2023 has been big. Two marriages. Romil and Kinjal married on April 22nd while Ruchir and Gunjan tied their knots on July 8th, 2023. I have two daughters. Just as raising sons was not easy. Getting the daughters settled into family is a work in progress. But it feels so good to see that the kids have settled and are beginning their lives.
Ruchir and Gunjan live in San Francisco. Gunjan is Sindhi from Dubai and loves New York. They might make a move there any time now. Gunjan is in Finance and is a go getter. Ruchir ended up starting another business for training and recruiting HVAC workers. His passion is to help blue collar workers find a job. His drilling business is also still making money. They had a destination wedding in Portugal at Penha Longa Resort.
Romil ended up selecting orthopedic as his focus and hoping to specialize in Spine. They live in Austin at present where their wedding was, and they have an apartment there. They go to Los Angeles for the fellowship next year for a year. Then the job they take will decide the move after. Kinjal is in Finance and involved with Bit Coin. She can work from home, but her family is in New Hampshire. She is close to family and would like to stay near them to raise her kids. She has a sister who has a two-year-old.
I forgot to mention that in 2017 we ended up getting an apartment in Houston. In 2021 we ended up getting another apartment in the same building, Mosaic. It is next to the park Hermann, and we have enjoyed living here. We can walk to the museum and to the Zoo. The animals have become my friends. We also have made a nice group of friends and I enjoy being with them. Shivani, Mamta, Daksha and Komal along with their spouse have enriched our life. We still do India rounds almost 3-4 months a year and mummy Pappa are still able to come to US for visits for six months shared equally between Snehal Bhai and us. We have a new member visiting with them. Swapnil, Pappas helper has become a part of our family. Pappa has been able to survive so well because of his care and Mummies unwavering focus. My Dad expired the January of this year. He was able to see the kids and their families at the engagement party last December. Bhabhi is sad but has been staying strong. She has a helper too to make sure she can function with her Parkinson.
Going forward for me, I would love to do volunteering and write my books. My first book Borders has been published. Working on the second one based in Nigeria. For the second book, I had a girl from Nigeria write the book with my characters and story line and looking forward to putting it out soon. It has come out good.
2019-2021 has been Covid years. The world changed for us as we know it. In 2021, I started an activity center at a place near our home in Parle, India to teach the kids who were all home for Covid. It had almost 40-50 kids and was going well. The family used to visit and help run it. Meena Ben has been very instrumental in running it but as I was in US, it fell into cracks, the land lady and teacher did not see eye to eye and thee center which was making so much progress in terms of online classes and computer education had to be shut down. I have been trying to create an online education website and work with organizations who can use it, but it has been slow. I work with an organization called Vibha who works on education and hoping to work with them to get more kids educated. Let’s see. Romil and Kinjal have been instrumental is encouraging me to go every way to volunteer and use their money. My kids have promised me 1 percent of their income towards my volunteering goals. Hope I can make a bit of a change and take out the time from my comfort zone.