e.      Clean up rivers, creeks by removing obstructions and deepening the rivers to carry more water. Every major city will mark areas to store water in form of lakes which will be earmarked as picnic areas to generate funds for maintenance.

f.        Encourage use of public transport with incentives. Give tax rebates for using public transport in lieu of gas (petrol/diesel) driven vehicles.

V.                  Employment and Education

a.       Government employees will be the best of the best and will be amongst the highest paid. If people do not understand that government employment means public service, and not personal gains, they shouldn’t join the government service.

b.      All reservations in schools/colleges and jobs will be canceled immediately, as they have only helped in dividing the country. Only the armed forces and tribes from adivasis (aborigines) will be given 10% reservation during admission to higher education each. There will be an extra 10% for women.  For everyone else, the fees structure will be based on their tax returns only. Anyone availing the reservation will be required to serve 3-5 years in the government designated area of their education.

c.       Public schools (meaning schools run by Government) will be made free and will provide quality education. The teachers will be highly qualified and highly paid. Everyone must realize the impact teachers have on the life of students and it is very important that the formative years are well taken care of.

d.      One year of paid mandatory service in the armed forces in a non-border area before the age of 25 years. This could be in paramilitary forces or armed forces and will inculcate the discipline required in all. Continue Short service commissions (5 years’ service). Provide veterans all the help in getting job placements.

e.      Remove teaching of religion from all schools. Schools will instead be required to teach a mandatory subject about true Indian culture and history based on facts and documentary visits to various places of relevance.

f.        Mandatory learning of 3 languages, including English and Hindi. Students will have a choice to learn a language spoken in the country (along with Hindi and English) until the 5^th grade, and then can choose to either continue further studies in it until their tenth grade or pick any language of the world (other than English) to study. Advanced courses in the same languages will be offered beyond the tenth grade too.

g.       Education courses will change to keep up with the advances in tech world. Strong emphasis will be on learning by practice and research. Move away from just theoretical learning.

VI.                Industry and Commerce

a.       Encourage exports. This will mean that quality will need to improve. I’d fine the companies that export sub-par goods, as it tarnishes the name of the country.

b.      Companies importing goods will be encouraged to import goods in knocked-down state. Depending on how much of the items are imported, there will be varying duty. Assembly and QA in India would help get more manufacturing jobs in the country.

Companies opening up manufacturing facilities in India will be given tax rebates.

c.       Make the process of opening and running a business a single window operation – with everything available online or at one window. Minimize red tape.

d.      Encourage R&D and innovation. Companies opening up R&D facilities in India will be given tax rebates.

e.      Small businesses like groceries and cafes in towns get preferences over large scale operations like Walmart or Reliance.

VII.              Agriculture

a.       Build an intricate canal system across the country to drain and store water.

b.      Farmers will be owners of the land.

c.       Form farmers cooperatives to sell directly to users

d.      Government will subsidize the farming equipment and material heavily and provide all assistance to farmers.

VIII.            Defense

a.       India will have the strongest armed forces in the region, with advanced capabilities to attack deep within any country.

b.      Heavy emphasis on R&D to produce indigenous equipment. There will be a farm of Indian satellites in and around the country, strong number of aircrafts, ships, tanks and drones.

c.       We will not attack first, but will reserve to right to go after people or countries that run proxy wars or indulge in terrorist attacks.

d.      Form an alliance with neighboring countries to form a common armed pact – that will induce close collaboration.

e.      No negotiations with terrorists. We will go all out to kill anyone trying to terrorize our population. If the attack is perpetrated outside our country, we will go after the people that planned it outside.

IX.                Culture and religion

a.       People can practice their religion freely – by following the policy of Live and let live – as long as the beliefs don’t hurt the country’s progress or unity or integrity.

b.      Each religion’s place of worship will be brought under a governing body run by the religious heads of that religion. Example- Hindus will have a central body run by the 4 shankar acharyas with the chief position rolling between all four on a quarterly basis. All foreign donations towards religious societies will be distributed by the government across all religious societies. It will be ensured that parties are really doing social welfare work. Religious conversions will be stopped, as there is more than one way to worship.

c.       Promote the historical culture, and natural beauty of India abroad for tourism. Set up infrastructure so that it becomes easier for people to travel to various sites in India and learn the real history of the locations.

