Category Archives: #iamgrateful #iamthankful

RIP

Fulton Green. I’ve got no words for what’s running through my mind as I heard about your passing away. You were one of the first photos and friends I made at Fuqua. You were one of the last photos I took and hugs I gave as I left the building on graduation day. In-between, you cracked me up. You taught me about Waffle House and all the vernacular required to get those hashbrowns right. And you were the only person to join me at the Waffle House Challenge 3x. Bro. THAT’s a bond for life. We barely knew each other. But you loved Waffle House. And we ended up having an amazing time and laying the foundation for a casual, remote friendship. You were a good dude. Never more clearly evidenced than when a friend of mine came to visit and interview at Fuqua when you and I were in the midst of our first year, and stumbled across you. You invested quite a bit of unnecessary but natural time in showing him around. Jeff Angtuaco ended up joining us the following year and I believe you two kept in touch much better than you and I did after 2010. Hugs to your family.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful to have known you. I can’t think of Fuqua without thinking of you. I won’t ever eat a hashbrown without thinking of you. One thing I try to do is learn something and carry something forward from family and friends who pass away. Changing something fundamental about my day-to-day activities as a person in tribute. I know exactly what I’ll be carrying forward from you, homie. #WarEagle

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20 YEARS AGO

I was boarding the train I am (trying to, but a solid delay is not helping) this morning and I was wrapping up an internship that really set me on my way. Whatever way. This way. At least it is a way. One of my best friend’s ( Sonali K. Raval) older brothers ( Abhi Kamerkar) had squeezed me into an internship at Prudential. Very little based on my own competence but very really based on something that’s served me well ever since: finding some lucky way to be in the presence of smart people willing to take a chance on me. My bosses that summer treated me like gold because of that relationship. They let me dive into work. @cheryl Jones and @robert citro.

From them I got a killer rec that set me to come back to Pru and work for some even greater bosses willing to take bigger risks. Was talking about the honesty of work with some peers at work yesterday. The importance of good bosses. The impact of good or bad bosses. My career has wound me through and sometimes around. Sometimes back. I still actively seek good bosses. I still work at the opportunity to be one. Over the past 20 years I am more dominantly defined by that active pursuit. And that effort is borne of the chances folks have and continue to take on me. Feeling nostalgic. Actively seeking out some of that nostalgic energy on my way into work this am.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for the delayed NJTransit train this am sparking space for some nostalgia and honest reflection. I also just want…some sleep. πŸ™‚

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DIM SUM

Yo. Best Dim Sum for Friday lunch in NYC. Can’t do Queens or Brooklyn. Sorry. Teach me.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for the foodies in my life who will make me, my palate, and a friend’s palate happy. Go!

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RAKSHA BANDHAN

Anyone who knows me knows this is my favorite holiday. My favorite day of celebration. Why? Because it’s about siblings. It’s about my sisters. It’s an acknowledgement of all they do for me. It’s about so much truth. Your siblings know you longest. In some ways, they know you best because they know you early (in my case, from Day 1), and they live alongside you. There are no choices when it comes to siblings. They just are. Undeniable. I mean this for the sisters with whom I share blood, the sisters with whom sharing blood is irrelevant, and I mean this for the sisters I’ve acquired who may not share blood with me, but they do with my wife and even more powerfully, my kids (it’s wild to think about Anaiya and Jaan literally sharing blood with their Masis.)

It’s a holiday that’s all about good. That transcends religions. Cultures. Who, in what part of the world, would object to celebrating the bond between a brother and a sister? Given the state of the world today — it’s not just the US, mind you, but nationalism and xenophobia are prevalent and seeing their rise everywhere (it’s more circular and recurrent in history than we’d like to admit), I thought this story was a nice one to share. Love to my sisters. You all make all the good in me worthwhile. All the mess, that’s my bad. πŸ˜‰

It starts with you Anu Kiran and #iamgrateful and #iamthankful we’ve got some awesome sisters, don’t we?

