8 May 2021

From the bartender’s corner – Coconut Gin and Tonic

Sharmila got coconut water. Ergo, I had to experiment with it in some cocktails. Picked up the first one from a cocktail magazine. Did not turn out to be great. It is lime juice (one spoon) with two ounces each of coconut water, gin and tonic poured in a glass of ice and then stirred.

The coconut was fairly lost and the bitterness of the tonic water somehow came thru more pronounced. Will try something else next time…

8 May 2021

The time lapses are trending the right way

Last time I saw Prabasaj-da in school was 1984. Then almost thirty years later, ran into him unexpectedly at our local Durga puja in Atlanta. In spite of promising to see each other again, somehow life got in our way. Next time I saw him was seven years later at a coffee shop.

We set a target to meet with the family after Covid vaccinations. Fortunately, within six months or so, we were able to get the families together. I had not seen Kathleen since the Durga Puja either. We went to Wolf Mountain Vineyards to grab lunch and have some chat time outside.

The weather was gorgeous and the north Georgia mountains were beautiful.

But the highlight of the meeting was Aliya – who I had not seen before. She kept us thoroughly entertained and engaged. Not to speak of the time when she split us into two teams and then when asked “What are we supposed to do?”, she sheepishly admitted – “I have not thought this one thru”!!

Loved her intellectual curiosity and playfulness!

30 years… 7 years… half-a-year… I think we are trending the right way!!

6 May 2021

It is those smiles!!

One more thing that I am going to miss if everybody starts to work from home – those impromptu getting togethers around a cubicle. Sometimes to brainstorm, sometimes to just have a good laugh! You know… those small things… that build culture and kindred spirit.

Our vaccinated teammates are taking advantage of the flexibility at work – some come to the office everyday to keep a clean separation of work from life and some come on specific days or for specific team meetings to be able to balance the needs at home and work.

Personally, I have started flying to Chicago every other week. Mostly to drop into these impromptu meetings to crack some completely unnecessary and irrelevant jokes!!

But watching people who I work with smile at work? Priceless!!

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4 May 2021

Got caught sneaking in…

Went back to Chicago after a week to work from office. Was wondering if the bear had gotten over the performance appraisal and moved out of my cubicle.

It was worse!

He was sitting right at the entrance of our office floor with that “And where were you last week?” look on his face!

I tried my best to ignore him and slinked my way to the cubicle!!

2 May 2021

Sunday evening – winding down

Listening to the other side of the Anup Ghoshal LP record. It has a song special to me – মধুর নুপুর রুমু ঝুমু বাজে…

It was the first classical song – or at least the song with Teentaal as the beat on the tabla – that my sister had learnt. Many a practice was done to get back to the “som” correctly…

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