On first day at Mumbai office, CM's wife sets out to make friends

Amruta Fadnavis, Maharashtra CM, Devendra Fadnavis, Axis Bank, Mumbai branch, Mumbai news, Mumbai

When chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' better half, Amruta, walked into Axis Bank's Mumbai office for her first day there yesterday, she did not let her ‘high-profile' family credentials mar her new assignment.

Amruta Fadnavis is an associate vice-president and will handle the treasury department at the bank's corporate office in Worli. Pics/Atul Kamble

She refused to occupy a separate enclosure, which she thought would unnecessarily set her apart from the others in the office, and restricted her security cover to just one protection officer.

"I didn't want to be different only because my husband is the CM. I didn't want my colleagues to think I'm not one of them," Amruta, who is an associate vice-president of the bank, told mid-day after her work ended last evening.

Well begun is half done: Amruta Fadnavis at Axis Bank's Worli office on her first day

Wearing a black suit, the 35-year-old first lady of Maharashtra seemed to blend in with the other women leaving the office. "I want to make friends here," said the career banker and mother to five-year-old Divija.

The CM with his daughter Divija at the Cathedral and John Connon school yesterday. He described the day as one of the finest in his life

Tiredness showed on her face, but her eagerness to meet her daughter, who had taken her father to her Malabar Hill school for ‘Dad's Day Out' celebrations earlier in the day, seemed to have busted all the stress. "I can talk with you as long as you don't ask me anything about politics," she said, adding that politics is her husband's forte.

Mumbai move
Like any other career banker, Amruta always wanted to work in Mumbai. "Despite getting opportunities earlier, I did not move out because my parents wanted me to stay close to them (her parents, too, work in Nagpur)," she said.

She finally sought a transfer to Mumbai after her husband took charge of the state in October last year and the family shifted to the city this month. "Like any other bank employee, I have worked hard to get here. I started as a cashier in Axis Bank.

I haven't set any goal yet because I take every day in office as a new challenge," Amruta said of her work. In Mumbai, she will handle Axis Bank's treasury department at its corporate office in Worli and she is now due for her next time-bound promotion.

Apple of their eye
Amruta said her daughter misses her. "But then there are people who take care of her. Her grandmother and her nanny, who has been with us since Divija was just one month old, do not let her feel my absence."

She said she was glad that Divija's father could take time off to spend quality time with her at her school (Cathedral & John Connon) for Dad's Day Out celebrations even as she spent her first day in the office.

An equally glad father told mid-day that it had been of the finest days in his life. "I played with Divija and the other children. All of us dads had fun together," said Devendra.