Today marks a very special day in our lives– Ranjini and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that it has been a decade already! Feb 23rd also happens to be my parents wedding anniversary!
We have experienced the joy of being newlyweds, the excitement of our careers, and the sorrow of death in the loss of her grandparents and my uncles and aunts. We have dealt with fear of health issues, both our own, and our loved ones. We have experienced the joys of buying our first home, and raising two wonderful kids to fill ‘Advaita’ with noise and laughter. We have grown in our faith thanks to our belief in the almighty and a simple philosophy of respecting people around us for what they are. Over the years, we have made several wonderful friends who have been such a pleasure to hang around with, both at the workplace as well as on the social circuit. We have traveled several countries, been to places which we have dreamed together, experienced life and cultures in these countries. Our children are growing up learning and navigating through life's many challenges. God has always been kind to us as a family with his blessings.
As I sit and look back into the past 10 years, sitting in a remote town in south west England and in what way I could share what all was on my heart, I decided the best thing would be to share my thoughts for posterity through my blog.
Ranjini and I are now married for 10 years and since that day in February 2004 it's been a wonderful journey together. Today as we celebrate our Tin anniversary, I reflect back on these years together and can only reminscence on the times.The past ten years have seen us raise two wonderful children in Samiksha and Pradyumna, grow individually in our careers and hopefully somewhere fulfilled the expectations our families have on us.It is often said that a major part of success is filling your life with people who encourage your positive growth and your success.We have tried to impart skills and values which we have believed are right for our children to grow into well rounded personalities.
Every single success in my life over the past decade or so has been tightly influenced by efforts of Ranjini. There is no major success that I would have been able to achieve without her.Whenever there’s a decision to be made, Ranjini always has a valuable insight or two that I would have probably not considered. She does an amazing job of pulling our thoughts and aspirations together and developing ideas and plans for our future.
She’s always taking care of the little things that need doing, often without saying a word.This is very important for us as I have mostly been away for long months on work. Many little things will just be done, often without anyone immediately noticing. She just does them.
She constantly makes hard choices and small sacrifices for the people in her life, be it the children, her parents or my mother putting aside what she might want to be doing in any moment to take care of those around her.
She’s incredibly bright, assembling ideas and thoughts into sensible statements and arguments and plans at the blink of an eye. She completed her Ph.D in Neurophysiology soon after the birth of our daughter and again went back to a full time job after the birth of our son. A bright physician that she is, Ranjini is also an incredible mother and a diligent cook dishing out healthy meals for the family. She is a perfect blend of patience and understanding with the right touch of strictness to teach our children the things they need to know for a successful life. She’s there to wipe away their tears in a moment of anguish, to laugh and play with them when the mood is right, and to guide them down the path that they need to go on.I can almost make no claim on the accomplishments at school or at classical dance and singing if it wasn't for Ranjini's persistence and encouragement. I completely understand Samiksha's Valentine day card for her mother this year now!
We have experienced the joy of being newlyweds, the excitement of our careers, and the sorrow of death in the loss of her grandparents and my uncles and aunts. We have dealt with fear of health issues, both our own, and our loved ones. We have experienced the joys of buying our first home, and raising two wonderful kids to fill ‘Advaita’ with noise and laughter. We have grown in our faith thanks to our belief in the almighty and a simple philosophy of respecting people around us for what they are. Over the years, we have made several wonderful friends who have been such a pleasure to hang around with, both at the workplace as well as on the social circuit. We have traveled several countries, been to places which we have dreamed together, experienced life and cultures in these countries. Our children are growing up learning and navigating through life's many challenges. God has always been kind to us as a family with his blessings.
As I sit and look back into the past 10 years, sitting in a remote town in south west England and in what way I could share what all was on my heart, I decided the best thing would be to share my thoughts for posterity through my blog.
Ranjini and I are now married for 10 years and since that day in February 2004 it's been a wonderful journey together. Today as we celebrate our Tin anniversary, I reflect back on these years together and can only reminscence on the times.The past ten years have seen us raise two wonderful children in Samiksha and Pradyumna, grow individually in our careers and hopefully somewhere fulfilled the expectations our families have on us.It is often said that a major part of success is filling your life with people who encourage your positive growth and your success.We have tried to impart skills and values which we have believed are right for our children to grow into well rounded personalities.
Every single success in my life over the past decade or so has been tightly influenced by efforts of Ranjini. There is no major success that I would have been able to achieve without her.Whenever there’s a decision to be made, Ranjini always has a valuable insight or two that I would have probably not considered. She does an amazing job of pulling our thoughts and aspirations together and developing ideas and plans for our future.
She’s always taking care of the little things that need doing, often without saying a word.This is very important for us as I have mostly been away for long months on work. Many little things will just be done, often without anyone immediately noticing. She just does them.
She constantly makes hard choices and small sacrifices for the people in her life, be it the children, her parents or my mother putting aside what she might want to be doing in any moment to take care of those around her.
She’s incredibly bright, assembling ideas and thoughts into sensible statements and arguments and plans at the blink of an eye. She completed her Ph.D in Neurophysiology soon after the birth of our daughter and again went back to a full time job after the birth of our son. A bright physician that she is, Ranjini is also an incredible mother and a diligent cook dishing out healthy meals for the family. She is a perfect blend of patience and understanding with the right touch of strictness to teach our children the things they need to know for a successful life. She’s there to wipe away their tears in a moment of anguish, to laugh and play with them when the mood is right, and to guide them down the path that they need to go on.I can almost make no claim on the accomplishments at school or at classical dance and singing if it wasn't for Ranjini's persistence and encouragement. I completely understand Samiksha's Valentine day card for her mother this year now!
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| We- 10 years on! |
Most importantly, one trait that I have appreciated in her is that She has an incredible sense of the moment. She knows when things need done around our home and in our community, yet she also has a knack for knowing when to put those things aside and move on..
She completes me in a way that I would have never understood before she became a part of my life.
Ours being an 'arranged' marriage, I can only thank the Masters at Mantralaya and Sringeri, providence and our families for recognizing and bringing us together. We are fortunate to be surrounded by people who care for us and we are indebted to my mother Nanda Rau, my in-laws Nagamani and Dr Sitaram,my brother Sundeep,Sister-in-law Chetana, Ranjini's sister Tejaswini and her husband Mahesh. And all the boys and the big girl in the family - Samiksha,Pradyumna,Pratyush,Dhruva and Aniruddha for keeping our surroundings so chirpy.
She completes me in a way that I would have never understood before she became a part of my life.
Ours being an 'arranged' marriage, I can only thank the Masters at Mantralaya and Sringeri, providence and our families for recognizing and bringing us together. We are fortunate to be surrounded by people who care for us and we are indebted to my mother Nanda Rau, my in-laws Nagamani and Dr Sitaram,my brother Sundeep,Sister-in-law Chetana, Ranjini's sister Tejaswini and her husband Mahesh. And all the boys and the big girl in the family - Samiksha,Pradyumna,Pratyush,Dhruva and Aniruddha for keeping our surroundings so chirpy.
Such well written words, Straight from the heart :)
ReplyDeleteYou guys are opposites but do complement each other so well :)
ReplyDeleteHa Ha, Tj you got this far...didn't realise you'd read this..but thanks!!
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