Urvashi Vanzara & Amitesh Tyagi PGPX 2012

 “Respect to each other’s opinion about almost everything and respect for each other’s aspirations.”

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

We complement each other well. Amitesh takes care of outside work and I take care of household work. He assists me wherever I need help. The most important element is mutual understanding. Unlike some of the other couples in our circle, we find that we are more accommodating towards our individual priorities and needs. So when Amitesh is super busy, that day Urvashi takes complete charge of things and vice versa. Besides, both of us are loyal customers to e-commerce websites that have made our lives easier. We usually spend our Saturdays out for a dinner and Sundays in planning activities for the week. And we do a lot of consultation. We use technology a lot to help us reach out to each other throughout the day. In nutshell, our mutual understanding is the bedrock to chaos free household and tools help us to make it happen.

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

We both believe that quality and not quantity of time is important. Whenever Amitesh has some time, he drops Urvashi to office, which is a good one hour drive, or plans his meetings such that he can pick her up from office once in a while. We ensure that at least last couple of hours in the day, we are not distracted by anything and spend it together.

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

Respect to each other’s opinion about almost everything and respect for each other’s aspirations. These two things are really appreciable in our relationship. Respect for each other’s opinions makes sure that two ambitious, somewhat egoistic and smart professionals can co-exist in a non-corporate setting. Respect for each other’s aspirations makes us equal partners in success and failures of decisions taken. We celebrate our success together and regret our failures together.

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

Urvashi made most of the sacrifices so far in career growth and career planning between the two of us. She was in a good position in Pune that she left abruptly when Amitesh’s work demanded to move to Delhi. She is well settled in Delhi now with an equally competitive job. However, her road was not smooth. It’s Amitesh’s turn now to make the sacrifice if an equally compelling opportunity comes.

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

We stayed for a brief period in different cities with Amitesh in Mumbai and Urvashi in Pune. We used to meet every weekend in Pune or Mumbai as the case maybe.

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

No, luckily for us so far, work conflicts don’t come home. Urvashi is a Finance Professional and Amitesh is in Marketing Research. So fortunately there is hardly any overlap. However, as said earlier, we jointly cherish our individual successes and jointly regret our failures. Life cannot be more kind than this to give an understanding partner.

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

Urvashi made most of the sacrifices so far in career growth and career planning so far. She was in a good position in Pune that she left abruptly when Amitesh’s work demanded to move to Delhi. She is well settled in Delhi now with an equally competitive job. However, her road was not smooth. Its Amitesh’s turn now to make the sacrifice if an equally compelling opportunity comes.

How does it help being in the same boat?

We are not in the same boat as already explained.