As many of you know, in her early career my mom was on the fast track to becoming a superstar in the Hong Kong government. But after some time, she decided to sacrifice her career to start a new chapter of her life — creating a family of her own. And for years, Sanam, Nikhil, and I took up all her time, energy, and probably sanity.

Eventually, when Sanam and I reached our high school years, we were able to drive ourselves around and manage ourselves more independently, no longer requiring her close attention all the time. Though Nikhil was still a bit younger, my mom finally had the bandwidth to start thinking about another job.

This got my mom’s wheels turning, and she came up with some pretty unique and varied ideas for what to do next. Today I want to share a few that have stuck in my mind.

One was to open a juice bar. I can’t remember the details as it was such a long time back, but I can recall the image of our family sitting in our formal living room and my mom talking about her interest in opening up a local Robeks franchise — a juice and smoothie shop. My mom has always enjoyed fresh juice; for years, she made and drank a daily glass of carrot juice — to the point that her palms turned a shade of orange! I also remember back to when we lived in Taiwan and would buy fresh orange juice from a lady at a stand every week. Perhaps that was her inspiration?

Anyway, for one reason or another that didn’t happen, but it gave way to another idea — becoming a substitute teacher. I didn’t feel super keen about it because, from what I’d seen from kids in my classes, subs were never treated all that nicely, and I didn’t want my mom to have to face that. Happily for me, she didn’t end up going down that road.

As for her most memorable idea? Joining the FBI. Nope, I’m not making that up. I always thought she was joking about that one, but I actually think she may have been quite serious! Though Special Agent Anju has a nice ring to it, I think we’re all quite relieved she never pursued that one…

Well, we all know where she did ultimately end up — in real estate and right where she was meant to be. Being a realtor was a perfect marriage of her smarts and ability to build relationships, and she pursued it in a way such that she still put our family first while building up her client portfolio.

Amusing as some of the ideas were, I admire my mom’s creativity as she explored different career paths before she landed on real estate — the fact that she could be so open to such a variety of jobs shows a taste for adventure and life in general. While she had big dreams that stayed consistent throughout her life, like raising her children grounded in faith or opening an orphanage in India, she also exhibited such colorful and whimsical day-to-day interests. It’s a great balance.

Of us three kids, I think Sanam has most picked up on this one from my mom. She too excels in the workplace but then also regularly expresses ambitions to launch various businesses and explore all sorts of jobs. One week it’s one idea and the next it’s something totally different! It’s very endearing and refreshing and reminds me just of my mom.

I wasn’t yet born when this happened, but I want to conclude with a fun story my dad shared that exemplifies my mom’s creative, try-something-different approach to work. A little after Sanam was born, my mom decided she wanted to try working at McDonald’s for a couple months. Her mom was helping her care for Sanam and she had the flexibility to experiment, and so she went for it. While there, she flipped burgers, she fried fries, she cleaned, the works. According to my dad, she was the only McDonald’s worker driving a Mercedes to work. Only my mom could pull that off 🙂