We got down in Ontario, California, retired our suitcases, grabbed a rental car. It was past nearly midnight by our time zone. Instead of going to the hotel, we decided to go straight to Rishu’s dorm and pick him up from there. We brought him to the hotel and had a dinner with him. This was his reaction to the banana split!

What do you think might have happened, back in 1977, if I had turned to this classmate of mine in fifth grade and told him – “Five decades from now, I will come and attend your daughter’s wedding. Not in Durgapur, not in Kolkata, not even in India… but in California, America”.

We would not have been able to judge how weird it would have been, as it would have been beyond our comprehension. For one thing, even my parents had not seen what four decades look like, let alone five. For another, our Geography teacher had not yet introduced us to the world map, forget America. I certainly would not have known what going to that wedding would have meant since I would have had to wait another decade and a half to be introduced to the insides of an airplane.

And yet, there I was, with my dear friend from my early years, after a long coast-to-coast flight, toasting to his dear daughter’s and son-in-law’s health against a beautiful sunset in Southern California.

Life is mystical. Very mystical.

When we landed up at the wedding reception, we did not recognize anybody around us. So, Sharmila and I were keeping to ourselves when a lady approached us. The face looked vaguely familiar. And then it all came back to us.

Bishakha from Dallas! We knew each other, way back when – back in the 90s. Then they had moved to California. Once in a while, Sharmila and I would talk about her and her husband, Debarag. Over time, we lost contact completely.

Strangely enough, a few weeks back, their topic came up when Sharmila and I were sitting in a bar. Somebody ordered a gumbo, and we immediately remembered the first time we had ever had gumbo! Back in 1996 or so, and Bishakha was the chef!

I am so glad she recognized us at the wedding. We missed Debarag, who is in India for work. Hope to see all four of us together sometime!

Ran into good old Debashish and Kakali at Hasnu’s wedding! Brought back so many memories from Dallas days. It was heartening to realize how much “Debu” (as we call him) always has prospered in every aspect of life and how little Kakali has changed. She is still that light-hearted, constantly smiling, energetic woman that I remember from Dallas over a quarter century back!

I get to meet friends that I had completely lost touch with! Mohsin and Tamanna from Dallas!

Rishi had left Narendrapur just around the time I was getting in. But I had heard a lot about him from our common friends like Rahul, Navin and Rajeev. We have been Facebook friends for a long time but never had a chance to meet. Shampa, his wife, is actually from Durgapur and we have a lot of common friends between her and me and also between her and Sharmila. And she is my Facebook friend too!

But our paths physically had never crossed! Till today … at Hasnu’s wedding!

Made two new friends in Urmila and Anindya today. Turns out Urmila knows our friend Budhu from Knoxville from her college days. And Anindya grew up in Durgapur for some time and is fairly close to my college friend days – Nilanjan!!

This is in Dana Point (Doheny State Beach). It was cool but the sun made it feel really nice.

Took my nephew to check out UCSD. He has been thinking of applying to transfer there. Went to see the famous library architecture there. The weather did not make a very favorable impression. It was extremely hazy.

We were busy having dinner with my nephew and his friends when I looked outside the window and saw this robot pacing up and down the street. Totally cool!

Of course, a few of us rushed out to check it out. The robot would walk up to strangers, and if you extended your hand, it would clasp it between its palms to greet you. And then take leave and amble away!

BTW, the three that rushed out of our party of six? They were the only Computer Science majors (current and long past) at the table.

Sharmila has been following this artist – Joe Cariati – for a couple of years. He is into the craft of glass blowing and apparently is fairly well known in glass blowing circles. She always has wanted to visit his workshop and pick up some of his creations. Last couple of visits to the SoCal area, we could not do so.

This time, we had made an appointment and showed up after driving for a couple of hours. I do not understand art, but I was fascinated by the engineering and science of the fire kilns and how they were creating those perfectly shaped glass pieces. We also met Joe’s wife – Austin – who is also a glassblower. We further found out that Sharmila and Austin went to the same school!

The artist – Joe – is in the back of the shop facing us.

She picked a few for herself too!

We were driving back from Los Angeles. It was a bit of a drive. Made longer by the infamous LA traffic snarls. We were very close to Riverside when I casually looked up to the mountains and was immediately hit by a very unfamiliar sight. There seemed to be an elephant on the edge of the hill!

Go figure!!

After some internet research, I realized that it is a giant, 30-foot-tall statue of a mammoth made of rusted iron. It was installed there in 2003 as a billboard for the Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center.