Now that I am 60, my life can be divided into several equal parts or chapters.
30, 20, 15, 12, 10, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
Two parts:
1️⃣ First 30 years : Bachelor
2️⃣Second 30 years: Married
Three parts:
1️⃣First 20 years: Pre-BTech
2️⃣Second 20 years: Getting established in US
3️⃣Third 20 years: Getting to the core of life
Four parts:
1️⃣First 15 years: No idea what school is. Failed in Math and English in 9th grade. Repeated the grade.
2️⃣Second 15 years: Enjoyed solving problems of math and other subjects. Got into IT-BHU (now IIT-Varanasi) and University of Cincinnati with full scholarship, tuition waiver and stipend to do MS and MBA.
3️⃣Third 15 years: Figuring out what kind of work I can do that will help me get a green card, pay my bills and give some job satisfaction as well.
4️⃣Fourth 15 years: no need to work for money. No mortgage. No debt. Live life at its fullest with no restrictions of any kind
Five parts:
1️⃣First 12 years: Living mostly the life of a small town boy. Reading several Hindi novels. Listening to lot of Hindi songs from neighborhood pan wala shops.
2️⃣Second 12 years: Moved to big towns: Simla. Calcutta. Varanasi. Faced failures and success. Ended up leaving India.
3️⃣Third 12 years: Found romance and rejection. Resorted to arranged marriage. Had a son. Struggled to get a green card. Found a very supportive employer.
4️⃣Fourth 12 years: Layoffs loom large. Tried hand at owning a franchise restaurant. Had good experience. Not my cup of tea. One thing leads to another and achieved financial independence out of adversity. Unbelievable, on one hand I was facing the prospect of layoff. And on other hand the same situation pushed me into financial independence.
5️⃣Fifth 12 years: best time of my life. Lots of poetry, music, friends, movies. Getting closer to parents.
Six parts:
1️⃣First 10 years: the most innocent years. No idea who or where my father is. So much love from a joint family. The bonds that were made then are still strong.
2️⃣Second 10 years: lots of travels with Bauji to Kashmir, Simla, Darjeeling, Behrampur, Visakhapatnam, Allahabad. Made several friends. Lots of visitors to Calcutta. I was their local guide.
3️⃣Third 10 years: college days. In India and US. One year BSc Statistics at Presidency college, Calcutta. Four years at BHU, BTech in Metallurgical Engineering. Two years at University of Cincinnati, working on MS in Materials Science and Engineering. Did not finish. Completed MBA in Quantitative Analysis and Information Systems from University of Cincinnati in two years.
4️⃣Fourth 10 years: moved from job to job. All without much planning from me. I just responded to situation at hand. I never had multiple offers. I always accepted the only offer I could get. No salary negotiations ever. No matter what the salary, I had the lifestyle that could be managed within 70 percent of my salary (post-tax) with some savings too to be able to travel to India with family. Buying four round trip tickets to India can get expensive.
5️⃣Fifth 10 years: Facing the reality of layoffs in Silicon Valley. Mapping a path to be secure. Reaching financial freedom out of a fluke.
6️⃣Sixth 10 years; having the time of my life. Able to enjoy anything and everything. Doing what I love and loving what I do.
Ten parts:
1️⃣First 6 years: Not much first hand data here. Except that I remember my first day of school. I was maybe four at that time. I remember the day Shastriji died in Tashkent.
2️⃣Second 6 years: I see my father for the first time when he returns with a PhD from London. 5th grade in Meerut English medium school. Aditi helped me through the year. Kind school principal who taught me ABCs. 6th and 7th grade from Jain school, Ratlam.
3️⃣Third 6 years: 8th grade barely passed with the grace marks from Kendriya Vidyalay, Simla. Failed 9th grade in Math and English, Kendriya Vidyalay, Fort Williams, Calcutta. Thanks to patient teachers Shambhu da and Professor Haq, I enjoyed learning mathematics.
4️⃣Fourth 6 years: Moved to Varanasi and to Cincinnati. Very very transformative years. At BHU I learned how to express my opinions no matter how strong the other viewpoints may be. Learned a lot from Professor Lele. Exemplary figure. Loved the culture of IIT where getting in is tough. After that it's a conveyor belt. You just show up and everything falls in place. Applying to the US was such a simple and democratic process. I am still amazed by how much a student body can do when they decide to collaborate. This was also the time to find a job. I was dead against working in the harsh conditions of a steel plant. So I chose the management route. But the offer of admission to University of Cincinnati arrived before I could join Bokaro steel plant. Ended up in Cincinnati. September 15, 1986. Very memorable journey. Decided to stay in the US for the rest of my life if the visa situation is conducive.
5️⃣Fifth 6 years: Finished MBA. Landed my first job as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Franklin College, Franklin, Indiana. I couldn't believe my luck. Then worked in Philadelphia for two years. Got married. Moved to Silicon Valley.
6️⃣Sixth 6 years: worked in technical support supporting Wall Street starting from 4 am to 12 noon pacific. Not much work in the wee hours of morning. Picked up html. These were the heady days of web. Yahoo. Netscape. Created very first support incident management dashboard using isql and html on port 8080. Worked from home sometimes using dialup modem and atdt sequence through dumb terminal. Had a son. H1 expired. Moved to Toronto. Had a great time there. At that time Mummy had an accident in Jabalpur. She was bedridden for several days. I didn't go to see her. I still have ton of regrets. Lady Diana passed away. Moved back to Silicon Valley. Bought a home.
7️⃣Seventh 6 years: Got the green card. Changed jobs. Owned a franchise. Moved out of Silicon Valley to Seattle.
8️⃣Eighth 6 years: Bought a home. Gained financial independence. Didn't work for a year. Started work just for fun. Explored various interests. Life is fun.
9️⃣Ninth 6 years: Bauji passed away. Put a lot of focus on Mummy. She was happy where she was. Supported her in whatever she thought was best for her.
🔟Tenth 6 years: Mummy fell down in India. She decided it's best to be with me in the US. I get an apartment for her next to Microsoft. I am able to take care of her completely with no assistance from anyone. I feed her breakfast before going to work. I come home for the lunch break, cook lunch - knead the fresh dough, cut the vegetables, cook the curry, make chapati, feed her, and then back to work. In the evening we go to temples. Stay there for four hours and then come home to sleep. We had such a lovely routine. She got her green card. Corona happened. Life changed for the better. We were together 24x7. No more temples. But we had our ducks and the pond in the apartment community. I couldn't believe life could be so beautiful. She passed away into ages. No regrets. Life took a new turn. I was now able to travel more frequently wherever I was asked to come.
