“About Me — INDU SHARMA”

Business analyst at a leading telecom company for the past 30 years, with a recent itch to write and share anecdotes from my interesting life’s journey.

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I’m excited and nervous to write about myself on a platform like Medium where numerous talented people share their ideas with the community. I am a newbie at this, but as the saying goes: no guts, no glory!

My dramatic entry into this world

I was born in the late 1960s in Bengaluru, a cosmopolitan city in south India. Why dramatic? My birth almost cost my mom her life; the doctor delivering me panicked, and my paternal grandmother had to give suggestions to the doctor on how to handle my mother’s condition. Mom was the only woman in the hospital that day to give birth. The family understandably ignored me until my mom stabilized. What a way to make an entrance!! Thus began my journey as a symbolic drama queen.

Who am I?

Such a deep question to answer! Philosophically speaking, since the Bhagavad Gita scripture resonates with me, I would say I am a soul who is in my current body in this present cycle of birth and death.

I hold a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the US and have 31 years of experience in the Telecom industry, specializing in Optical Networking. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and can be obsessive about things like keeping my spice rack neat and arranging items symmetrically.

Despite initially appearing simple and reserved, I am often described as having a sarcastic sense of humor. I have been nicknamed the “giggle Goddess.” My friends and colleagues frequently come to me for advice due to my attentive listening skills and ability to judge character accurately. You could think of me as an ‘in-person Aunt Agony’!

While I enjoy the company of a close-knit group, I also value my solitary “Me Time” to relax. I enjoy reading about history and archaeology, and I’m a huge music lover of all genres – I can sing Indian songs pretty well if I say so myself! Gardening is another passion of mine, and I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to a few countries, with Ireland being my favorite.

Last year, my life took an unexpected turn when I was diagnosed with a rare form of adrenal gland cancer that had spread to my liver. This news has pushed me to become more introspective, leading me to focus on philosophical and spiritual matters.

I am learning to take one day at a time since this form of cancer is not well understood. I have surrendered to my destiny and am trying to follow the teachings of the Gita to deal with positives and negatives with equanimity and grace. I’m not kidding when I say that following these teachings is more complicated than it sounds. Each day that I learn something new, either at work or about the world around me, is a blessing, and I have an entirely new appreciation for each day.

The incredible trailblazers who molded me into who I am today!

I come from a Brahmin background (although I do not support caste discrimination, bringing up my caste may lead readers to stereotype me based on knowledge of the different castes referred to in India).

My family history is an interesting blend of cultures and influences. On my maternal side, we have deep roots in and around Bengaluru, the cosmopolitan city in southern India. We belong to the larger community known as ‘TamBrahms’ or Tamilian Brahmins, specifically to a sub-branch called Iyengars. Meanwhile, on my paternal side, my origins can be traced back to a small village in the northern state of Punjab. What’s truly remarkable is how many of my family members have distinguished themselves as over-achievers, standing out from the crowd. Their direct or indirect influence has significantly shaped the person I am today.

My maternal great-grandmother was a skillful designer of miniature furniture and various other items around 1909 AD that she would display during the popular Dasara (Navrathri) festival. People would line up to see her innovative displays. She was definitely ahead of her time and would have excelled as an engineer in today’s world!

My maternal grandfather, a lawyer by profession, had an obsessive passion for the ancient Sanskrit language. He made a significant impact on the study of Sanskrit grammar by writing approximately 2000 pages on the subject, which the family generously shared with many educational institutions in and outside India. Interestingly, he was also a Yoga practitioner and briefly dabbled in the world of black magic before abandoning it (phew!).

My grandmother was also unusual in her time in the 1920s. She studied in a convent school in India in the pre-independence era and could speak fluent English and a little bit of French, much to the delight of my school friends, who thought she was cool! She studied Algebra and Geometry when girls her age were getting married young without focusing on their education as was typical during those times. Even though theirs was an arranged marriage, my grandfather insisted on going for walks with my grandmother to get to know her before they married, which was relatively unconventional. He was progressive in his thinking.

