My kind of heroine

My kind of heroine

Today 25th May 2016  Nisha passed her 10th board exam, scored 236 / 500.

So what's so great about getting 47.2 % in 10th board. Well, Nisha is 24 year old, so you say, that's even worse.

year 2013, Coimbatore, Isha Ashram, my wife Rani was volunteering at Isha Ashram, there she met Nisha Munavar. Nisha was introduced to Rani by one sadhavi, at that time they just communicated Hi Hello. Later that evening Rani again bumped into sadhavi, that time sadhavi told more about Nisha.

Year 2012 Nisha was a young happy go lucky girl, little did she know that her luck is going to turn upside down. She hails from a very poor family, her father was a daily wage worker, she was 20 years at that time and was engaged to her aunt's (father's sister) son and aunt's daughter was engaged to her brother. Because of her family's financial situation she had to stop her studies before her eighth exam and she was helping her family in daily chore. Both the family were in a festive mood as the marriage dates were near. Suddenly grief strikes the family, Nisha's brother meets a fatal accident, family is not yet recovered from the grave grief, her father is diagnosed with elephantiasis on the foot due to which he loses his  job. Whilst they were yet to recover from all these miseries, her aunt breaks her engagement and blames her for all the miseries in the family and calls her jinxed, her father also get influenced with his sister and calls Nisha Jinxed and stops all communication with her. Nisha also starts thinking that she is jinxed to the family and plans to end her life, she ties the duppata to the ceiling fan and other end to her neck and hangs, but life always have a different plan for you, the duppata tears of weight and she falls on the ground she is saved, but she suffers a severe damage on back of her neck which left a permanent  pain on back of her neck. Nisha was admitted to the hospital, where she was not accompanied by any member from her family.  This is where Sadhvi met her and came to know her story, thinking that she would attempt another suicide, she bring her to the Isha home as volunteer, thinking that she would get busy volunteering and would get out of the suicidal mood. This is where Rani met her.

Rani started spending time with Nisha and tried to explain her that life is much more than this, you never know what is in store for us, these are the testing times, we should find the motive for our life. She asked Rani whether she can accompany her back to Dubai and find some house maid work, as she wanted to get away from this environment. Rani explained her that as she is not properly  educated, getting passport and getting visa to Dubai would be difficult, Rani convinced her to complete her basic studies of minimum of 10th and agreed to sponsor her studies. Rani then went to her school and checked the procedure, school management said as she is 21 years, let her complete her 8th and we will make arrangement for to appear for 10 immediate after that. Nisha agreed for that. Rani made all the arrangement for her studies, went and all the way to Chennai to meet her parents to convince them to let her finish her basic studies, it took time but they finally agreed. Here I was thinking that she getting back to studies after 9 years, she might not cope up and drop out again, but did not discouraged them. Next year Nisha passed eighth decently, here I was, ok internal exam, no big deal, next year it will be 10th, she will not be able to clear that. Again Rani made all the arrangement for her 10th board preparation. Nisha worked hard, fought against all the odds, without any proper coaching, without much support.

Now tell me how much do you value this 236 out of 500. for me this 236 is much more than 500 out of 500. I am so glad that she proved me wrong and came victories.

she is my kind of heroine

So yesterday 12th May was Nurses day.

So yesterday 12th May was Nurses day.

This day is dedicated to the nurse we have at home, our very own Rani my wife, she is one nurse in true form, Sensitive, humble and hard working. Before our marriage she worked with private clinic and later with government hospital. Rani’s family was reasonably well off as far as financial is concern, she choose this profession not for the livelihood but for serving the society which was her passion.

I would like to share some of the incidents of Rani as nurse probably most of you might not know.

When she was working for the private clinic, one of the local leader’s son got hit by the ceiling fan’s blade on his skull from almost all the sides and he was bleeding badly, in an emergency situation she did the first aid and did the stitches as a good assistant to the doctor , next day the leader took his son to Chennai to a bigger hospital, after one month the leader came with a big box of sweets and told her that when he took his son to Chennai the doctor asked him who is the plastic surgeon who did the stitching, when he told it was done by a nurse from his village, doctors there could not believe that this clean work can be a nurse from a village.

When she was working for government hospital, these hospitals were highly affected by corruptions, staff won’t do any work without money, because of these many poor patients would not get right attentions, Rani and couple of her friends who were unaffected by this corruptions and were not dependent on the salary for their livelihood, would give out their salary to these poor patients so that they can in return pay to these staff and get the right medical attention. Rani would always carry extra tiffin so that she can give it to the needy patients.

Beyond hospital too her nursing nature never stopped. Once in Bangalore one big eagle was hit by something and fallen on the ground and was barely able to move, because of this some stray dogs were trying to attack on the eagle, when she saw this she attacked the stray dog to get away from the eagle and put her shawl on the eagle and bring that home and called the blue cross society, who promptly came and to took the eagle for treatment.

Year 2006 to 2012 we had very bad years as far as family health is concern, my mother-in-law was having dialysis and my son Raghav born with birth disorder, she was there like a rock solid and took care single handedly, if it was not her, my mother-in-law would have died much early and we could have lost our son, It was because of her care and proper attention my MIL lived 4 extra years and we could save our son.

