Dr Madhavi PGP ‘73 & Beheruz N. Sethna PGP ‘74
How do you balance long work hours and a chaos free household?
We don’t! Chaos is part of our lives. It’s been so for 43+ years, and is fun (most of the time).
How do you make sure that you spend time with your partner?
I was President of a university with ~12,000 students and 1,300 employees, and a budget of $~150 Million. In 19 years as President, the university went through transformative change and made incredible strides, thanks to a lot of wonderful people. It was not easy to have significant time with my wife. I am not proud of this.
What are a couple of things that you appreciate about your relationship and why do these things seem significant?
We both love our children and grandchildren, we both share similar political views, but we disagree on many things. We respect and like that about each other.
How did you go about career growth and career planning “together”?
I regret to say that we did not do long-term planning for our careers. My wife has three Masters degrees and a doctorate, and was an exceptional teacher. She has retired now, but continues to work as a full-time faculty member.
Have you lived/living in different cities? If yes, how do you cope with family commitments/manage trying travel schedules?
Not recently. About 37-years-ago, I was in the US, while she was in India. This was for a specific commitment I had made.
Do work conflicts come home? How do you keep rivalry at bay?
No rivalry. I am very supportive of her career. She was never interested in university administration, which is where I spent the bulk of my career.
Please share any instance of compromises in career growth for the family. (One by husband & one by wife)
She has made the vast majority of sacrifices, because I was on an administrative track and changed universities twice (once after 13 years at the same job, and the other after five years) for the sake of a big promotion. One of these was at her urging and the other at mine.
The only credit I can claim is recent — in the past few months. She had open-heart surgery this summer (2017), and the entire summer I have been her (not just primary, but) sole care-giver. While I had to change my plans to do that, this was my pleasure and my love.
How does it help being in the same boat?
It’s helpful to share the MBA background, but her other two Masters degrees are in Education and Computer Science. Her doctorate is in Education. So, she is exceptionally well qualified in other fields as well.
