Page 12 - Seniorstoday March 2024 Issue

First Person
Angst of a Mother
Usha G. K. narrates a poignant tale of how a family can fall apart if you don’t
take the correct steps to keep it together
My husband and I were both engineers.
My husband was particularly brilliant
and joined a multinational firm in Pune
where we lived. The company benefited
from his knowledge and in no time had
he become the Managing Director of
its India operation. To begin with I had
also worked in another engineering and
contracting organisation, after our first
child was born my husband and I felt
that I should quit my job and look after
the baby. I then started giving tuitions to
engineering students from home. It was a
very satisfying job and the money was also
good.
Four years apart we had a second child
who was also a boy. My husband got a
job offer from his company to shift to the
US and join the board with an assurance
that he would be made Managing Director
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when the present incumbent retired. We
moved to the US. My children had now
grown up and I took up a job as a professor.
My husband continued to make progress.
The boys were now in their teens and life
was good. We made annual trips to India
and spent time with my brothers and my
husband’s family. There were weddings
and other occasions which required our
presence and we would make it a point
to show up. In one of these trips we also
brought ourselves a two and half bedroom
apartment in Aundh on the outskirts of
Pune.
The company where my husband worked
was taken over by a rival organisation
and they offered my husband a very good
severance package. We decided to take
their offer and my husband quit his job.
My elder son Rahul was very creative