I don't think I have taken enough of my time to appreciate what my parents have done for me. It is hard to think of my school days and the things we went through as a family. All those hard days of uncertainty and insecurity. In a way, it has made me live my life that way even now.

What my parents have done for me is that they gave me the freedom to live my life. I think that is a bit difficult to comprehend outside the Indian family life. They have made me think for myself and make my own decisions and at the same time guide me all the time with advises and talk sessions. What I would cherish is the amount of interaction we have as a family. Even now, my pa and ma are the people I can discuss any of my problems without having to think how they are going to respond to it.

My mom and dad are from what I will call the 'lower middle class' family. They have given me an education worth earning in dollars. But I consider their life as the most valued education I have ever received. It taught me the importance of patience, keeping a level head, the insatiable hunger to know and et cetra.

If you are from India and from the 'lower middle class', then probably you will have a vague idea of what I am talking about. It is not even possible to make sure of your everyday food and in turn, it is very difficult to have a good relationship with the kids going. I would say if you don't go crazy in that kind of environment, that itself is an achievement. But my parents had a family around them to vent their frustrations and insecurity. So that took a lot of brunt away from us. Even otherwise, I don't think they were capable of letting out their brunt on us.

I always wondered about my father. How he was able to be so patient and so kind to us. He has his faults. May be a lot. Certainly, he has no or very little money. But I will always love him because he never gave me and my brother any less love for that. He didn't have money but he gave us an example to live on. It must have been a tremondous pressure on him to support a family of three with such a meagre income. Although we blame him for much of the misfortunes that befall on us, now I think he did all that just to keep us going as a family . He took all the blame and let us live our lives without any ghost from the past chasing us. He taught me a lot of things in life. But the important one is that money is not going to solve all the problems. He always says that me and my brother are his most pricely acquisitions. I don't think he exaggerates on that. He values us more than anything he has. And I will always love him for that.

Then, there is my mom. She is what I would call a thoroughly modern Indian woman. Unlike others, she is modern in her thoughts. There are no taboo subjects between us. We talk about anything and everything. She is very brilliant and I inherited a lot of my traits from her. She is conservative as well as liberal. It depends on what you are talking to her about. She is a great cook and she is surely the best mom in the world.

My wife