Thirty-three-year-old Vinita Ramchandani, settled in the US with her husband Parthiv Vora and son Arjun, 22 months, wants nothing more than to raise her son with the best qualities – both from the east and the west!

Words & shoot coordination Poornima Nair Iyer
Visuals Ryan Martis
Hair & make-up Recinda Martis
Location Four Seasons Hotel, Worli, Mumbai

Our cover mum has a sweet and petite personality, but it’s her intelligence and sophisticated manner of speaking that strikes the right chord. We indulge her in a tête-à-tête, where she reveals several interesting and memorable moments of her life. She recounts the time when Parthiv and she got to know one another. “We were both from the science stream and attended the same tuition class when we were in standard XI and XII. So, we were friends at first.

Then Parthiv went to the US to pursue higher education and after a short while I did the same. There, we were based in different cities but we met through common friends and reconnected again,” she says.

For two years, they had a long-distance relationship and then Vinita was coming to India to visit her father who was unwell at the time. “I told him that during this visit my parents would probably ask me

to see prospective grooms. Parthiv quickly proposed but asked me to give him a year to finish his masters programme. I agreed and went to India with a happy heart,” she affirms. Vinita wasn’t skeptical about her parents’ reaction though she and Parthiv were from different communities. She explains, “I am a Sindhi and Parthiv is a Gujarati Jain. However, both our elder brothers married out of the community. So we felt our parents would be open to the idea again.” She broke the news to her parents who happily complied with her choice. So Parthiv and Vinita were officially engaged. Of course, there was no ring ceremony, as Parthiv wasn’t in India. So the engagement took place over the phone!

The families met and connected. “We were engaged for a year before we got married in 2004. We had a simple temple wedding. Then Parthiv left after two weeks and I went back after four weeks. I was working for Staples as a web experience strategist. We didn’t live together for eight months after we were married. Parthiv had to finish his studies and then look for work while I still lived in Boston. Finally in 2005, he moved to Boston. We weren’t planning for a baby as we wanted to have some financial stability and also, we both love to travel. His work as a pharmacist, which is almost as much responsibility as a doctor in the US, took off well. In 2007, we bought a house. We travelled a lot till we had our fill. At the end of 2008, we decided it was time to settle down and have a family. We travelled to India on holiday and our families told us that the next time, they wanted us to come back as three,” she recalls with a grin.  

A couple of weeks after they got back, Vinita missed her period. A home pregnancy test confirmed the good news. Vinita says she was fortunate that she got to share the news with her mum in person as she was visiting them at the time. “Parthiv and I were so excited that we wanted to break the news in a unique manner. Parthiv went to a store and picked up a frilly t-shirt which said ‘I love my grandmum’. We showed the t-shirt to my mum who was a bit confused. My elder brother’s wife had delivered a baby girl in 2008, so she thought this t-shirt was for his daughter. She asked us ‘Wouldn’t this t-shirt be too short for Chahat?’ We were surprised and then announced together: ‘This is for OUR baby’. After the initial celebration, we told the rest of our family who were happy for us,” says the enthusiastic mum.