23 March 2024

End of an era: Aug 9, 2007 – Mar 23, 2024

Aug 9, 2007: The day the car came into my garage for the first time (top pic)
Mar 23, 2024: The day the car pulled out of my garage for the last time (bottom pic)

For a person who thinks of a car as a simple object to take him from point A to point B safely, I have an inexplicable emotional attachment to my cars. For some reason that is beyond logic, I refuse to give up on them even when they are way past being safe.

After I came to this country in 1993, my first car was a Honda Civic. By the time I gave up on it 14 years later in 2007, it had more pockmarks on its body from hailstorms in Dallas than two small pox afflicted felines battling themselves till the referee called it a draw. The lit up, flashing dashboard made me reminisce of Diwali everyday, the electronics to pull the windows up and down were long gone and towards the end I had to pump the brakes every 30 seconds at a red light in the rolling hills of Atlanta to prevent it from rolling. That is when Sharmila took the car decision off my hands. She called in Reddy from Dallas and Joydeep from Minneapolis to physically get rid of my car and help me buy a new one.

Atlanta is such a city that you can enjoy the roof down in a car nearly 8 to 9 months a year. So, I got this convertible as the second car of my life. It was lying in the dealer’s lot as previous year’s demo car. Believe it or not, as small as the car is, all four of us came back from the dealer to our home squeezed in that car. With the roof open, of course. We were literally spilling out of the car from all sides.

Once I got past my mom’s question of what would I do if it started raining (strangely enough, she was satisfied by my answer that I carry a big umbrella with me) and my dad’s disappointment that for so much money I got only two doors, the rest of the ride has been fairly smooth.

It lacked all the modern safety features – reverse camera, side car presence warning, lane slip warning and all that. No USB charger, no bluetooth either!!! But it could merrily play a cassette tape, if you could grab one.

After being together for 17 years and spending nearly 220,000 miles (350,000 kms) together on the road – mostly by ourselves – I finally bade adieu!!

It will take me some time to get over this.

Category: My Family | LEAVE A COMMENT
23 March 2024

Look who I ran into!

It was a glorious morning. Sharmila, Jay Jay and I went out for a longer walk than usual. On the way back, stopped by Valor Coffee to pick up a cappuccino. Sharmila and Jay Jay waited outside while I went in. I was third in line.

So far everything was as I would expect. Then I noticed the gentleman standing second in line. Right in front of me…

“Alex?”

He turned around. It was indeed him!

We used to work together many, many moons back. In fact, he was one of the first professionals I met in 2007 when we moved to Atlanta. Over the next few years, I proceeded to learn a lot of strategy and strategic marketing from Alex. He was our CMO then.

I even remember running a 5K one afternoon in a race somewhere in Johns Creek area with his family!

It was great to see Alex after such a long time!!

Category: Intersection Points | LEAVE A COMMENT
22 March 2024

It is amazing how the brain works!!

This is one more of my friends from the hospice. She has a different real name but she wants me to call her Pauline. A nonagenarian by age, a lot of her cognitive functions are lost. Her brain often misfires leading her to talk to her stuffed cat or relatives that have been long gone.

Except when you put a piano in front of her!! I did not even know that. I was sitting with her in the lobby when one of the staff members mentioned that the facility has a new piano and my friend can play it. I pushed her in her wheelchair to the piano expecting her to fiddle with it.

While I am not familiar with all the songs she played, they were certainly mellifluous – and this is important – she was absolutely keeping to the rhythm of the beats. Her brain clearly knew how to keep count of intervals of time. She got so excited that she had me take videos of her – while she sang full throated to the tunes she played!!

After every song, she would step back and say something like “I heard you play this” which of course meant there was a part of her brain that was misfiring again. All I had to do is encourage her for one more. She would pull her wheelchair up to the piano again and start playing.

And I am not talking about one or two songs. Her memory function for music was sharp enough to remember at least 8 different songs!!

It is amazing how complex our brains are. But it is also instructive to realize that even if some parts of the brain of an elderly person (some of us have had parents go thru this phase) have deteriorated, there are other parts that can absolutely thrill the person and take them to their happy zones! Trick is to find out what it is.

Category: In Transit | LEAVE A COMMENT
4 March 2024

Meet my new friend – William Lopez

Most countries I go to, I tend to make at least one everlasting relationship. It is usually the person who takes me around – unless I choose to drive or rely entirely on public transport. I have about 30 such life long friends from all over the world.

Please meet my new friend – William Lopez from Guatemala. He was my friend, philosopher and guide during my entire stay here. A person with an amazing personal journey.

He lived in Italy and married this most beautiful woman he met there. Except, she died at childbirth. To let him put it … “It was difficult to raise my child by myself at first”. But he did. His son is growing up in Italy as an aerospace engineer.

Life dealt the next unkind deal with his mom contracting cancer. He left his son to his in-laws and better education there to take care of his mom (and dad) in Antigua. His two brothers also leave abroad. Thankfully, his mom is a survivor today!!

He said he had never worked this hard before to get out of debt. And then Covid came!! Had to sell all his cars that he used for touring business. But he is building it up again. His parents and he support an orphanage and run a Spanish-learning school. They are finishing up his house to be a four room bed-and-breakfast for foreign students to come and learn Spanish and stay at their place and eat meals cooked by his mom. The current students have to live by strict rules – no smoking inside the property and you cannot bring your boyfriend or girlfriend in unless they are students too.

For all that hard work, I never saw him not smiling. In fact, the remotest of the villages we went to – everybody seemed to know him. The parking lot guy in Panajachel came running to him, every shopkeeper in San Juan gave them updates on their family (from the barebones Spanish I could understand).

It is like he has touched so many lives!!

The kind of guy I want to be some day when I grow up!

In the meanwhile, if you or your friends every want to visit Guatemala – and I can vouch for you that all you hear about insecurity in this country in Western media is just a minuscule representation of this country – I personally felt safer in all places in Cd. Guatemala than I feel even around my office in Atlanta. No homeless person screamed at me here – and I really encourage you to do so, please feel free to reach out to this young gentleman. He really knows a thing or two about how to deal with people.

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Category: Intersection Points, Vacations | LEAVE A COMMENT
29 February 2024

His busy schedule

is mostly comprised of long naps interrupted only by short naps.

Except when I yell “Go for a walk?” He immediately will jump from his bed, shake is body off and head out of the door without any fear or favor. Once in a while, he will look back to see if I am still there. What I find amusing is that he will ignore every other dog and person that we encounter. Like they pose a threat to his mission of putting his marker down on every square inch of Alpharetta!

Category: Our best friend | LEAVE A COMMENT