Aug 17 is very special in my life …. Important turn of events happened on this day. On Aug 17, 1987 I returned to Hyderabad to join my second year degree, after spending my first year in a Gujarati medium college in Jamnagar !! Met Vidya in college, my soul sister. Then I managed to do my NIIT course along with my final year degree that got me the job at NIIT Vizag. That job led me to my first corporate role model Venki and then to the fateful one week course in Chennai where I met Krishnan !
Exactly ten years later, on Aug 17, 1997 we landed in Delhi. Our dear friend Rajinder Singh Dhillon was the first soul we met in Delhi as we got off the train and what amazing luck he has brought us ! We came to Delhi with almost nothing, just a job that would cover our basic monthly requirement and the interest we needed to pay for the various loans we had …. We had just exited our businesses in 1996 with a colossal loss of 18 Lakhs and with no idea of how we were going to repay all of it but a clear faith that we will not just repay, but have a great future.
That day, fifteen years back both of us were overweight, weighed down by what had happened to us, apprehensive about a new place and not a single friend … Except for the person I was going to work with, Asit Ghosh. Krishnan, who was famous for his wit and humour had forgotten all about his one liners – he had grown serious and that bothered me much more than the money we had lost. I wanted to go to Mumbai, not Delhi. The only thing I remembered about Delhi was Minto Bridge as the train pulled into the New Delhi railway station and the fact that there were “press wallahs” who would iron my clothes :). We did go to Mumbai, only to get diverted to Delhi by our chance meeting with Asit !
Our leaving from Hyderabad was muted and I wasn’t talking to my parents …. We landed with two boxes full of our clothes and bare minimum stuff needed to start a home.
It took us six long excruciating years before we clawed our way back into life … So many things happened during those six years – we lost Krishnan’s dad, my Periyamma, couldn’t speak to our closest friend Subbu, Dhanush was born, learnt to drive a car, met some amazing people and made lifelong friendships, lost lots of weight, my dad apologised and made up with Krishnan and finally we not just repaid all our loans but celebrated that by buying our first house and that’s where I am sitting and writing this blog now !
Personally for me, by 2002, Krishnan’s wit and humour came back better and stronger 🙂 and that was all that mattered.
I think there is something about the month of Aug – as I think back, we bought the house in Aug 2002 and moved in on Nov 30th. Interestingly Aug 17, 2007 was in Bangalore as Krishnan was working from Bangalore for a couple of years and I remember having lunch with Vidya – celebrating 20 years of our friendship !!
Delhi has given us everything and it means home to us, Krishnan likes Chennai a bit more but for me Delhi brings a smile to my face every time and it’s the only place I feel at home. 15 years today, the longest that I have lived in any one city …. Ten years in this house, again the longest in a single house for me.
Special day today !