I am sure you remember the scintillating story I had about meeting my first pen friend. This one was a bit more tempered down. For one thing, everybody spoke English when I needed directions. For another, we met in a place we had agreed on in our communications. Yes, I did not spring a surprise this time. It was a planned one.

Marine and I have been writing to each other for some time. One common theme is that she has visited India. And she had first hand experience of discrimination by skin color. We have written to each other a lot about our personal experiences. She was not too surprised when I discussed how skin color of a girl in India often was the deciding factor on your choices of suitors… or the amount of dowry you have to pay.

Today, though, it was all about her work and her family. For the life of me, I never dug into what she does for a living. I would have have a lot more letters to write then – both of us are in technology!

The best part? Talking about our own set of pen pals and experience of writing to them. She was most thrilled by my story of pen friendship with a prisoner! The only pen friend I ever had in the USA. Fortunately, she eventually got released. Unfortunately, I never heard back from her again!!

It was a great meeting!

I will tell you how great it was. Five minutes after we had said good bye, I suddenly realized that I forgot to take pictures. Texted her and she was kind enough to come back from the parking lot to take this picture.

I promised Marine that next time I am in Paris, I will meet her dad. Sounded like a guy I someday want to be!!

Imagine this… I was getting ready to board my plane – they called out my group and at the same time, my bank called up. I was expecting a call from them and if I missed it, it would have been a problem. Needed to get something done urgently. Additionally and somewhat tangentially, I needed to give some finishing touches to the Board slides so I could send them out while in flight to the Board members to review them.

I scampered down the jet bridge, barely greeted the air hostess and quickly went to sit in my seat. All this time, I was talking to the bank agent and trying to get the laptop tethered to my phone so that I could get to my account while I had her on the phone.

I was totally focused. Once I got that done, I needed to download the Board slides so I could work inflight. Meanwhile, an unassuming young gentleman came and sat in the seat next to me. I quickly acknowledged him while I was still talking to the bank.

In due course, my bank call got over, my presentation got downloaded and the air hostess announced that the door had been closed. I shut off my laptop and threw in the pouch in front – ready to pounce on it moment we became airborne.

Sitting back, my first thought was “Did I bring my suitcase with me? I can’t remember putting it up in the bin. Did I leave it at the gate?”

My second thought was “Who just asked if I am Rajib Roy?” Turns out my neighbor who I had barely acknowledged had asked me – “Are you Rajib Roy?”. Made eye contact for the first time and recognized good old Steve Albert from my past life. We had worked for a few years together over a decade and a half back. I did not remember his last name – but Steve helped me out immediately. I remember him as a really smart young executive in our Strategy group. Later, I was checking his LinkedIn profile and realized that he has built an impeccable career for himself.

Regretted not having kept up with him. Could have learnt a lot.

We talked quite a bit about our old colleagues. They were really good. In fact, we took a picture and I sent it to his ex-boss Laura Wilbanks – who we both have very fond memories of!

The one thing I still did not get… If Steve is that smart – which he is, why did he choose to remember me? Worse, acknowledge it? I guess even the best have their blindspots 🙂

But thrilled that he remembered me.

May your tribe increase, Steven Albert!

I take to befriending strangers like a fish takes to water. Usually, the difficult part is getting started. Invariably, something innocuous happens and then that gets the conversation going. You get into common interests, common locations etc as the exchange progresses. But you need an excuse to get started.

But if you are a motorcyclist, that is a dead give away. First there are tell tale signs all around. There is a helmet or a motorcycle jacket with the stranger or sometimes just the boots clue in to how he or she must have arrived. Second, you can never go wrong by asking such a person “What are you riding?”

That establishes a common connection immediately. Usually the other person then talks about the motorbike make and brand. Now, while I motorbike quite some, I am not an expert in different kinds of motorbikes at all. So, I just nod and make a complimentary comment about the make and brand. From there, the conversation follows exciting paths about how we got into motorbiking, where we motorbike, how many times we have laid a motorbike down (by the way, we never admit that we dropped our motorbike – of course not, we lay them down).

And from there I get to know the person, their life history, where they grew up, their passion, what do they want to be when they grow up (I ask that even if they are in their seventies). Usually, I walk away learning a few new things and sometime some ideas to try out later.

This has never failed me. It did not this evening either when Sharmila and I ran into young Evan Knight at Central City Tavern in downtown Alpharetta. Remarkable history. Learnt about his totally cool helmet and how in his adventurous spirits, he is going to try living out of a camper for some time. In fact, I learnt that he regularly camps out in the North Georgia mountains after riding there in his motorbike. From the pictures, it was impressive that he can pack up all that stuff in his motorbike storage.

The other remarkable thing about Evan is the motorcycle and Jeep event he helps organize in December for raising money for charitable causes. Showed me a video. Reminded me of DC on Memorial Day!

I think I will join him this December!