Chapter 1 — Here we go

I’m going to try something I’ve never done before: Writing about me and my life. I’ve never thought of myself as a good writer let alone any kind of author but, I’m going to give this a shot. Here we go.

Three years ago

The graduate

It had been a month since I completed my master course and graduated from TU Delft, Netherlands with an MSc in Aerospace Engineering specialising in Controls & Simulation. Man! I cannot believe that happened! But it doesn’t end there does it. My life was just about to begin!

I had come back to India because I was getting married. No, don’t worry! I was happy because I was going to be spending the rest of my life with my best friend. We had known each other for 9 years and it was the right time for this. The thing was, I couldn’t go back to the Netherlands. Rather, I didn’t want to. Not at the time anyway. But I missed the place terribly. I had fallen in love with the Netherlands, I won’t deny.

My fiancé is a pilot and he had just become captain. He couldn’t leave the airline for two years so I didn’t even bother looking for a job in the Netherlands. I knew I had to come back so that we can finally be together. The two years of my masters had been really hard on us and our relationship but we stuck. We made it work but we couldn’t have pushed it any longer. Now before all my fellow feminists get riled up, this was my choice. If I had told him I wanted to work a year or two in the Netherlands he would have completely supported me. You’ll see.. keep reading.

I was actively looking for a job in Bangalore (that’s where we live). I needed one soon as I needed to start paying up my education loan! I landed interviews in two companies. One interview was a day before my wedding and my head was all over the place to be honest. But it was the perfect job in the most perfect company for me. I really needed to nail this.

The interview sucked. I sucked. I wouldn’t have hired myself after that interview. Well, that is what I thought anyway. I couldn’t be sad or disappointed though. I was getting married! I just decided to let destiny decide. I could have done better but I didn’t have time to think about that right now.

Fast forward about two weeks and we were just back from our amazing honeymoon all tan and happy. We had just moved in to a rented place. A lot was still going on. I got a call from the same company where I had the horrible interview, my dream company. They wanted me back for another round! This was my chance to prove myself and this time nothing was going to distract me. I had decided that I was going to get the job. I don’t know what they saw in me but I was going to show them there’s a lot more to me than that last interview.

Working married woman

Cut to a few more weeks later, guess what? I got the job! I was thrilled. I was looking forward to going back to work after studying for two years. Yes, I had worked for a year and a half after completing my bachelors and it was the best feeling ever. I loved studying but I think I am better suited as a working woman. The feeling of independence is very liberating to me. The feeling of being of value and useful has always been a driving force in my life as an adult.

So now I’m the working woman travelling 22kms everyday back and forth because that’s how far we live from my office. Add to that the glorious Bangalore traffic and you got yourself a gradual insanity growing along with a sinking feeling of losing physical activity. Since I have been 18, cut that, since always evening air and exercise have been part of my everyday schedule. Now I couldn’t workout because of all that travel and traffic. But I still tried fitting it in but only for a short time.

Shadow

My now husband (was still getting used to calling him that), Arun, was crazy about dogs. I love dogs. I am crazy about dogs too actually and I was grateful that my partner had the same feelings. But Arun wasn’t just crazy about dogs I quickly realised. He was obsessed with a particular breed – German Shepherds. So much so that since he was an 8 year old boy he has wanted one and had read books about the breed. I always wanted a dog as well. My sister and me even tried convincing my dad when he was around. After he passed away, details I will get into later, mom tried to cheer us up by getting us a dog. Twix was so cute but unfortunately that didn’t work out. So what did Arun and I do, now that we were together and it’s our place right? Our rules at last. We got ourselves a dog! Not just any dog, a German Shepard pup. Our families were not very sure about this obviously. ‘Why are you guys getting into such a huge commitment?’, ‘They are a lot of work’.

We didn’t care. We got him home, our little Shadow. Little did we know that he would turn our world upside down and over to the side.

Now I was a working woman, married to a pilot who was hardly home with a GSD pup. Wonderful. But hey, nothing we can’t take on right. We hired help to check on Shadow when we were not home during the day and I would get back in the evening and take him for a walk and the rest. We also hired help to cook food for us and clean the house. That was the biggest advantage living in India. Help in abundance. So all I really had to do was take care of Shadow post 6pm. You would think this was super easy after a 2 hour traffic ride. Nope! This little thing was an ankle biting monster and I had no idea how to deal with him. We had sleepless nights and endless days. He kept us on our toes. I honestly didn’t realise it would be so hard to raise a dog!

Looking back it all seems like a blur today but we had been waiting to be together for 9.5 years — my husband and me. That being said, we couldn’t just leave it at that, could we. We had to get ourselves a new challenge.