After completing my B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1972, I worked with SKF bearings factory in Pune. In SKF, we were a bridge group with Ramaswamy, Sundaram and another person. Then Apte joined SKF next year and we formed a team to practice group interviews for IIMA. All four of us from SKF joined IIMA in 1974. That’s where I met Reeta. 

 

While at IIMA I had a belief that working for Government in the public sector is the best service to your country. So I joined BHEL in 1976. Reeta and I got married in 1977. Reeta was with ONGC and we decided to stay on in Delhi so it was good, despite frustrations at work at BHEL. 

 

I moved on to Thapar Group (Ballarpur Industries) in their overseas Project Division in 1977. In 1978 our son, Anubhav, was born. It was very challenging as we both had full-time jobs. My work involved preparing feasibility reports and participating in $ financing with ANZ Merchant banking. I travelled to Indonesia, Thailand, Seychelles, London and Nigeria a lot with long stays. Finally, I moved to Nigeria in 1983. But we stayed on overseas and never came back to work in India. My final assignment was as Managing Director of a group of Textile Companies in Nigeria. 

 

We have two children, Anubhav and Pooja. They studied in boarding schools in India and the US. However, we started missing both our kids a lot and we migrated to NZ in 1995 to all be together. I was still in Nigeria moving up and down, while Reeta stayed in NZ with the kids. She re-entered the work force and worked as senior consultant for Sage NZ between 1998-2000, when she was transferred to Melbourne with Sage Australia in 2000. 

 

After a few years of traveling to Nigeria, I finally settled in Australia in 2004. Reeta started her own business of Immigration Consulting in 2008. I tried my hand in Mortgage Broking business, but sold it and joined Reeta’s immigration business in 2009, which was getting a very good response. 

 

Our son Anubhav is now a medical surgeon in Australia in Sydney. He and his wife have two beautiful daughters ages 6 and 4. Our daughter Pooja is a poet/writer and publishes books. She and her husband, Tathagata, are also based in Sydney and they have a 10 month old son. 

 

Since both our children are in Sydney, we decided to move from to Sydney to be near them. Now at this stage in life we are facing another big decision, when to quit active work and start taking life easy. So we have given up our office and started to work from home to gradually taper it off. Taking active interest in our grandkids is the most attractive and fun thing at this stage. We do not want to miss this golden period with them, when they are still very young.