https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/how-rabindranath-tagore-used-raksha-bandhan-as-means-to-prevent-1905-bengal-partition-4785042/?fbclid=IwAR37SFDISluZZDwu1K144b72KDWw_Cm92kXrN2QhL0Yb2qr2ImNNxQyE-GM

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HBD

Enough said. I love you. #iamgrateful and #iamthankful to have a protector like you in front of me at all times Anu Kiran And I know Priya KC Bhatt feels the same way. πŸ˜‰

May be an image of 1 person
May be an image of 2 people and people smiling

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SIBLINGS

This past Saturday, after a fine lunch, the kids and I made our way back to the car. I placed them in their car seats enough to hold them while I went back to load the stroller in the trunk. As I was a-stroller-folding, I heard Jaanu crack up. Then again. So I peeked through the trunk and into the backseat to see…this. This will be my favorite picture forever. Hard to see it topped. I love it because it’s emblematic of a sibling relationship. At the very core, the hands. This reminds me of my sis and me, Anu Kiran. Those hands might as well be ours. And though as we have aged and grown, we’ve experienced different facial expressions and body language. Sometimes smiling like this, sometimes angry, sometimes sad, sometimes tired and sleeping, and often times with one feeling one way and the other another way. Sometimes we are facing in, sometimes up, sometimes away. But you know what never changes? Our hands. I always have yours in mine and you always have mine in yours.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful that you are my sis. And that you are always there to reach for my hand and have been since the day I was born. I hope Anaiya is to Jaan what you have been to me. If so, he will have no greater blessing. I wanted to be the first to say HBD. May it be momentum to make this year and all that follow, wonderful. Love you, Tito!

May be an image of 2 people and people smiling

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JUST THE MESSENGER

An excerpt. Thanks for letting me on Cheddar and #iamgrateful and #iamthankful to my employer, Help Scout, for letting me represent the POV Help Scout was founded upon and has spent years building products, services, and content against.

Lucky me — just a vessel for a pretty awesome company’s take (thanks to everyone I work with who prepped me and inspired me with some awesome context and language – the team I work for rocks) on treating customers and employees like human beings, and making a bet that doing so will undeniably justify that faith and investment.

https://cheddar.com/…/heres-how-you-can-win-as-a-business

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for the opportunity to wear a suit every once in a while too ….

https://cheddar.com/…/heres-how-you-can-win-as-a-business

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YOU GET YOU, AND I GOT YOU TOO

That’s my sis. Seriously. Look at this pic? Anaiya intently concentrating on the TV. Tito Foi concentrating on Anaiya (specifically, being fed.) That’s how life is with my sis around. Just about everyone I know and think of finds a way to fight for the foreground. Not my sis. She fights to be the canvas upon which the background is drawn, so the foreground can pop. She’s done this for me my entire life. She’s why I have such few expectations of me around the fam (folks love me, this isn’t a pity party, it’s an acknowledgement one). Because she took all the stuff that was necessary and essential and required so I could run off and be an irresponsible and disassociated free spirit. My parents made me who I am. I am who I have become (the good things, the fact that bad stuff exists is my fault in human nature) because my sister sucked up all the weight of life and allowed me to go off and be me.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for my canvas. Thanks for letting me ungracefully hog the foreground. Also, I know this pic is symbolic of you and me. I’m always Anaiya, and you are always you, holding a spoon to my mouth. Happy soon to be bday!

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NC2U

You love this guy. You love this song. And you and I debated the merits of Prince (my choice) vs MJ (your choice) going back to before we should have been able to…I will say it was while watchin’ NY Rocking Eve entering ’85. Well sis, here you have it, as we step up to what will be a great upcoming birthday,

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful that you are my sis, our sis, and Tito Foi to the max…and know this song might as well have been written by all of us for you Anu Kiran.

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MY SIS

Can sing. I know. I shared a wall with our shower growing up and heard her every morning. πŸ˜‰πŸ˜› Her voice is magical. She’s the only person I will listen to intently when a religious song is being represented. When Anaiya was young, she would gravitate toward my sis when she was singing. Maybe it’s why Anaiya sings so much right now.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for my sis finding her passion…and for her HAPPY BDAY JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!!

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