Last week, I had an overnight layover in Minneapolis airport. What would have been an otherwise humdrum evening with catching up on office work and all that turned out to be a memorable one because this gentleman was gracious enough to drive for quite some time and come meet me near the airport.

Back in 1998, I had gone to my alma mater (IIM Ahmedabad) to recruit for our company. We had pretty much wrapped up for the day at 5:30 and had already notified most of the students who we had selected to show up for dinner at a very nice place (Vishala?). It is one of those places laid out like a traditional Gujrati village and a great place to spend the evening.

SK was running so late with his other interviews that he did not expect at all to have any chance so late in the day with us – but he showed up. And we did put together an interview for him and guess what? He sailed thru with flying colors. We landed up adding one more to our dinner reservation!

And that is how a great relationship began. SK came over to the USA in 1998 and if I recollect correctly, came over to our house once for dinner in Coppell. A few years later, both of us went our own ways and our contacts were pretty much reduced to my birthday calls every year.

Till last week!!

As always, it was great to catch up on the great career progress a smart guy like SK has made in his life. I promised him to come by his house next time and make friends with his three kids…