As I sit down to write this, I’m trying hard to not make it look and sound like my LinkedIn profile, hyperbole and all. That is available to anyone who cares to look it up on a slow day! 

 

Suffice to say that I have spent a lifetime in financial services, for the large part mainstream banking, mostly outside India. 

 

An initial 5-year stint, in the City of Joy and in Marcos’ Manila with Bank of America, was made memorable for what transpired on my personal front. My marriage to a lovely woman, Lakshmi, and the birth of our first son Kartik.

 

The next 27 years were spent outside India, the first 5 in Bahrain (incidentally, in the company of some delightful IIMA batch mates who remain close to this day), and the next 22 in the US. 

 

My longest work stint in the US was with JPMorgan Chase, both in Manhattan and Upstate New York, followed by Toronto Dominion Bank in New Jersey. These years are most memorable, for they saw our family grow (our second son, Gokul, was born in Bahrain and only two when we moved to the US), we made many, many new friends and found ourselves living the American dream of opportunity and meritocracy. 

 

We returned to India in 2008 to care for aging parents, and finally home to Bangalore in 2010. I have worked in financial inclusion services ever since and only wish this moment of epiphany had happened a lot earlier because I have finally found my calling.

 

Our family welcomed a daughter, Neha, Gokul’s wife, in 2011 and Lakshmi and I are proud grandparents to Kabir (born Jul 2015) and Kyra (born Jun 2018). They live in the Bay Area, while Lakshmi, Kartik and I currently make our home in Bangalore. We have a lot to be thankful for!