Mes parents et comment ils m'inspirent

I'm blessed to be the only "human" child to Mr. Aravind Sundarvaradhan and Mrs. Ranjini Aravind - my adorable, magnificent and superhero parents who have done and given everything in their capacity and power to bring me up as the person that I am today - in providing for me, giving me the right education to thrive in my professional career and for the sacrifices each of them have endured along the way. There's a reason why I said I'm the only "human" child - we all adopted my favorite thing in the whole world when I was just 8 years old - and she changed my life altogether!! She gave me a bigger purpose to life, made me feel like an elder brother to her and showcased love and compassion to me like no one else! She was my dog, Fluffy and I will talk about her in a separate blog!

FamJam!

BFF!

Most of you have never heard me talk about my extended family in my IG posts and it's mostly because I haven't had a close attachment to any of them mostly because we were really distant (in terms of geographical location as well as mindsets since I was mostly the youngest of all my cousins) from the start - however, I appreciate each struggle that they had endured to get to where they are today. I've only really connected well with our single, independent family in Bangalore - my mom and dad - and a few of my cousins. My mom is the youngest child to Mr. Vijayaraghavan and Mrs. Rangamani and my dad is the youngest child to  Mr. Sundaravaradhan and Mrs. Saroja. My mom has 2 sisters and a brother and my dad has a sister and 3 brothers and each of them are supported by at least a child. I'm the only cousin on my maternal side who is a single child and I, along with my eldest cousin are single children on my paternal side. Overall, I have 15 cousins - but I'm really only close with my sister who lives in the Bay Area - again, mostly because we are of the same age.

My Superman!

My dad lost his dad at a tender age of 10 and it was my grand-mom who brought him up - I do not wish on anyone to lose a father when you're that young - and the one thing that she gave my dad was independence - that ability to do whatever he wanted to do for a career as well as make choices that seemed fit for him. He was as obedient as he could be on the outside but mischievous when he needed to be. He pursued his B.Sc in Math and had soon gotten an accountant job in one of Madras' finest libraries. Through his contacts and extroverted nature, he could easily mingle with new folks and joined TCS as a systems programmer. He then moved on to the Sales and Marketing realm through help from one of his friends to work at Orient Longman, Bangalore. He then married my mom in '92 in Bangalore and was transferred to Ernakulam (a suburb in Cochin, Kerala); I was born in Bangalore at the time and I still remember that my dad had missed my birth still not knowing whether I was born - such was the nature of his work. His work was to meet and discuss with school principals and teachers (for Grades 3-10) and promote educational material to them. He was an assistant sales manager for a while and then moved to the coveted Oxford University Press in Bangalore where we finally settled down. 

His work life was in a frenzy - he had to travel and move around to different places, soaking in all the sweat to promote new material - he had the opportunity to learn and converse in the local language, even though he didn't have to (he knows to converse in every South Indian language - Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam), plan for future trips - for accommodation, food and other means of transport - and of course, talk and convince people why the books he was delivering were the best! Now, you all know from whom I got my persona when it came to planning trips - sometimes, spontaneous ones... I still remember how much my dad was traveling around to make a living and to support his family from being afar - to have a life that was strictly professional and to be away from family - that must have been tough, but he enjoyed it as well - to have that alone time for himself to discover new places around him and to engage himself with the culture and tradition of the local folks. But he endured the difficult aspect of his life - he took it to his chin that his life would be like that and he needed to hear often that I was doing the best I could academically! That got him through all the tough times - hearing that we were all doing okay.

My mom and her beginnings were very different altogether. She was indeed the daughter of an Indian Air Force Administrative Official - my grandpa - and she had to move around to different places in her childhood! I still remember her telling me about how she had to move on from camp to camp and how her life was at all these places - Devlali (near Nashik, Maharashtra), Jorhat (near Assam), Tambaram (Chennai) and Yelahanka (Bangalore) and how she used to attend the common central board schools across all these camps in her childhood days - the Kendriya Vidyalayas.  I guess that's where she gets the strict and introverted nature from - having first hand experienced it from her father! She pursued her B.A. (Psychology) at Justice Basheer Ahmad College for Women and had soon enrolled herself for B.Ed at Chidambaram University. Having had the experience of moving around from one place to another, moving to Bangalore from Ernakulam was not that difficult for her. 

My mother was the first woman in my entire family to break the trend that women were only supposed to be house-wives and not go out to work, when she enrolled herself as an Assistant Mistress/ Teacher in the same school that I had enrolled in for KG! Her dad gave her all the freedom to do whatever she wanted to do as well. What is with all kids who are the youngest in their families?! And that is something that both my parents have imbibed in me as well - to do things that I wanted to do and to pursue them - even the thought of getting back to writing blogs (though I'm not sure they understand what blogging is). Back to my mom, she had her humble beginnings at SVM (Sudarshan Vidya Mandir) and initially started off as an Assistant Mistress for Grades 5, 6 and 7 teaching English and Social Studies (History/ Civics/ Geography). Again, this kept me disciplined at school - anything mischievous that I attempted to do, the news would immediately go to my mother - after all, she was almost a single-mom raising me, while my dad had his work assignments (just want to reiterate that my dad was still there for me in the most important stages of my life - in his late 30s and 40s) and I didn't want to let her down in any way. Currently, she is supporting the family in Bangalore like the superwoman that she is as the Head Mistress for the Secondary School at SVM. What I've learnt from her is the attitude and ethic it takes to succeed, her passion to do the right thing (even though the whole world may be against it) and the fact that she broke gender stereotypes to not only start working but who is also now supporting the family as my dad has now retired from his field of work.

Both my parents are indeed the best superheros that I know of and to this day, they are the only ones I want to make proud of! And I continue to iterate this - I'd have never been who I am without their sacrifices, commitment, tenacity and endurance in bringing me up. They're the best parents I could have asked for! It was a struggle for us all, but we thrived to live in such an environment, didn't complain a lot, and continue to lead our lives in a way that would make all of us happy!