Gratitude diaries 25

My cousin Vinaya

Growing up, the only kid in my circle of cousins and friends who was as smart or smarter than I was, was Vinaya. Actually, she was smarter. She spent her entire school career accumulating scholarships and awards. I was not so driven. Vinaya and I went to IIMs, different ones, and surprisingly, even she, the super brilliant engineer girl, had a tough time there. Vinaya then went to the US and settled there. When I lived in Canada, she invited me to visit her in NY. Sameer and I had a great time with Vinaya and her husband and Sameer remarked on how nice a couple they were. When my sister was posted in NY, she and her family interacted a lot with Vinaya and her family. Then the New York incident happened. That morning on 13 December, 2013, when I was in a state of shock, Vinaya sent me an email asking for my number. She called me and I don't remember what she said but I think she tried to reassure me that she was there and would help my sister. Soon I started receiving a flurry of group emails- Vinaya had pulled together some people whom she trusted and could count on into a group who came to Devyani's defense. The smear campaign had already started on the internet and Vinaya attacked some of the people, from our own community, who had started bad-mouthing Devyani. She told me about the online petition website and encouraged me to put up a petition. She interacted with some officers associations who eventually put up a march in Hyderabad. In short, she threw herself into Devyani's defence with great energy, vigour and confidence. Devyani later told me that Vinaya, her husband and a common friend, had come down to Devyani's office early the next day (which was a working day, so obviously they had to take leave from their own jobs), stayed with her the entire day, took her home and left her only when she was tired enough to sleep. I still feel such deep gratitude to Vinaya for doing this. My father, mother and I should have been there, doing that, but we couldn't as we were separated by thousands of mile. But Vinaya filled that vacuum. Inspite of working in the high pressure banking industry, and being a mother to a young child, Vinaya always finds time to be active socially. She contributes a lot to the society, by undertaking projects which can help people from our community. With her energy and management skills, she is able to have several projects ongoing at the same time. She is good at pulling people from different walks to a common goal and inspiring them to work for it- a true leader. How I wish our community had more Vinayas! I am really thankful to Vinaya for all her help and support during the NY incident and afterwards for drawing me and Devyani into her projects and giving us a chance to contribute as well. You are the best, Vinaya!