Reetu & Amit

Reetu & Amit Kumar PGP 2005

“…we realised that we didn’t need to bridge differences but just let them be without letting them take more space in our life.” 

How do you balance long work hours and a chaos free household?

AMIT: Pass 🙁

REETU: The work hours have been erratic and long some time or the other. Fortunately, they have never – yet – come at the same time for both of us. That has helped.

How do you make sure that you spend time with your partner? 

Amit: We try to plan something in advance that would ensure that we spend time together – like a movies, a long drive, visit to friends’ places, etc.

What are a couple of things that you appreciate about your relationship and why do these things seem significant?

REETU: Amit learnt making tea (gosh!) for me that I really like to have in the morning. It’s not a big thing as such but it’s in such small things that he takes care of. Put together – they add up to a beautiful life.

AMIT: The space to be ourselves.

Initially, like many other couples, there were differences on lots of things. However, somewhere along the journey we realised that we didn’t need to bridge those differences but just let them be there without letting them take more space in our life than they deserve. I think that realisation has helped us be who we are without worrying about trying to accommodate as per the other.

How did you go about career growth and career planning “together”? 

AMIT: Reetu has supported me throughout my journey till date. It was her support that I relied on when I took the entrepreneurial plunge. A couple of years after that, I decided to get back to a regular professional career, and have had a demanding work-and-travel schedule since then. Reetu has stood behind my decisions letting me explore my career and aspirations on my own terms.

REETU: And then, when the entrepreneurial bug bit me, Amit offered his full backing to support my venture. Today, he is the in-house V-C for my start-up. 🙂

Have you lived/living in different cities? If yes, how do you cope with family commitments/manage trying travel schedules?

REETU: We both graduated in 2005. For the first year after the campus, we were placed in different cities for about a year-and-half. We got married in between that time and I took a transfer to Mumbai to be with Amit.

AMIT: God, why am I getting nostalgic about those days again. Five days of freedom a week!!

Do work conflicts come home? How do you keep rivalry at bay?

AMIT: Never. I never discuss anything about my day at office. Reetu discusses everything about her day at office. No conflicts or rivalry here. 🙂

Please share any instance of compromises in career growth for the family. (One by husband & one by wife)

AMIT: When we decided to have children, Reetu was the one to volunteer for spending more time at home. She quit her job to focus more on the family.

How does it help being in the same boat?

AMIT: It’s immensely helpful, at least for me. Reetu understands the professional set-up and pressures very well and has never complained about my schedule and working hours. Also, we have a lot of common friends from campus. That makes it a closer knit circle for us whenever we are visiting campus friends.

I would wrap up by saying that I’m glad we are in the same boat. It has made it much easier for us to understand and accept each other.