But I had a dang good excuse today.
By the way, I am starting to believe that maybe it is true that these things happen to me only!! Else, how do you explain this intersection point?

If you recollect, my third goal was to get all the cousins from my mom’s side and their families together for a couple of days for the first time ever. My brother and I had chosen a small resort deep in South 24 Parganas. It is not the most popular place but gave us the quietness and the facilities and more importantly a dozen good rooms that we were looking for.

This morning, after putting in a run with my brother and then some outdoor activities with all my cousins – some of whom I met for the first time – and then playing in the pool with all the nephews and nieces, I was pretty exhausted. Add to that a heaving Indian meal and I was ready to hit the sack. Figured I would take in a little more sun and so settled down in a chaise lounge chair near a corner of the pool.

I must have kept my eyes shut for five minutes and then opened them for a moment to move over to lay on my side. In that moment, I thought I saw a gentleman walk in front of me with a camera in his hand. I had my eyes closed for another couple of seconds when it occurred to me – “Wait a minute! Could it be who I think it is?”. What is the chance that I would come from US to a far out small resort ways away from any city and run into my schoolmate from 5th-10th grade?

I got up, look towards him but I could only see his back. He was trying to take pictures of this lady – who I presumed to be his wife. I was wondering what to do. It would be awkward to walk up to him to check his face and then maybe ask if he went to school together with me. It is then that I remembered that I still had that friend’s phone number. So, I fished out my phone from the pocket and dialed his India mobile number and waited with bated breath.

I could see him taking quite a few snapshots of the lady and then he put his hand in his shirt pocket and pulled out his mobile. That was all I needed. I disconnected the phone and went up to him and asked “Suman? Chintey paarchis?” (Suman? Recognize me?). We both had that “What the hell are you doing here?” look!!!

That was indeed one heck of a coincidence. Turned out that other than his wife, his son and his mom was there too. We walked to where they were and I chatted with them for some time and got one of his office friends (they were there for a office party) to take a few pictures of us!

As I said, maybe it is true that these things happen just to me. But I am glad they do. I would take that any day so as to run into Suman, his wife Suparna, his son Sayan and his mom!!!