8 April
2023
8 April
2023
I have an open invitation to South Dakota now
Sitting right next to us on the beach was this elderly couple. The gentleman was explaining the rules of corn hole to his wife as she watched her first game of corn hole. It was being played by their son and grandson about twenty yards away.
After some time, the gentleman got up and walked towards the corn hole boards to give it a try himself. He turned out to be pretty good.
Turning towards the elderly lady, I raised my voice and said “He is giving your grandson a run for his money”. She must be one of the most friendly persons I have ever come across. In response to my statement, she got up from her lounge chair, came over to our table and started talking.
Found out Sheila Kranz is from South Dakota. She invited us over anytime to spend time with them there. (I made a mental note mapping “anytime” to mean “summer” once she told me how cold it got around her in winter).
Asking her the root of her last name got us down the memory lane of her grandfather and his house in Germany. (She is part German and part Irish).
We must have chatted for about some thirty minutes when we realized that we needed to head back to our dorm reunion lunch!
8 April
2023
Who is Bella Hadid?
I was peacefully tanning my head in Coronado Island beach when Sharmila took this picture and sent it to the girls. Nikita immediately responded “He’s giving Bella Hadid off duty”.
So, I have just one question – who is Bella Hadid? Another good looking guy prone to tanning his head against his wife’s better judgment, I suppose?
8 April
2023
Taking in some beautiful sun
8 April
2023
Coronado Island Beach
8 April
2023
Rewind-Pause: Flashback from December 1986
We have the IIT Madras Alakananda hostel (our year) get together going on in San Diego now. Some incredible arrangements made by our local hosts – Ranga (S. Rangarajan and his wife Maya), GB (G. Balakrishnan) and Mani (Mani Krishnan).
Ranga, Madhav and I were reminiscing their trip to Durgapur back in December 1986. Madhav and I were headed to IIT Kharagpur for the Inter-IIT meet. Ranga (from Kolkata then) and Madhav had come over to our house.
We gathered my Durgapur friends one fine morning – Mousumi, Debatosh, Avijit, Aditi and Baisakhi and all of us made a trip to Shantiniketan.
This is one of the few pics that I have from that trip.
7 April
2023
Torrey Pines Beach
7 April
2023
First flight after stepping off from work
We are off to San Diego. It is one of the most favorite cities for Sharmila. I think specifically, the La Jolla area.
There is a get together of some of my dorm mates from Engineering School in India that we are off to. I think Sharmila has met only about two or three of my friends from those days.
Should be a great meet. Plus we will get some time to check out some old spots from our trips there. I think the last one was in 2005)
6 April
2023
A very special family
Rajat-da and I went to IIT together. He was two years senior to me and my student counsellor. We spent a lot of time together in the soccer fields. In fact, we both played for our college in the inter-IIT meet in Kharagpur in 1986. He was a wizard in table tennis (ping pong) and still is. And still as crazy as ever when it comes to soccer (especially the Euro leagues).
After not having seen him since 1987, I got a chance to meet him in Bay Area a little over six years back. It was a hurried meet (I had just flown in from DC and he had to drive from San Jose to meet near SFO).
And then today, we had a very relaxing meet! I got to meet his family – Anindita-di, Rohit and Ankit. We had a long brunch and caught up on a lot of stuff – past and present. Not least of which was the staple diet of dad jokes! (or as we called in IIT – “PJ”s !!)
6 April
2023