Whether it’s USA, India or any part of the world, getting a college education and becoming a graduate is a life changing event . If its engineering degree things are much more complicated both for the family and person doing it. Going back 15 years ago, getting a seat in a government engineering college in India is very competive and challenging one. It is the same case even today as well. If you get the seat and successfully complete the degree get out with a job, that’s great accomplishment. I was lucky to make it happen breaking all odds by fighting all natural forces working agaist me with great support from my parents. I am Proud to be the first person to get the college degree even better engineering degree in my family tree. Following my footsteps, now we have few engineers in our family and I am really happy to lead the way.

 

Did you watch Eddie Murphy movie, “Coming to America”? It is real good movie. Eddie Murphy belongs to King family and comes to America to find a good girl to marry. How he struggles in life to realize his dream is the shorthand version of the story.  On the other hand,  I never dreamed to come to America, it just happened in my life. But I am glad it happened because I was at the right place, at the right time doing the right thing. I learnt lot of things in my life coming to America and met some wonderful people. I am grateful for it.

 

I am Toastmaster with ATM-Bronze and CL award. Toastmaster is an International organizations for communication and leadership improvement by giving speech to overcome stage fear. I attend Toastmaster meeting when I worked for DEC/Compaq in Boston, Nov 2000. I immediatley joined as a member in the club after few guest appearances and gave my first Icebreaker speech on Jan 10, 2001 about myself. I did OK. Then I am aimed to finish the CTM(Competent ToastMasters) by End of March 2002.

 

As I planned completed my CTM by 21st March 2002 and became a Competent ToastMaster. I really happy about my performance. I completed my ATM-B July 2005 finally after 2 years. Its lot of effort and hard work. My next goal is to work on the CL and ATM-B. I completed and achieved CL in 2004 and ATM-B in 2005.

 

I took up running more seriously in 2001. I participated in my first 5k competition and won 3rd price for my age group. I motivated me to run more. I continuously improved my performance participated in 5miles, 10K races and finally to half marathon. I completed my first half marathon in 1hr:41mins. I decided to the marathon and started training. I got bib for Boston Marathon from Compaq(Digital was taken over by Compaq in 1999) lottery system. I ran my first Marathon Apr 15, 2002 and completed successfully without stopping or walking anywhere in just 3 hr 41mins. It is a great milestone to achieve for first time runner.

 

It was a great feeling to finish it. Click here to know more about it. I have done other half marathons. I am not running anymore because of foot problems. Running was a good sport which allowed me to talk to myself and reflect upon good and bad things. I love to do again if I get another chance but don’t want to risk and worse my foot problem.

 

I joined Ballroom Dancing when I worked and started developing it. I become an good Ballroom and Latin dancer after taking private classes. I also paid more interest toward Lindy Hop dancing. It is so much fun; love dancing all day.

I always been passionate about finance and money matters. I like to be frugal and money smart. I never buy anyting without prior planning and research. I am a self made investor in stocks and real estate. I like to share experience on money matters to others so started my moneyreallymatters.com website in Jan 2008. I also hosted radio on money matters in houston local radio. With internet flocked by too many bloggers blogging about money saving idea, I felt the need to become authoritative enough for people to listen and learn from my findings. So I decided to take on new challenge which is to get CFP certified. I signed for CFP course online with Boston University in Nov 2008 and completed my CFP course in Jun 2010. Even though I am basically a software professional, I was eager to learn more about finance industry to gain knowledge and also to help others. My next step is to prepare for CFP certification and get it certified. I signed with Dalton Review to prepared for the from Aug 2010 and took the exam in Nov 2010 and passed in first attempt. I got the result in Jan mid that I passed successfully. My goal now is to gain experience to get the final certification. 

I have been involved in Real estate since 2007 when I bought my first rental property. I mentored few friends by sharing my investing experience in real estate and wrote about it starting from finding right property, buying it for right price, managing it properly and making cashcow out of it. Since I have gained some experience, I thought of putting it to use by getting the Realtor license. So I signed up for the mandatory courses, completed them in 2 weeks, applied for exam, appreared and passed by scoring 90%. I got the Broker sponsorship to get my Realtor license and finally received my license on Mar 31,2011. I plan to help out friends and families on their getting their dream home or investing for their future.

 

 

I was fortunate enough to serve and make a difference to community in different levels. It started when I was teenager.

1. President of Childern Welfare Association: 1985-1990

2. Secretary of Computer Science Department: 1995-1996

3. Board Member of New England Tamil Sangam: 2000 – 2002

4. President and VP of various Toastmaster Clubs: 2002 – 2008

5. President of Home Owners Association: 2005 – 2007