I first met Siva at a scholastic chess event in January 2020. I was wading through a sea of children, trying to help my 4-year old get to his playing room for his first round game. Siva was doing the same with his son and there was an immediate, unspoken, mutual kinship in that moment. What I didn’t know at the time was that I had just kicked off a deep adult friendship which is a rare thing, and is even more rare when you realize that the friendship became the seed for an even deeper family-to-family friendship. Over the coming months, our boys met at multiple chess tournaments, became part of a 3-person chess team called the ‘Bandar Bhais’ (literally, ‘Monkey Brothers’ in Hindi), and became brotherly buddies through it all.
The Sankrithi’s truly are the first family of education in Seattle. Siva’s love and natural proclivity for connecting with people is evident from the moment you meet him. He is a born educator, who thrives in deep thought, articulation, and the back-and-forth that is the bedrock of teaching. Chess, music, tennis, table tennis, football (both American and global), politics, education, mathematics, travel, and even general pop culture – these are just some of the topics that bring a smile to his face and can lead to a wild conversation where you lose track of time and walk away feeling upbeat about the world and wiser at the same time.
Siva is a prolific writer. I joke that he manages to get his crisp thoughts up on social media (and somehow energizes himself while doing it) before I am even able to get a first draft of my thoughts into my head while also getting exhausted. I was thrilled to hear that Siva, Aarti, Sarang, and Vivaan are putting their thoughts on paper to share them with the world. It is a fun, breezy, and educational read that promises to make you think just enough, while also reminding you not to take things too seriously. This book – just like our interactions with the Sankrithi’s – reminds us that no matter where life takes you, it’s all about the journey and the little joys along the way.