Member of the Week - Krutilynn - Page 2

Originally posted by: chukkna

Hi Kruti, Hiiieee!

Great to see you in the hot seat. Somehow I had the intution that it would be you in the hotseat this week. Hehehe, i had no idea that i was active enough to be considered for this, but i am glad i was...

I am really delighted to see you in the hot seat. I guess many of my past questions for you were unanswered 😊 and I will use this moment to ask them all 😃 Few of them are already answered in the top. Sure, i'd love to give satisfactory answers...coz i am not shy about talking about anything, especially - myself 😆

- So did you and Lynn had go to over a great deal to convince your and his parents or did they agree right away? Nope, we did not have any difficulties because we used to be room-mates before we decided to be a couple - so both sets of parents were completely comfortable with our decision to be together. I think that our parents are rooting more for our relationship than us!!
- Where is Lynn from? (American or some other country?) Lynn is from Oklahoma, USA - i like to call him a "hardcore, democratic, southern white gentleman" coz he gets irritated when i do that 😃
- How much time did it take for you to realise that you are in love 😳 ? Actually, it took us about two years...like i said before we were room-mates and an unspoken rule is that you dont date your room-mate because it can get ugly. So we dated some other people for a while, and after like the billionth weirdo we met, we were talking one night and realized that we cared about each other...and so we took baby steps towards "falling in love" i guess.

- You said above that you would like to take your kids to India cos you dont want them to speak you native language as a foriegn language. Don't you think that Lynn would also want the same? I speak english as a first language since childhood...and in india english can still be the primary language of communication. So Lynn is completely fine with that. However, on the other hand, here in the US i cannot expect much fluency in indian languages from my kids (if i had them, that is) because even though lynn speaks the language he does not communicate in it.

- I believe you have pet dogs. what are their names? My dogs names are - Neo, Kiara, and Mazzy. I also have two parakeets - Star and Luna. But i am more attached to the dogs, i guess 😃

If you feel not to answer any or all of the questions that is OK. Nah, i am not a very private person except when it comes to emotions and feelings.
It is great to have you as a friend. I feel the same way about you. I really loved your paintings and your posts here on Astitva, esp related to mythology. I must say you have a very depth knowledge and you are a good writer. So keep it up and enjoy the hot seat.

Thank you so much for your sweet words😳. You are an awesome artist and discussant also...

I am enjoying the hot seat...but its only been a few hours so far 😉

Cheers. Cheers!

Originally posted by: xyzzee

Hi Kruti,

I enjoyed reading your questions and yes, I enjoy my PMs with you too 😃

You once said that you don't mind moving back to India once you are well established in your career so you an get a good job in India too. Is Lynn OK with that? Has he visited India? From what you say, he seems to be a well rounded individual who has had exposure to different cultures, so I guess that won't be an issue.. But wanted to know about it more in detail. 😃 Actually, i think that lynn is more keen on moving to india than i am. He feels that since i have spent 7-8 years adjusting to the US, it is now his turn to go and live in a quote "cool and beautiful country" end quote like india. He hasnt visited so far because i have not been able to take time off from work for the past three years, but we are definitely going before August 2006 for at least 15 days. He has spent a good part of the last three years learning Gujarati and Hindi - actually that is why we got Zee TV - so that he could practice his language skills daily. More often than not, he watches the serials, not me. 😆

When are you planning on getting married? After you complete your PhD?Yeah, assumably on the day after my graduation ceremony (probably May 2006) coz his family and mine will all be here at that time. Our parents had told us when we started dating that we could continue sharing the house if we wanted to, but they would prefer if we waited until i was done with my degree before we got married. I was supposed to finish on December 10th and we had everything planned for Dec 11th as the wedding day but i found out in October that it was not going to happen so we postponed everything 😕

What is it that you like best in your profession? The fact that when i talk every student has to listen...😆. No i am just kidding...I have a passion for economics and policy and what i enjoy the most is when i infect my students with this passion. When i see a student realize and understand a theory or a concept...it is awesome to see their faces becoming bright and cheerful. So many people come to college hating economics because they had a very dry teacher in high school or early on in their college life. My attempt is to make economics fun for them...and i usually dont fail in my endeavors. Another thing is that with every class i teach, i learn so much in return from my students also - i love the interaction!

Do you read and write Gujrati? Yup, very fluently...some of my family cant communicate in english and growing up my parents used to insist that i write them letters, etc. and over time my gujarati developed to a pretty good degree.

Originally posted by: rachel490

Congrats!! How's the weather in texas? Do you like the hot summer out there?

Thank you, Raj. The weather in Texas is actually quite warm right now, considering that it is winter!!! We have a fire hazard warning😕. I like the heat because in order to cool off its always possible to go jump in a pool. 😆

Originally posted by: chukkna

Hi Kruti,

I guess because of your passion for economics you might have read Chankya. Is that true? Have you read Chankya neeti? Chankya was an economist I believe and a very good teacher. Did you read his books and do you like him?

I would say that he is my most revered guru!! I have read his "Arthashastra" and you would be amazed at how many more details he has covered about public policy than Adam Smith - the father of modern economics. Another great political economist is Aristotle. When the serial Chanakya came out, i watched it and recorded it on video tapes. After i moved to the US, i bought the DVD set and watch it atleast once in a month because they use pure language and convey a lot of subtle economics and behavioral science theories. So ya, in short - I like chanakya.

One of my favorite sayings by Chanakya "Shikshak asaadharan nahin ho sakta. Shikshak va mataa ka sthaan ek hai...Mataa ki hi tarah shikshak apne garbh mein shishya ko palta hai, uska poshan karta hai, evam samay aane par uska nirmaan karta hai"

Translation - A teacher is never ordinary. The position of a teacher is the same as the position of a mother...like a mother, a teacher maintains a student in his womb, nourishes the student and when the right time arrives, produces him/her.

