25 April 2014

A really unique intersection point!

In the annals of my intersection points, this would go down as one of the most unique ones. For a simple reason. For the first time, I actually met Kanta!! We have known each other for the last nearly 30 years, written letters to each other but never actually physically met.

Till today!!

Let me see if I can piece this together. I have attempted at a graph too…

Line 1: I had a friend during my school days called Shukla. She had a room mate in college called Kanta Lahiri. I had become pen-pals with her thru an introduction from Shukla

Line 2: My best friend from school days was Avijit. He was also a common friend with Shukla. He later worked in Apollo hospital in Kolkata. He moved on later to Perth, Australia.

Line 3: My dad had his knee surgery done a couple of years back at Apollo hospital by a surgeon named Dr. Chatterjee

Line 4: Last year, I traced Kanta down in Facebook. Avijit Bose noticed my new friend.

Line 5. And he put all this together to create the mega coincidence. Kanta is married to Dr. Chatterjee!!! Because, Kanta also had worked in Apollo for some time!!!

The simple equation is: my pen pal is married to my dad’s surgeon. But I needed a few more people in the equation to get the tenuous chain together!!

It was a perfect meeting!! I wish I had some more time to talk to her. Our discussions covered every point in our chain (some more than others ๐Ÿ™‚ ), our professional lives (she is a very accomplished executive), health deterioration of our parents/in laws (we had similar experiences with depression in family members) and then my inevitable question – “What life lessons have you learnt that I can benefit from?”

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25 April 2014

Another intersection point!

I had promised this old friend from college days – Hena – that I would visit her when I am in India. I missed my promise last couple of times. Not this time! Met her after 1988. (It was at her home. Her mom had made omelettes for Debotosh and me). Also had the good fortune of meeting her husband Kallol!

Caught up with her parents, siblings, common friends and such. The best part of our discussion was exchanging data on a null hypothesis I have: students who did well in studies in our old Indian education style (the one I grew up with) and students who later met with success in professional life are by and large negatively correlated!

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