Wow, this is truly an amazing honor of being nominated and to be given the opportunity to be featured in the Women of Courage this week.  A special big thank you to TC4 Woman Corner ~ John Elliot & Luella May, Carla Cash, Pauline Raina, Geketa Holman, Terry Gorley, Branka Babic, Shirley Caron and Michael Caron for the opportunity.   A special big thank you to Branka Babic for initiating this.

My name is Janet Iris Ravindran.  I was born on 12^th of September 1969 in Glauchau, a small town in Saxony, East Germany.  I was the first of 3 children.  Being the eldest and the only girl, it did not make me a princess.  My parents had to work their whole life.  My mother could not spend much time at home with us so that made me responsible after school for my brothers such as pick them from Kindergarten & take care of them until my mother came home from work.  During my schooling years, I grew up learning everything about communism and socialism.

Initially, I did not really understand the meaning of growing up in a country that practices communism.  Things appeared in a certain order, in a normal way to me – everybody seemed to have a job.  Children attended Kindergrippe (Nursery), Kindergarten and School. After school, you either studied or you went to Berufsschule (Vocational School).  Completing all of that, you are secured a job wherever it may be.

However, as I grew bigger, I realized that communism isn’t all that I had thought it would be.  We could purchase all the basic things like milk, butter, bread…. but anything extra & beyond was either not available or limited.  One particular process I remember is the purchasing of Bananas.  Somebody (either a neighbor or friend) will inform us “Faster, Go to the Kaufhalle (Supermarket).  They have Bananas!!!”  My mother and me will run to the Kaufhalle and stand in.... queue! Sometimes, even for 1 hour!  Once it reaches our turn, the Sales Person in charge will ask “How many people in your family?”  In order to get more than 4 bananas (each for 1 family member), my mum and I would queue separately ;-) and with that we got 8 bananas instead of 4.  The above process will have to be applied for Strawberries or any a bit exotic fruits other than apples.  If you wanted to buy something special, you would have to know the person “inside” and give that person something special in return so they’ll put for example a Jeans or a nice piece of bacon aside for you.

Next, there was the traveling part. I had a grandmother in West Germany and would extremely have loved to be able to visit her.  After applying for Visa a few times – which I never got,  I even tried to convince them even more by showing them a letter from my Granny’s doctor about her illness.  They in return told me, I might have a chance to visit her for the first time when she passes away.  That was the cracking point for my decision to leave this country.  Since I did not have any qualification at that time, I knew I need to stay on to get this.  After school, I went to a Nursing school near my town and after 3 years I had my qualification as a Nurse in 1989.  1989 was also the time when many East Germans fled to West Germany.  Since I felt the same urge, I applied for a visa for Hungary & took a train to Budapest at the end of September 1989 when my visa was approved.  

That was surely my worst train ride ever. I was scared, alone and didn’t know what was going to happen. I had to pass 2 borders before reaching Hungary and I thought it will never end. German Border Guards entered the train and checked me between Germany and Tschecheslovakia. I was in a compartment with 5 young men from Hungary and they didn’t even need to leave. I had to unpack everything I had, had to take piece by piece of all my clothes and hold it up – that was probably the most embarrassing time in my life ;-)  When the train finally reached Hungary it was a moment I’ll never forget!!!  There was shouting, whistling, singing and crying. My guess – at least ¾ of all the people in that train fled Germany.  At the train station in Budapest, I met some people my age and together we hitch hiked to Vienna. 

We had to register in Vienna, spend the day walking around there and at night we took a train provided by the government of Austria to Germany. There I had to be in a camp for 3 days, took a train to Bavaria, near Munich and stayed for 2 weeks with my parent’s friends whom I met years back in Hungary.  I found a job and an apartment and 2 months later my family came to stay with me.  After 6 years of living a happy life, tragedy struck my family.  My youngest brother had a bike accident on his 17th birthday was in a coma for 2 weeks & after that he couldn’t walk nor speak.  It was an up & down for half a year, operations & rehabilitation.  After 6 months, doctors found a brain tumor-another shock for our family after having high hopes for his health.  Operations, chemotherapy – nothing worked. He had to go to God 3 month after his 18th Birthday.  Only 1 month after that I left to Malaysia to stay with friends.

I worked different jobs here because I couldn’t get a working permit as a nurse.  In 1999 I met my husband, my best friend and soul mate Ralph Ravindran, a businessman. We married in 2002 and 2003 we had our first daughter Anya Ashwina, now 4 years old.  In 2005, we were blessed with another girl, Leah Anisha, now 2.  We have 2 doggies, about 20 big Koi’s and 100’s of smaller fishes in a garden pond.  We live in a beautiful house about 10 minutes from Kuala Lumpur’s City Centre. I feel I’m living exactly the life I’ve always dreamed of; that includes the climate, having a wonderful husband and of course being a mother.  It’s not always easy to get the love and support of your family only via internet or phone.  I have times when I feel I need my family to be near – it was very much so when Anya was born, my first child and my parents first grandchild – I would have loved to have my mom near me during and after delivery.  But my family and I have come to accept and living fine with it.

As for my online businesses – I got involved in Network marketing about 1 ½ years back.  I had my ups and down’s and have programs working very well for me now.  If anybody is interested to get more information on it, just send me a PM and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

I would like to extend an open invitation to all my friends to join me at my forum ~ Always One Step Ahead ~.  Currently, there are 2 ongoing threads with daily updates, 1 being” Do You Know What Happen…?” and “Whose Birthday Is Today?”  If I’m not part of your circle of friends, please feel free to invite me so that I can update the birthdays for everyone’s information. http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/23508/ShowForum.aspx

Adland has become much more than a community to me.  I came here in the first place to connect with other Networker and advertise my business.  At the same time and now very important to me, I found another family here, a family of wonderful friends.  I look forward to every day I can be online and share laughter, stories, games and everything else under the sun with them

Thank you for your time to let me share a bit about myself with you all.  Have a wonderful day, Blessings to everybody!

Janet Ravindran