Originally posted by: dotraj

Kruti..am back
welcome back...its friday and i dont feel like working so i am haunting the old IF spots...hehehe

What is that I see now as your Avatar? I use Lynn's paintings as my avatar of late...This one - i dont know the name of it...but is based on a greek mythology. It is a woman who is so in love with her husband that when he died, she put his head in the pot and spent all her time standing next to it. The artist who had made the original painting in the 17th or 18th century got his wife to model for this painting when she was pregnant. She died in childbirth after the painting was finished. So it is a double tragedy basically. Lynn has changed a lot of the details but he made this as a tribute to the artist...and it is the painting that i like the most out of lynn's entire works.

Do u remember any funny inncidents with Lynn? Tons...but the most recent one was: We were driving from Oklahoma on Christmas night and we were discussing what he would tell my aunt when she asked him what he like to eat (when we go to india). He was answering in gujarati and he said "maney bhinda nu shaak aney chhokri bhave" [Translation: I like okra vegetable and GIRL] instead of rotli [chapati]. It is usually funny when he confuses words in gujarati, but he is agood sport about it. Coz after i corrected him, he said "need to be careful about saying that otherwise they are going to throw me out!!"

Before we started dating we had many funny moments regarding the whole sharing the house - we used to walk into rooms without knocking and more than once have embarassed each other (nothing explicit, but still it was embarassing)

Or the time he washed my clothes with his by accident and put bleach in the washing cycle...i had pink/orange spotted t-shirts and underwear after that😆 and so did he!

What is ur new year resolution?To finish my thesis and go to India for a visit ASAP!

Originally posted by: xyzzee

I agree completely with you regarding the hot summers:-) I am a big disliker of a the cold myself.. I also agree with you on the learning of English.. Many in India are extremely familiar with and fluent in English and speak the language as well as people from Britain do:-) However the reverse is not true 😊 Very true 😃

Are you closer to your mom or dad? Hehehe, depends on what i want to talk to them about because in terms of closeness i am extremely attached to both of them. There are some topics that i wont discuss with either of them but with my brother only...

Do both your parents work still? What are their specialities? Ya, my parents also had a love marriage so they got married early and had kids reasonably early...so yup, they are young enough to be working still. They are both economists also - and are professors in reputable institutions in India. Interestingly, my grandparents were also both political economists and professors - so it kinda runs in my blood 😆

How easy or otherwise do you find balancing home and work? You can probably say that quite well since your parents have both been working and you work as well..
Well, honestly i am not very good at handling home...in india my parents are able to afford all the help they need for cleaning/cooking/laundry/etc. I cant do that here...my one dream in life is when i will be able to afford to hire somebody on a daily basis to come cook and clean for me because i like home-made food. Also, i think i am more of a workaholic (like my dad) so focussing on work and family is my priority...my home usually looks like a horse ran through it without reins 😕. I try to clean it over the weekends but within less than 24 hours it looks the same. I am obsessive about putting clothes and books away neatly but not so good at keeping the house clean and dust-free. 😭

Originally posted by: chukkna

I agree. I have seen the Chankya episodes while I was in school/college when it was aired in DD. I didnt get a chance to see it again. I felt the actor Chandrashekhar(if i recall his name correctly) has done a very good justice to the role.

I liked the pure form of Hindi there and no wonder you remember the dialogues as you have watched it again and again. Chanakya was the greatest guru. But I bow to his Guru who noticed that talent in him. That is the quality of a teacher, pick one and make him a gold pot. Well, I need to watch Chankya again to comment on that as I have forgotten the details.

I never liked the teaching profession because all my family members (women in my family) are teachers including my mom. But now after coming here I am developing interest and I have a lot of respect for teachers. I feel teachers are the most essential part of the society.

I agree with your point about the quality in a good teacher to recognize a good student. I had read somewhere that "A teacher's influence is eternal because it transcends time, generation, and place." SO you grew up in an academic environment also...i have noticed that teachers are unusually strict on their own children at times - i dont mean abusive, just stern. When i was growing up, i always had to deal with things like "my students do this and that and i dont want you to turn out like that" OR "my students can do this, why cant you?" I actually had decided to go into computer engg and did that for a year and a half before getting bored out of my brains writing programs...then i switched to economics! Earlier i wanted to go into corporations but as i gained more knowledge and especially after being so deeply influenced by chanakya, i realized that it was what i wanted to do as a career!

Originally posted by: chukkna

I have an old friend here who worked in the Computer field for 20 yrs and then decided to go for teaching, that too to kinder garden. When I talked to her at length I realised how difficult the teaching job was. I used to teach in coaching classes before I really went on my career path, I gave tutions to kids too for the school entrance test, teaching them for oral test and written skills and handwriting improvement. It was fun. Only part was that it wasn't a high paying job and people around you count your sucess thru money. I don't regret anything, because I also didnt like the profession much. Even here its not a high paying job, but the respect you gain pays it all.

Teaching kids must be tough as well as fun I believe and I am getting more inclined to it now. I believe there are many teachers in this forum. Kudos to all of you!

I have to admit (having tutored kids and volunteered in elementary schools earlier) that i dont have the patience for younger kids...i really admire teachers who teach at schools because i know there is no way i can do that 😃. College/Univ profs like me get a decent income - nothing outstanding or "rich" i guess and ya, very different from the private sector, but the free time/vacation time and work-from-home-when-you-want-to convenience is totally worth the trade.