Arrival of Aadya

Our daughter Aadya (means "Unprecedented" in Sanskrit) arrived on October 9th (Friday), bringing us a bundle of joy. Apparently she brought us some luck too. We had our home in Dallas on market for sale for more than a few months, and slowly we were getting disheartened as no acceptable offers were seen. All of a sudden, the same day Aadya was born and when we all were absorbed in that special episode of life, our real estate agent called me and forwarded a decent offer from a buyer. I had to quickly put things together to negotiate, finalize, and clinch the deal. Fortunately, I could find time to conclude and sign the contract before I left Dallas on Monday.

In September, as the expected due date of 9th October for our daughter's arrival was nearing, I was getting a bit nervous hoping that the baby will wait until October. While it was more convenient for me to plan my travel to Dallas in October than in September because of my tight schedule at Kellogg, the more compelling reason for my hope was different and perhaps a bit romantic !!

Our son Vedant (means "Scholar" in Sanskrit) and both Neelima and myself were all October-born, and no prizes for guessing that we wanted our daughter too to be born in October. Of course, now we see that people do not believe us when we say that it was not a deliberate plan and the "October family" just happened. By the way, Shwetha (Neelima's younger sister) too is an October-born and we certainly want both our kids to get her intelligence, focus, and determination and follow her in her accomplishments.

Here is the picture of Vedant with Aadya on the day she was born. Many of our friends and relatives have appreciated the names to be very beautiful and charming. In fact many have asked us if (and some even assumed) it was me who came up with the names because of my reading and interest in Sanskrit and Telugu literature. So, how did we arrive at these names? It was simple for me while surprising for many. It was Neelima who first thought of the names. I just accepted them as I could not think of any other names more beautiful !!

Three years ago, within the three minutes Vedant was born he was placed in my hands. It was such a peerless joy that I could see the minutes melting away quickly, transforming into hours and then days and then months and years as he grew up fast by the time Aadya arrived. Every moment of my thrill of seeing him crawl the first time, and then walk and speak,and then run and eventually play football with me has been preserved. But, now while I miss him a lot I also feel doubly sad to miss all those special moments with my daughter. These days Neelima and I talk about this a lot and then just feel better that our hard work and sacrifices will certainly create even more larger opportunities for them.

And, what else better can we give to our kids than a solid foundation of our cumulative experience, knowledge, and wisdom, over which they can build greater things for the world to benefit.