Avijit and I were fairly inseparable when we were in middle/high school. Once I moved to the USA, we rarely got a chance to meet. He left for England first and then eventually Australia.

I did see him in 1999 in Kolkata, then around 2018 or so in the USA and then again in 2022 when both of us happened to be in Kolkata at the same time. Ironically, both of us were there to clean up all the property, bank accounts and such after our parents died. His mom and my parents all passed away within weeks of each other.

It is a testimony to the kind of relationship we had that he took a five hour, red eye flight from Perth after a whole day’s work to come and see Sharmila and me for a day. We had a great time driving around outside Sydney and checking out the Australian fauna. Finally, we settled by the Harbor in the evening and relaxed over a couple of drinks.