I "met" Madan in 1992 - by airmail.  He was working in Muscat at that time and both our parents got together with the marriage proposal and I was given a few photos of him to look at.  On the day I got his photos by mail from my mother, I immediately rang her up from Madras where I was working and said to her " this is the one for me "

And then the mail romance started .... and I found out a lot about him.  He was born and brought up in Delhi, did his schooling at the Frank Anthony Public School and was very broad minded and forward in his views.  His dream was to migrate to Australia to settle down, and he was working hard towards getting his papers processed and to get on with life. He had graduated with a diploma in Hotel Management and Catering Technology from Taramani, Madras and was a naturally out going person.

The Catering Technology bit gave me the impression that he must be an excellent chef and I was looking forward to eating all the exotic dishes he would one day make.  The reality which I found out after we got married and left India was that he was more interested in tasting the exotic dishes rather than make them.  He is however an excellent helper - chops onions in a jiffy , does the dishes and a whole lot of other work and we just settled into set roles around the house.

We love entertaining and we are a good team when we work together.  We also love to go out and see places we have not been to before and we both love good food.  Madan is currently thinking of changing careers and so he is busy with preparing to go back to the student life.  He is looking at studying web development and cash in on the current IT boom in Australia.

One very positive trait I admire about him is that when he sets his mind to it he gets what he wants to get.  He also loves Pallavi a lot and helps me with every single task right from nappies through to bath times and feeding.  He is extremely patient with her and also spoils her a lot!

His favourite things:      Apart from   ........and his car of course.

• Beer- no real favourites here as long as the beer is chill.        
• Watching TV - mainly sports and news.
• Movies - action, comedy, thrillers ---( kuch bhi chalega - meaning anything goes...)
• Favourite music - U2, Pink Floyd, Live, Guns N Roses, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jagjit Singh Chitra Singh, all Hindi & Tamil  tapori / dapan koothu songs ( meaning Indian hiphop masala pop), Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Zakir Hussein, Daler Mehndi, Hari Prasad Chaurasia etc etc......the list is toooooooo long.
• Food - All sorts - favourites include junk food like burgers and pizzas. Avoids vegetables like they are out of fashion. 
• Madan's Best friend - Mussie Hailu who is also just like his big brother. Mussie and his wife Jara are also Pallavi's God parents. They have an 18 year old daughter - Betty who is also very close to us. Here's a photo of them in our house .....

10/07/2002