Our 20th Anniversary

Today is the 20th Anniversary of my journey with Nabeela. Today is also the day I will be starting my “Blog”. The journey was unbelievable and I am looking to have a minimum or 20 more together. As an entrepreneur, I have helped build several technologies and online presences of many individuals and business. I am hoping to open my life to my friends, family, community, customers, employees, well-wishers and also who I have challenged in the political & cultural & economic philosophies.

I want to dedicate today to my wonderful wife of 20 years. Nabeela and I met on October 14th, 1986 during my visit to Washington and we liked each other and our families blessed our relationship. I migrated to United States on March 23, 1988 and eventually got married on 5th of January, 1989.

She was in Pharmacy School and I was a fresh off the boat Immigrant without much clarity of what I was going to do. I started off as a travel agent and worked for couple of airlines between 83 and 88 in Saudi Arabia. In Washington, my first job was with a Travel Agency and then joined PANAM World Airways which paid me $ 5.25 per hour. The point I am trying to make that she married me when I had neither a professional degree nor a high paying job. Over 20 years of our marriage she has consistently supported me in going back to school and obtaining a Bachelor Degree & a Master’s Degree. She also supported me to serve my community with over 30 hours of volunteer work for over 18 years of our marriage. In other words, she is the person who has brought the best in me. Although, I have a lot of shortcomings in me and she has continuously tried to project me and our relationship in the most impactful manner to everyone. Today, I ran into a good friend Wayne Clarke at Panera Bread and he asked me how are the kids and Nabeela doing. My answer to him was that she is doing wonderful and has not thrown me of out of the house yet.

We now have 2 wonderful daughters who we are proud of and I am pretty sure will follow and be like Nabeela who has always played a bigger role at home and in raising our kids. We have tried to be a decent example to our kids and I am sure if they look at both of us with our individual/unique qualities…They would probably rate Nabeela as more loving, caring, giving & responsible parent than me. Nabeela came to America when she was 5 years old and it has been almost 36 years and I migrated about 20 years ago. We are also distinct in our outlook on economics, politics, faith & role of parents. I have gotten more liberal/progressive and she has always been fairly conservative which provides a decent balance and at times a great opportunity to have dialogue on the issues of the day. We both are eldest in our respective families share immense love for our parents.

Most of you do not know the inner workings of our finances as a family. From our humble beginnings in 1989 to 2009….We have been through valleys and peaks. In 2003, my company was in about $ 500,000 debt and in 2006 we did revenue of over $ 5.4 million (with zero debt). In last couple of years, we have seen some challenges due to my risky/adventurous behavior by chasing the dream to build cutting edge technologies. We did end up learning valuable lessons at reasonable cost of investment.

I am not sure if you guys watched the Republican Presidential Debates in which Governor Huckabee answered a question and said that Marriage is not a 50/50 Deal. He said Marriage is 100/100 Deal and it requires a 100% of devotion for each other. In my view, there are partners who give over 100% and in our relationship Nabeela gives over 150% and I am proud of Nabeela and she has truly made our journey a memorable one and I am looking to many more years together where I could give my 100%.