31 years to be precise. Rajiv (we spell our names slightly differently) and I went to MBA school together and then joined the same company – COSL. More importantly, we lived in the same apartment in Bombay (Mumbai).

Obviously, we had some great times then. We were all bachelors and there were too many drinking sessions over the weekends with singing and dancing. Believe it or not, I was the designated driver those days. Well, I did not exactly drive so much as made sure things were kept at a level that would not bother the folks upstairs or downstairs. (All the three apartments in that floor of Dharm Palace residential complex housed employees from COSL) But sure as heck, I had not touched a single drop of alcohol till thenn. Actually, it would be so for another few years after those days.

Then Rajiv married Rekha and moved off to Japan. My last meeting with him was when he had come back from Japan for a short visit that year. He sat me down and encouraged me to move over to the Operations side of business instead of just Technology. (I loved software). This was 1992. I eventually took his advice – but much later.

From Japan, Rajiv, Rekha and their three daughters moved back to India. Midori and Hana came to the USA for studies. And then a few years back, the other three moved over to the USA too.

Sharmila and I got to meet Rajiv and Rekha for dinner today!! As you can imagine, there was a lot of catching up we had to do. We also got to meet Naomi.

The highlight of the evening must have been the story of the bathroom toilet with a Wifi router. I will let him expound on that!!