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!!

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!

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

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!

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!

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.