I am the product of two over-achieving parents with an unusual love story. My mom was a trailblazer, studying Electrical Engineering at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru in the late 1950s. My dad came from a humble background in Punjab, excelled in his village school, and became a teacher there. By dint of his hard work and innate intelligence, he pursued his PhD in Chemical Engineering at IISc, which has consistently ranked number one in research and teaching. As fate would have it, Mom and Dad met through a mutual friend who played Cupid and first met under a tree on the IISc campus – how romantic and typical of the Indian cinema portrayal! Love blossomed between a South Indian girl and a North Indian boy, and when they decided to get married, it was unheard of for such a pairing in the early 1960s. But then, my mom got an opportunity to do her Master's at the prestigious Cornell University in the US. She became the first woman in her community to study engineering abroad. My dad gallantly told her he would wait for her to return to get married. My mom has always been an excellent singer, and after she got married, she decided to pursue her passion for North Indian Hindustani classical music. This was quite unusual, again, given that she was in Bengaluru, where the Carnatic style of classical music was prevalent. She has various compositions under her belt, and I don’t often come across many people with her knowledge of music theory. She also writes short stories in English and the local language, Kannada, and has self-published three books. These unique achievements have made her a well-known name in the community.

My dad did his postdoc in the UK and soon became a professor at IISc. He was a brilliant researcher and teacher. At the behest of the Indian government, he was chosen to represent India at various conferences, and he designed the first fluidized bed in India, to name a few of his stellar achievements in Chemical Engineering. He was a part of an initiative to patent the spice Turmeric as belonging to India. The pinnacle of his career was when the Indian government awarded him the prestigious Padma Bhushan award (the second highest award that can be awarded to a civilian) for his outstanding contributions.

My maternal uncle is a recipient of a gold medal from the prestigious and uber-competitive institute IIT and a whiz at playing Bridge. He has represented India in many Bridge tournaments.

My younger brother recently published his first children’s book as a hobby.

Each person I mentioned above has inspired me to be creative, chase my interests, work hard, constantly learn and grow, and most importantly, to be humble and kind in these times when folks are willing to do anything for their 5 minutes of fame and trumpeting about it. Each one in my family is different and unique and their journeys towards achieving success, recognition and love, are something from which I have learned a lot and shaped me as a person.

My world around whom I revolve

My own small family is my world, consisting of my husband and two kids. My husband is the COO of a small startup company, my son just finished his Master's at a well-known Ivy League where one of his notable accomplishments was re-designing a Machine Learning course based on his experience in the field. My daughter is currently a junior at another Ivy League (co-incidentally the same as my mom!). Hubby and kids are voracious readers and foodies, and our family chat group aptly named ‘the squeaky wheels and the greasers ‘is full of links to interesting reads and videos on food! The kids are blessed to be talented in the arts (dance/Hindustani classical music, cello, double bass, piano). My son was ranked as the second-best double bassist in the country when he was in high school. My daughter finished her arangetram (first solo performance on stage lasting about 3 hours) in Bharatnatyam (Indian classical dance). Both love to garden. Both seem to have good writing skills, earning praise from professors of the off beat literature and philosophy classes they took, and going against the typecast that engineering students can’t write well.

Of course, they do have their ‘areas of improvement ‘and the joke is that if we were to combine the two kids, we would have an ideal child. LOL.

Last but not the least, we have a cute fur baby, a dog named Tintin (my favorite child, but shhh … don’t tell the kids!).

Taking a chance with writing

Why am I taking baby steps into the world of writing now in my late 50s? There are a few key reasons that motivated me toward writing short stories for Medium.

• Mom churning out stories that were getting published in the local newspapers and magazines inspired me to try something new
• I have led an interesting (read: ‘weird’) life both due to my unique upbringing and my life abroad that I could use to share my experiences, journey, and lessons learned, in snippets as short stories on Medium
• Rare cancer diagnosis hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles made me realize the preciousness of each day and thought I would attempt at putting something out there that could perhaps reach an audience wider than my family
• Pesky brother constantly nagging me to look into publishing on Medium
• Daughter coming up with statements like ‘writing comes to us like breathing ‘after reading my first story (I think she’s biased of course)

My first foray into writing a short story is partially based on an event in my life when I was about 11–12 years old, called the Power of One (here’s the link https://medium.com/@indu.chandra/power-of-one-12370bf498db)

My wish is that I be inspired to do better with all of your helpful feedback and encouragement.

Contact me

Would love to hear from you about my About Me story and my first story on Medium via email indu.chandra@gmail.com or by following me on Medium.