This day is dedicated to Rani and nurses like Rani. I am glad (lucky) to be her husband, we are proud of you.

How I met my wife.

How I met my wife.

May 4th 2016 we will be celebrating our 15th anniversary.

But it all started way back in 1999, when I was enjoying my bachelorhood, that time I was around 34 years of age, but still I was not in hurry to get married, I was living in Abu Dhabi UAE.
I was having my independent flat but I always end up at Bobby's flat, his flat was shared by another two of his friend, I don't remember one flat mate's name the other was Anand Iyer and Bobby, still a very good friend, why I remember Anand  you will soon know. Anand and other were more of Hi Hello friend but were jolly good guys.

Anand was 24 years old but was very eager to get married, he use to keep an eye on Friday matrimonial column at Gulf News. It is normally a difficult task to find a 21-22 year girl at matrimonial column and that too of your same cast, just too difficult, but he use see an ad. of a Tamil girl but age was 31 years, he use to tease me, Ramesh this would be perfect match for you, why don't you call the given number, i always use to ignore him with a joke saying, just worry about yourself, I would love to die a bachelor. This went on for 4-5 weeks. One Friday when he again saw the ad. for a 31 year old Tamil girl in the matrimonial column, he took my mobile and secretly called the given number and gave it to me saying "Talk to the guy on the mobile, he is girl's brother" I did not wanted to be rude and cut the call, I did not had any choice and but to continue talk to the person on the phone, we exchanged family details, being Friday he (Dr. Rajan) wanted to come down to Abu Dhabi and meet me, I told him, not to be in a hurry and let's meet the coming Thursday at Dubai, as I would be coming there for some work, he agreed, we met and more details exchanged, we agreed to meet couple of more times and we met, this went on for around 2 months, in the mean time I left the job and came back to Nagpur for good 6 months, thinking that I will never return back to UAE, but as destiny would have it, I was back in UAE, this time in Dubai within 6 months, our previous meetings (me and Dr. Rajan) got abruptly ended, he couldn't call me as he did not had my India contact and I did not called him as thought that he was interested in me for his sister because I was in UAE, to a certain extent that was true.

I was back in Dubai in next 6 months, one fine day I gets a call from Dr. Rajan, first he shouted (friendly) at me that I did not informed him before going back to Nagpur, than he felt happy for me that I got a better job in Dubai, again we started meeting for coffees and teas, this went on for more than 6 months in the mean time he completely forgot why we started meeting. In the mean time my other Brother-in-law Kittu, called him and asked him, what happened to the guy, who you said that will be a good match for our sister, is he still there or should I look out for some other guy, when the call came, I was next to him, after cutting the call, he turns back to me and ask me  "I started meeting you for my  sister, right?" I said "Yes", he continued "There is a small issue, as you are from Nagpur, and you mentioned that you mostly speak Hindi at home, my mom wants to talk with you in Tamil" I said "I don't mind" he immediately connected to his mom and we spoke for at least 15 min. in Tamil, his mom was ok with my Tamil communication and gave a go ahead for me, you can say I passed the Tamil exam :) .

Dr. Rajan said that his sister Rani is coming to Dubai for shopping for his cousin's marriage, why don't you meet her at that time, we agreed, it was a very small meeting, we met on Thursday evening in full packed restaurant (Royal Garden) they had to put an extra table for us to sit, Rajan, Rani, Gracy and me, we exchanged some smiles and greetings, all I remember of Rani talking to me is she said "Podum" (Enough) when asked whether she needs anything else to eat.  After this brief meet they proceeded to their home, whilst they were on their way I called Rajan and asked him "You know that I am 35 years and not 25 years" he amusingly replied "Yes I do, why are you asking that" I said "your sister looks 21 and not 31" he just laughed, even today after 16 years Rani ask me "Ramesh, what did you ask Rananna after the meeting". Well the second hurdle cleared, Rani did not had any problem with me.

Rajan went to Nagpur and met my parents and spend some time over there, he was ok with my family and invited my family to his place. My mother was very happy, she said that she is going to their place with the preparation of  engagement, unless there is a grave problem, we are not going to reject the girl, morning we will see the girl, if everything goes fine, evening we will do the engagement, I said, I can't be there in such short notice, my mom replied, "you had seen the girl, you are ok with her, she had seen you, she is ok with you, we will do the engagement without you, make sure you are available for the marriage". As planed they saw her in morning and in the evening they did the engagement ceremony. I called her after the ceremony if everything is as per her wish, she is not been forced into this marriage, she replied, yes it's as per her wish, she is not been forced, after two months into the marriage she tease me that I should have asked that before the engagement ceremony.  

We got engaged on 11th of Feb 2001. I called her on 14h Feb. to wish her happy valentine's day, her reaction was "what is that" a couple of days later, India beat Zimbabwe in one day international, that was the first time in history that a team chased 300+ score and won, Kumble and Srinath played a fantastic inning, I called her and asked if she had seen that match, her reply was negative, that time I realized why I stayed bachelor this long and did not had any girlfriend. 

May 4th was set for our marriage, well, about the marriage ceremony, sometime later, all went on fine, now today we are celebrating our 15th anniversary.

Even Today, whenever I mess up, it is always Anand Iyer's fault. :) :) :)