d.      National holidays will be limited to a handful – Independence day, Republic day, Veterans day (aka Shahid Divas), Holi, Rakhi, Eid, Gandhi Jayanti, Christmas, and Diwali. For other religious days, people following that religion can take a leave from their allocated days.

e.      Every nationally recognized religion/sect will be asked to declare areas of their religious significance. These will be given federal and state protection and preserved.

f.        No more processions on the major streets. Disrupting traffic will cost heavy fees and/or penalties.

g.       Religious places will not be allowed to create noise. So no more booming loudspeakers sending waves of sound of mantras, shlokas or azzaans. The sounds of the praying places should not leave the walls of the place.

h.      Religious places will be treated as zones of sanctity, and priests will run them with efficiency. Police or armed forces will enter them only to pray or to catch criminals if they take shelter there. Under no circumstances will we allow any religious place to become the hub of criminal activity and if that happens, the authorities running that place of worship will be blamed/penalised.  

X.                  Foreign policy

a.       Remain non aligned, but try to form a close alliance of defense with neighboring countries like Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Shri Lanka, Afganistan and few African countries, on the lines of NATO.

b.      Form a united south east Asian group to promote inter country trade, with subsidies and benefits to member countries.

c.       Encourage Bangladesh and Pakistan to rejoin India. Open invite to the youth of these countries to join India in path to forward march. The invite will be especially extended to mothers and daughters, who are welcome to get away from orthodox shackles on freedom of choice for women.

d.      Establish close ties with Israel, European Union and further strengthen time tested ties with US and Russia.

There is a lot more that I’d like to add here – but I guess this will be a long article. What do you  think would be best for the country if you were to lead it?

Water Harvesting in Indore

The recent spate of floods in India has become a cause for concern for many in the stricken areas. While there are floods in some parts of the country, there are any parts that are facing acute water shortage.

I remember when I was a kid, there was a lot of rainfall (average was 44 inches per annum) and there was never a shortage of water. We would run in the monsoon rains and play. We’d make little paper boats (I got my grandmother to make me some) and watch them float into the flowing water. It was fun activity for all the kids in the neighborhood. I still have photographs that show that the water level in the Khan river was right up to the road level near Navlakha and that lakes like Pipliyapala, Bilawali and Sirpur, were full. So what has gone wrong now, that we are facing such water shortage issues. My personal opinion is that we have ruined the water supply supply system ourselves by the lack of planning and our greed to build and usurp land. Here is why:

About 40 years ago, I remember that the roads in Indore had little “Naalis” on the side. These were like the tiny drains on the side of the roads to drain the access water. These then dumped the water into the creeks (called Naalas) flowing in the city, which eventually met the Khan river or were emptied into the city lakes. Since there was a lot of open land, water would seep into the ground and replenish the underground water. And there were hundreds of thousands of trees, mainly in the catchment areas.

Now we have done away with the Naalis by the roads. The creeks are filled with dirt or are covered by land usurpers and homes have been built on those. Basically, we have cut the capillaries and arteries of the supply system. There are fewer open land slots. As a result, all the rain water is wasted. And of course, there are no trees left in the entire city -- let alone in the catchment areas. Can you imagine, even this year Indore received about 35 inches of rain and there is a short supply? Compare that with places in California or even the village of Anna Hazare, which only get about 7 inches of rain in the entire year, but is totally self sufficient in terms of water.

In California, there is a lot of greenery in the suburbs. The reason is that the government has mandated grey water be harvested and used for watering the grass and plants in the local gardens. Drains collect the rain water from roof tops and from the sides of the road and this is then sent to local creeks. Basically, water is harvested. Anna Hazare has done the same thing in his tiny village in Maharashtra.

It is still not too late. We can recover from this mess that we have created ourselves. All it needs is some collective will power and good leadership.

Shivangi -- grown up and in college

This one is something that was started by my wife, Nandita, and I have added a few lines.

My elder daughter, Shivangi, started college this week.

It has made me realize how time flies. It makes me realize how limited that duration is, when we have our children to ourselves. Soon all we're left with is all those mental vignettes and snapshots of events...I feel proud to see her blossoming into a confident young woman. Of course there will be celebrations of achievements and culminations of years of hard work - but, I'd always think of her as my little daughter.

