I got to know Melania at work in Germany – oh! some 20 years back. Ever since then, we mostly have kept up thru phone calls and Facebook posts. Of course, there are those April birthday calls every year. I have been promising Melania to visit her whenever I find myself in Paris. But in spite of all my travels, I never made it to Paris for a long long time.

Finally this time, I made it. And Melania took some precious time off from work to come and visit me. I was running between being on the stage for a panel discussion and an office dinner meeting. And she was in the middle of a crucial sales cycle. In between, though, she biked up to where I was to have coffee and catch up on our lives and old friends.

I learnt quite a bit of skiing from her. Skiing is second nature to her. I do not think I will recognize a ski blade if I saw one. The part that blew my mind was that you can ski up a slope. I am not talking about starting with a momentum from a down slope. I am talking about starting from zero and then skiing up!

We also talked about politics in France, US and India; our old days in i2 in Germany and some of our dear friends from those days. And yes, rugby, football, American football and cricket too !!

She had to leave for work soon. It felt like we did not finish our conversation fully. It only means we need to make time to visit in US or France again!

Thank you Melania for taking to effort during office time to meet me for coffee!