Hello, my name is Krishna Murty. I see my life as a simple yet deeply meaningful journey shaped by love and fate.

I was born in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, in my grandparents’ home. At that time, my father was in Wisconsin, finishing his Phd. He was a Fulbright Scholar. It wasn’t until 1953, that he returned to India, and my mom, my siblings & I joined him in Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh, where he worked at the Forest Research Institute. I was already a year old by the time I finally got to meet my father.

When I turned ten, my father was transferred to Bangalore. I grew up in a bustling household with three brothers and a sister, and we all fell in love with the city. When it was time for college, my elder brother strongly advised my parents against sending me into engineering, pointing out that there were only five girls in the entire college. Reluctantly, I pursued a BSc (Hons) in Biology – though I had no passion for it, except for Genetics, which intrigued me.

When I was a young girl, a prophecy was made by Sai Baba that my future husband would “descend from the Himalayas.” My brothers teased me mercilessly, saying a wandering sadhu would fall in love with me. But little did we know that fate had a sense of humor – my husband, an engineer, was indeed from Shimla, nestled in the Himalayan foothills. It was an arranged marriage. I was just 19, and by 23, I was a mother to two wonderful children – a daughter and a son.

I cannot praise my late husband enough. He was my source of steady support, and I pray that in my next life, I am blessed to have him once again. We lived in Shimla, a beautiful town, but the reality of his job was that he worked to bring electricity to remote villages, and the lack of good schools in those areas was very concerning. We decided to move to the United States for the sake of our children’s education.

Our immigration journey had its own twist of fate. When my husband asked his father in Shimla to locate his embassy papers, we learned that my father-in-law had tossed them into the fireplace! Fortunately, the fireplace hadn’t been used in a while, and the documents were miraculously recovered.

Unlike my husband, I had no desire to move to America, but the village circumstances left me with no choice. Once we arrived in 1979, I felt a strong urge to do something for myself. I told my husband I wanted to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering. He was skeptical, reminding me that I had never even seen a computer. But I had, once – when my dad took us to an exhibition in Madras, where I was so surprised at this massive IBM mainframe that occupied an entire large room. That one encounter had left an impression on me.

I enrolled in a certificate course in Computer Science and landed a job in Pittsburgh. The president of the company, an Italian immigrant himself, encouraged me to further my education. The company even offered to cover my tuition if I pursued a full degree. With a full-time job, evening college, and two little kids at home, life was anything but easy. But when you have a partner who is supportive and loving, challenges become bearable.

My life, however, had more than its share of heartbreaks. I was in my late 20s and I suffered unimaginable losses -one by one, I lost my siblings at tragically young ages. Any other person might have given up to despair, but my husband was my pillar of strength, helping me navigate through grief while raising our little children. Despite everything, I worked hard, graduated magna cum laude, and built a fulfilling career. I spent ten years as a programmer before moving to Westinghouse as a Project Leader and Systems Analyst, and worked for the nuclear navy. When Westinghouse was acquired by Bechtel, I continued working there for 18 years in Pittsburgh.

My children grew up to be accomplished youngsters. My daughter, a UC Berkeley graduate in Electrical Engineering, married a wonderful Caucasian young man who has been an incredible son-in-law to me. My son pursued Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech and later earned an MBA from Cornell. He married a Gujarati girl who is incredibly dear to me. I count my blessings every day for having such a wonderful family.

Then came the most devastating blow of my life. I was still in my 50s, when my beloved husband was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. My world shattered. We both took early retirement and moved to San Diego to be closer to our children and grandchildren. But fate was unkind – I lost him in 2011. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him.

We had always dreamed of giving back to the less fortunate in India after retirement. Even though he was no longer with me, I refused to let go of our dream. I traveled to India many times, all by myself, volunteering as a teacher in orphanages and doing whatever I could to help.

Life continued to test me – I battled breast cancer myself. But through it all, I never lost sight of what truly mattered: family, love, and service.

In retirement, I find immense joy in my grandchildren. My twin granddaughters are 17, and my grandsons are 15 and 11. They are the light of my life. I also devote much of my time to India Club, working to bring our community together. Despite all the hardships, I have no regrets.

This is my story – a story of resilience, love, loss, and perseverance. Thank you!