Some people are amazed that my first initial stands for Bangalore , where I was born but moved to Bombay(Mumbai now )when still in school. The Mumbaikars played havoc with my name, many certificates reading MK Bangalore BM Krishnaswami! I decided to drop the B to avoid all the confusion and now am known as Mohan Krishnaswami.

 

A lot of my education happened in a 1 km radius of Matunga- Wadala in Mumbai. First in NKES High School and then in UDCT (now called ICT) where I did my Chemical Engineering. My first job was with Union Carbide in Thane/Mumbai. My principal was devastated when I told him I was joining IIMA. He thought it was a great betrayal to the cause of Chemical Engineering!!

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Six months in Faridabad and later,  5 years  in Mumbai with TECS, I had no idea that  East Africa will be home for the next 37 years.

 

I still remember leaving home for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, thinking that I will be back in India in two years!!

 

37 years later I still work for the same company owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, though am now based in Kenya for the last 27 years.

 

It has been a great journey filled with great experiences. Chitra, my wife of 37 years, has been a teacher in East Africa for over 30 years and has been with the International School of Kenya for the last 27 years and thoroughly enjoys what she is doing. 

 

Over this period we have made wonderful friends here in East Africa and hosted many friends and family who have come to experience the wonders of an African safari and other delights. We have lost count of the number of times we have been to the Masai Mara and the great wonder is that no two trips have been similar!!

 

Our son, Vikram grew up here. He studied in the International School of Kenya and later at Stanford. He is now a Senior Director with Roche Diagnostics. Tiffany, our daughter-in-law is from Colorado and now works for Kaiser Hospitals. The new joy in our lives is our grandson Varun, soon to be a year old. They all live in San Francisco, our second home.

 

Home for us will eventually be back in India, as we contemplate and keep postponing retirement! The thought of resettling and adjusting to India scares us a lot while the prospect of reuniting with family and friends offers a great quid quo pro. May be in a year or two.

 

Email mohan@ipskenya.com    

Nairobi, Kenya;  

Mob: 254 733 6060159820712222  

DoB:1/2/1952