So, after our children completed their education and settled down in their respective married lives, we felt a strong urge to move back to India and serve the local communities here. To this end, we both took early retirement in 2009 and freed ourselves from our professional responsibilities. Vijaya retired as a senior software engineer from Texas Instruments after working at their Dallas office for over 23 years, and Ram retired from his jewelry business after a quarter-century! 

Once in India, we decided to settle down in our home town Guntur in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This gave us an opportunity to stay closer to our extended family and also participate in service projects in and around the locations where we grew up and lived before migrating to the U.S.  This decision is also making it possible for us to do some voluntary work in our ancestral village, Brahmana Kodur, for the benefit of the village children. This is the village where our grandparents had lived, and our parents were raised during their childhood. It is also where we still own some agricultural lands passed on to us over the generations. So, living in Guntur is giving us a great opportunity to be close to our roots and also contribute to these local communities in an effective way.

During the past three years, we have been involved in several seva projects here and we want to express heartfelt thanks to our immediate family members and close friends who have been providing love and support all through!