She stays away from the limelight, can hardly be spotted in any trade parties or events, but that doesn’t make her a dull woman – infact – she is far from it (especially if you catch her dancing with her girls gang!). A qualified Family Health Nurse Practitioner who was brought up in the USA; she is a strong minded person who doesn’t let frivolous matters of heart rule the head. The better half of Tarun Thakral – Mrs. Mandeep Thakral is a lady of principles and deep values, who still blushes while talking about her “love story”! It was refreshing and enlightening spending a warm afternoon with her and listening to her story for our section “Better Half”.
Priyanka Saxena Ray
A thorough Southern Californian (though she has been living in India for a long time now), Mandeep Thakral is a lady who doesn’t shy away from calling a spade – well, a spade! She is the better half of a fairly influential and important person in Indian hospitality industry, a fact she remains unperturbed about. A typical Virgo who doesn’t believe in “filtering” her conversation or facts, one can spot, in early few minutes of interacting with her, what would attract any man towards her – her genuineness!
Coming from a humble family, Mandeep was born in India, but her family shifted to the USA when she was still an infant. “I started working when I was just 16 and went on to pursue my degree in Nursing followed by Masters in Hospital Administration ,” she says. Laughing out loud, when asked how she met her better half, she gushes, “We are distantly related and our families have always been connected – so technically, I have known Tarun all my life but destiny did not make us meet for very many years and even when we did, we never realised where fate would take us.”
In the early 90s, Tarun Thakral, after finishing his MBA, came to intern with the Le Meridien New Port Beach, California. At that time, he was good friends with Mandeep’s elder brother and would visit the house often. They would all even go partying to Vegas, even Mandeep’s mother as Tarun was very friendly with her but Mandeep would never accompany them as she was dedicatedly busy in building her career in “patient care services”. She went on to become the youngest Hospital Director in California.
It was not until the May of 2002, when Tarun Thakral came holidaying yet again with his relatives that the families decided to turn match maker. “I was on medical leave from work and contemplating a career shift, thus being relatively “free” to accompany Tarun and his family around on sightseeing. His aunt and uncle became really fond of me and nudged Tarun to look at me in a different light and just life that, we both starting thinking of a ‘possibility’ of us being together,” she reminisces.
However, adolescence was long over and they wanted to make a balanced decision, which is why, Mr. Thakral insisted that Mandeep comes visit him in India to understand the life before committing to it. “I came to India in July of 2002 for 2 weeks and that’s when I fell in love with Tarun! He knew how to woo a woman in 50 different ways (!) and he swept me off my feet with his dinner choices, his car collection, his engaging and intellectual talks, his proper and charming self – I knew this was the man I wanted to spend my life with,” Mandeep recalls (blushing!).
A formal wedding was planned for November with all the “works” in California but a work emergency forced Mr. Thakral to push things up-ahead, so he flew down for 4 days, they got married in a Chapel in Vegas, had a two-day honeymoon in New York, and life changed forever for Mandeep!
So has she finally settled in India? “I am still settling!” she exclaims, adding, “Initially, people would tell Tarun that he had a ‘visiting’ wife because I would fly down to the USA every few months and he never held me back from doing my own thing.” A bumpy pregnancy and a premature baby made Mandeep see a side of her husband she had never expected or seen before. “From feeding the baby to changing diapers to putting him to bed – Tarun could do it all. When he would be back from work, he would just take over, leaving me to rest and do my own thing. Even today, he continues to be a more hands-on parent than me,” adds the doting wife.
Brihant (15) and Mahith (13) helped her in staying grounded and finally settle in India. Once the children started school, Mandeep Thakral, an FNHP, started her own consultancy firm – Health Solutions, offering consultancy in fields of preventive health, lifestyle management and more. The company took off immediately and was soon ready for expansion – this is when she made another choice – to slow down. “It was around this time that Tarun was opening the Transport Museum and I had to stand by him. Also, children were growing up and needed my attention more. While I am a woman who certainly cannot sit idle, I could control the pace of my work so that other verticals of my life also stay balanced,” she explains.
So does she regret any of the decisions she has taken? “None”, she says, “Tarun is a very passionate man and I have always loved that about him. If you are driven yourself, you admire that drive. Chocolates and flowers don’t drive me. His Museum, his work, both are an important part of his life and I respect that. I am the F&B Director at the Transport Museum, which I think was a smart move by Tarun to involve me as now I also have a sense of belonging towards that project,” she adds.
I started this column as I firmly believe that the success of a person is hugely dependent on the support he or she gets from their better half and when I meet spouses like Mandeep Thakral, I am convinced of this fact even further. Mr. Tarun Thakral is surely an extremely charming and grounded human being, but his better half, is the unseen force that helps him remain so.
