Rupal!! Hmm… where should I start?? Lemmi start with her name. What does ‘Rupal’ mean? It actually means “Beautiful”. Okay…. so now, do I need to say anything more? It’s amazing how apt her name is. We all know how beautiful she is from outside but only a few of us have the privilege of knowing her from within.

If I look back at how we started… I must say it was a pretty funny start. She used to work remotely and we worked together on several projects. I was amazed at how one could speak so softly? She would always have lot of queries, she would pick out stuff that I missed in my questionnaires etc. So obviously I didn’t enjoy talking to her very much as she would never talk about anything with a smile. In short, at the beginning I didn’t feel like talking to her much. :-P
Then, she shifted to our office in Mumbai. She came to see my manager and I see a super thin girl talking to Niru (my manager). I approach Niru and ask who she was and she says, ‘she is Rupal and she will be joining us next month’. Okay… did I care? Not really. Good that people were joining and my workload would reduce.
Rupal started joining us for lunch. She barely spoke to anyone other than Varsha as they were friends already. But she was so helpful in terms of work… she used to ask all of us for checking our questionnaire, tables etc. Trust me… I have never seen anyone who pays attention to details like Rupal does. She is amazing. I used to have hard time checking column codes of other people without Radquest but here she was… she could just do it all by herself without writing down the card nos… isn’t that amazing? She had a big influence on me professionally (I will get to the personal part later :) ) After she joined BASES, trust me I just got better at my job. I watched her closely and tried to emulate her stuff in my own work. She doesn’t know this beautiful skill she possesses to inspire people around her (and that’s the best part according to me!). Till date, I have not come across anyone who is as proactive, meticulous and sincere as Rupal. Honestly before meeting her, proactive was just a word I knew. She defined it for me and how!!! Oh ya.. did I miss telling you guys her Excel skills? All I can say is she is EXCELlent at it! :)
It is difficult for me to pen down our personal relationship because it is much beyond words. Also, our friendship has only grown and is still growing. There is not a single thing that I don’t seek her advice on. Her ability to identify with everything that I go through in my life and to still keep it so real for me is amazing. I cannot thank her for the help and support she gave me before , during and after my wedding ceremony. I could just ask her to do stuff and she would do it without complaints (even when she was running temperature :( ). Her support for me was so special.. everyone saw that from my parents to Sunand to my other friends. It is occasion like these that I don’t know how to handle. I don’t know if I thanked her enough. I don’t think I can too!
Genuine people like her are rare to find and I am glad that I have this opportunity of being so close to her. She loves everyone unconditionally and seeks nothing in return. She is so much fun! All our outings have been amazingly fun!! She swiftly changes role from being all serious to becoming this entertainer. I and Rupal can just laugh and talk about things for hours together. She has this amazing but silly sense of humor which I can totally relate to. She is amazing at soooo many things; photography, cricket, climbing tress (guys remember harshgiri?) playing Uno, playing foosball blah blah.. Actually she is awesome at everything she does! The only thing she sucks at is “in believing in herself”. She doesn’t know how awesome she is!! Okay.. I need to stop now… rest.. I leave it up to the others to fill in!
All I can say is, if you have friends like Rupal in your life you are truly blessed (and I surely am!! :)
Happy Birthday Rupal! May you have all the good things you desire in life and live a super happy life!! :)