6 November 2023

For a 30th birthday, that was not bad!!

The phone rang. But she did not pick it up.

Tried her husband next. Went straight to voicemail. Called back. This time it rang. Subhasis picked up.

“Rajib, that is a surprise! How are you?”

“Well, I just landed in Dallas. Sorry for the airport background noise. I have a meeting tomorrow morning. I know it is 8pm already but I was going to swing by your house for a glass of wine.”

“Oh! How long are you in Dallas?”

“I leave tomorrow afternoon”

“Dang! We are in Los Angeles celebrating Rishi’s 30th birthday. We will be back tomorrow evening!!”

“Oh! say Happy Birthday to Rishi. Sorry to have missed you this time.”

“Yes. Please let us know next time. We really missed you.”

“No problems. Let me go to Sunil’s house and see if I can bug him”.

I kept the phone down, grabbed an Uber and headed towards Santa Monica, California.

Now, you are probably wondering why would I take a Uber for 1,500 miles. Here is the backdrop. I was lying thru my nose. I had just landed in Los Angeles airport.

You see, I had called Rishi (our dear old Gampu) on his 30th birthday and he let me know that his parents – our good old friends Debjani and Subhasis – are visiting him. We talked about the time he and I met in New York when he was in NYU. And the great discussions we have on the phone every yer. We promised to meet again soon.

That is when it had struck me that I had a conference to go to in Long Beach. Checked with him and yes! there was an evening of overlap.

A few hush hush text messages and the whole surprise was set up.

I was sitting at the bar, quietly waiting for them to show up for dinner. Audrey came in a little earlier than others. This is the first time I met her. I had missed their wedding a couple of years back. We grabbed a drink each and waited for the unsuspecting friends from Dallas.

Moment we spotted them, Audrey took her position with her phone.

I grabbed my wine, roller suitcase and tried to brush past Subhasis who was waiting next to their table.

“Excuse me, sir!” I said, as I pretended to get past him.

“Sure,” he said while stepping aside.

We made eye contact.

And THAT is exactly when the SCREAMING started!!!

—

[The place was a little dark so the pics are a little blurry]

Thank you Rishi and Audrey for helping me pull this off!!

That was a great finale to a week of celebrations for Rishi’s big birthday!!

Category: Intersection Points | LEAVE A COMMENT
6 November 2022

Book Review: “Humor, Seriously”

Authors: Jennifer Acker and Naomi Bagdonas

This is a book that I am totally schizophrenic about. I have no recollection about how I found this book. But I know it was not available at iBooks – so I had to read it on Kindle. Ostensibly, the book is about how to use humor as a secret weapon at office.

The initial part was fairly boring to me. It was the part that tried to explain humor in workplace. A lot of it felt theoretical. But also very true. As an example, how you need to be careful about using humor as you go up the hierarchy. Somebody two levels down can make fun of you (especially not in front of you. (The authors call it “punch up”). If you “punch down”, that would be devastating.

Where the book gets a little more interesting to me – somebody who is not funny but unfortunately tries to be is when it dissects what creates humor – (*) Truth (*) Surprise and Misdirection (*) Exaggerate (*) Create Contrast (*) Use Specifics (*) Make Analogies (*) The Rule of Three (*) Build out the world (*) Your signature stories (*) The here and now and my all time favorite (*) Use Callbacks.

Overall, unless you are really serious about understanding how to use humor in leading organizations, I would skip this book.

But whether you read this book or not, I would like to tell you that the way the book ends is outstanding and certainly worth a reminder every single day.

Levity at work and a life well lived share five basic precepts:

1. Boldness: “I wish I had lived more fearlessly.” (To quote Lucille Ball – I am not funny; What I am is brave”
2. Authenticity: “I wish I had loved a life true to myself.” (To quote Tine Fey – Don’t waste your time trying to change opinions. Do your thing and don’t care if they like it.)
3. Presence: “I wish I’d stopped to appreciate the moment more.” (To quote Bill Murray – The last time doesn’t exist. It’s only this time … There’s only now.)
4. Joy: “I wish I had laughed more – and not taken myself so seriously.” (To quote Ellen Degeneres – Do things that make you happy within the confines of the legal system.)
5. Love: “I wish I had the chance to say ‘I love you’ one more time.” (To quote Stephen Colbert – In my experience, you will truly serve only what you love. If you love friends, you will serve your friends. If you love community, you will serve your community. If you love money, you will serve money. And if you love only yourself, you will serve only yourself, and you will have only yourself.)

Category: Books | 2 Comments on Book Review: “Humor, Seriously”
6 November 2022

First time in my life

When I came to the USA, back in 1993, it was in October that year that I had to deal with Daylight Savings Time. Not sure it quite made any sense to me. Then. Or now.

However, I quickly got Americanized. And twice a year, I dutifully went around the house and changed all the clocks and watches we had. And then the ones in the car, the oven, the microwave etc. I remember what a simple delight it was in the 90s when I realized at least the computers had the intelligence to set themselves right.

You might remember that I had complained seven years back why I was the one who had to go around fixing all her fancy wrist watches and why is it that I always cut my nails the previous day.

In a mark of – call it empty nesting, minimalism, digital advancement … what have you, today I had absolutely NO watches to reset! In fact, it was not till late in the afternoon that I realized even that we had reset Daylight Savings!!

We gave away all our fancy wrist watches and got rid of all clocks during the move. Literally, other than the two Apple watches, the only other time giving devices in our house are cars, motorbikes, microwaves, oven, computes, iPhones and iPads. And all of them self correct!

They say not tracking time in life is a bliss.

I concur. I could have done with the reminder that I had slept for an hour more than I thought this morning though!

Category: Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
6 November 2021

A nerd’s dream come true

As if writing full page letters – on monogrammed paper and with fountain pens – and then sealing the envelope with wax and a personal seal was not nerdy enough, I think I have managed to take it to the next level of nerdiness. Now I have 24 different colors of wax beads, a formal set up to melt the wax (no more of the candle version – you actually heat up the wax beads in a small spoon over a tealight candle) and highlighter pens to accentuate the seal.

It is a sheer irony that to show you all these forms of archaic communication, I have to use the internet and social media platforms like Facebook 🙂

Okay, now I need all of you to call me for dinner or lunch at your place. I need to write a lot of thank you letters to try out all the different colors of wax!

Category: Fountain Pens | LEAVE A COMMENT
6 November 2021

So, this just happened

After sticking with the first motorbike of my life for four years (to the day almost) and 21,000 miles, I finally got a new bike. Had a great experience with the Honda CTX 700 but this time went with a little more power in the Honda Rebel 1100. The feel of the ride and the sitting position are different and will certainly need some getting used to.

In the meanwhile, I need to find a name for this successor of Phoenix.

Thank you John Moore for pushing me to upgrade and finding this specific bike in the next state.

Category: Motorbiking | LEAVE A COMMENT