I remember the day she was born, about eighteen years ago. We were all crowded around the doors of the Operation Room in Greater Kailash Nursing Home in Indore. After a long night of pains, my wife and I finally came to the hospital. Dr. Ahilya Mukherji was the doctor and Nandita's childhood friend, Anjali, was the assistant. After several hours of wait, they finally decided to take her in the OR to do a C-section, as the baby was getting under stress. I remember the way my father-in-law sat in a corner in the room and prayed, my dad talked to other doctors in the hospital and I paced around the floor outside the OR. At about 7.20 PM, Anjali came out and announced that every thing was ok and we had a baby girl. My first question was about my wife's health and then I went in to see my wife and my baby. There she was -- all wrapped in a bundle, quiet and sleeping. I picked her up gently and clumsily and gently kissed her forehead.

I remember the anxiety when on the third day, I came to the hospital to find her with tubes and under UV light. But it was a minor hiccup. We brought her home soon and things became a blur of activities. As my wife and I had decided, the first child was to be named with the letter S and we chose the name Shivangi - after the name of Lord Shiva, based on a dream I had had (that is a write up for another blog). Shivangi soon became the hub of all activity. She demanded attention and wouldn't let me talk to anyone if she was in the room -- whether she was eating, or drinking milk from her bottle. She'd make this weird grunting noises when I started to say something to anyone else in the room. I also can't forget the countless nights I spent walking in my room with her in my arms, in the middle of the night, so that she could get some sleep. She was adored by one and all -- and was the apple of my dad's eyes. I could sense the attachment in both their eyes when they spent the time together -- so much so that for a long time, Shivangi claimed him as only her grand-dad and Neha, my younger daughter, called him as Didi's (elder sister) grand dad.

She was smart, sensitive and perceptive even as a baby. I clearly remember her first day at the informal pre-school/Day Care behind my house, where she was the only child who was crying when it was time to come home. Then she started a formal pre-school by the name of Mini Land and once again, she frolicked in without a backward glance at us. Her eagerness to go to school persisted next year when she went to Mini Heights where she continued to amaze us with her brilliance. I also remember, that she went to give her interview for the elite private school for Kindergarten. I was so apprehensive when they took her away in a different room, but she just skipped in to match the teacher's step. When they had finished testing her reading/writing and recognition skills and it was time for her to leave, she was adamant that she had not tried all the stations they had set up. We were told that we could just pay the fees at the office and not wait for the final selection list to be posted.

I believe her endearing nature made her the teacher’s pet. She excelled at everything, sports, arts, singing, studies and making friends. I also remember the time we were called by one of her teachers and told that we should not teach her ahead as she gets bored and sits staring out of the window, chair turned back to the blackboard. When we were skeptical of what she could do, the teacher asked Shivangi to write on the blackboard and she promptly did that , explaining as she did that this was so simple. The day that she boarded the school bus for the first time, is still clearly embedded in my memory. My wife stood there, visibly upset, but Shivangi was beaming as the bus conductor took her in and, by the return trip, had made friends with the driver and was already commanding the seat closest to him. She was super excited as she told us about her fantabulous day, and never once said that she missed home. She loved to go to school so much so that one day she ran out incompletely dressed and actually went to school like that.

I remember the time she visited the hospital when Neha was born -- all of 15 months old. She was awfully quiet when she walked in the room. She just sat near Nandita, looking at her and then the new baby. But she quickly adapted, and when we brought Neha home, Shivangi would often push Neha's stroller when we went for walks. They have grown up together into great friends, talking care of each other and ready to support each other. Shivangi always showed deep affection for her younger sister, she never showed any sibling jealousy and willing shared most everything. Her academic life has followed the same high achievement trajectory laced liberally with arts, music , sports and friends. Though, she has given up formal piano lessons, but I still hear her play. She has given up tennis lessons but luckily has been selected to play in her College Tennis Team. She has given up art as a subject, but just last week, she spent a long time in making an oil painting that she gifted to her piano teacher. She is now driving herself, compared to the previous modes of walking holding my hand, walking by herself, auto rikshaw, school bus, and sitting in my car. I will no longer see her waiting to be picked up by me, rather she will get out from her car and stride confidently in.

The last 4 years were devoted towards reaching this goal and now that it is here, I have several feeling. There is however, no feeling of loss, 'cause I have not lost anything. I feel thrilled to see her just the way I had dreamed her to have grown, and yet I know that this is just a beginning of a new journey. It is just end of one chapter for now. There is more to come....