My good old friend Gina Paola! She works near the hospice I go to in Marietta!

The last time you would have seen the three guys in this picture together was probably sometime in early 1994. That’s not just “a while ago” — that’s literally more than half our lives ago. Let that sink in for a moment while we all reach for our reading glasses.

Raj and I went to business school together, and then fate (and questionable corporate hiring decisions) put us in the same company for our first jobs. That’s where we met Srini. The three of us, along with a rotating cast of equally clueless and over-enthusiastic colleagues, lived in adjacent apartments in Mumbai – essentially our own version of a low-budget sitcom.

These two are remarkable in completely different ways. Take Raj, for instance. Back in the day, he casually declared that he would retire by 40. Naturally, the rest of us laughed and went back to worrying about month-end deadlines. But Raj? He actually did it. And not just retired — he’s gone on to live one of the richest, most grounded lives I know: always present for his parents, his kids, and everything that truly matters. If “living life on your own terms” had a brand ambassador, it would be him.

Srini and I, on the other hand, bonded over our shared love for writing software — because clearly, we were the cool ones. He went to IIT in my state, and I went to IIT in his. So naturally, our conversations were a delightful mess: some broken Bengali from him, some equally broken Tamil from me, and a whole lot of very passionate Informix 4GL thrown in for good measure. Honestly, it’s a miracle we understood each other at all.

Meeting again after all these years felt like no time had passed — and also like several lifetimes had. It was a magical morning, complete with us regaling the (very patient) better halves with stories from the good old days.

Stories like Raj dancing solo at Louis Kahn Plaza — as if the rest of the world didn’t exist — and Srini’s legendary “For here or to go?” moment at McDonald’s… which, trust me, deserves its own dedicated post someday.

But those are stories for another day.

P.S. Don’t I look like the paternal head in a family where the progeny has gathered around him to take, perhaps, one of those last pictures in his life? 🙂

It was a bit early in the morning. I’d already been up for over an hour in my hotel room. For all the enthusiasm I show about making my own coffee at home, I never feel like doing it in a hotel room. Instead, I wait for the lobby coffee shop to open. I suppose I enjoy the ritual — grab a cup, sit down, and absentmindedly watch people going about their day. Lobby, street, wherever. It turns into a kind of accidental mindfulness exercise.

So that day too, at 6 a.m., I wandered downstairs and got myself a cappuccino. Just as I was about to settle into my usual lobby chair, I thought I recognized a face. He was about ten yards away. I caught a quick side profile — and then, almost immediately, just the back of his head.

Now, I was staying at a Courtyard Marriott near Yale for work. And this gentleman is a Partner at a top strategy firm. What on earth would he be doing here?

After a couple of seconds of mental gymnastics, I took a shot in the dark.

“Neil?”

No response.

Now, this was actually a very calculated move on my part. Had I called out “Sudipto,” it would’ve been abundantly clear whom I was addressing — we were, after all, the only two Indians in the lobby. If I were wrong, things could’ve gotten awkward very quickly. But “Neil”? That leaves room for plausible deniability. If he turned out not to be my Neil, I could always just peer past him and pretend I was calling out to some other Neil. After all, every Courtyard Marriott is crawling with Neils at 6 a.m., right?

Encouraged by my own logic, I raised my voice a little louder.

He turned around.

Moment of truth.

And… nailed it.

It was Sudipto “Neil” Banerjee. After—what—twelve years? The last time must have been around 2014, when my in-laws were visiting and we dropped by his place. Since then, life had happened — moves to Germany, back again, new house, the usual chapters, you know.

Turns out he was in town with his kids for that inevitable parental rite of passage: college visits.

I didn’t get to meet the kids — they were still fast asleep upstairs — but I did get to spend some time catching up with Neil.

And it reminded me of something I probably don’t act on enough: every time I meet him, I walk away having learned something.

Which is reason enough to not let another twelve years slip by.

After dinner, I asked Gagan to drive me to the Courtyard. This is not where I was staying. But one of our old friends from i2 days was – Glenn Jones!! I think they met after more than a couple of decades!!

Was in Seattle for some work and had a couple of hours open. Gagan was gracious to come over to the city and we went out. Our topics of discussion were as varied as they were deep. We covered from AI to Quantum Physics to investments to remembering our old friends from i2 !!

I had settled down in my normal seat in the bar. Jess and Lauren came by to say Hi and ask, “The normal?” I nodded absent-mindedly, then opened the book I was reading. The goal was to get a couple of chapters under the belt over a glass of wine. Sharmila is in New York, so I had no travel planning to do, I guess.

Now, I mentioned that I was a bit absent-minded while responding to Jess and Lauren. And that is because I saw a very young kid going around and cleaning up the place. You know, putting things back in their place and that sort of thing. I had never seen the kid before.

“Who is he?” I asked Jess.
“Nolan. He is my younger son.”
“Oh! What is he doing – cleaning up the place?”
“Oh! He wants to be a help around. He loves it.”

He must have. Because, right at that moment, he showed up and asked, “Mom, what else can I do?”

Well, I introduced myself and found out that Nolan is a fourth-grader and that his favorite subject is Math. My idea of reading the book was defenestrated almost immediately. For the next hour or so, I taught him a few tricks rooted in math (like guessing your number and all), and then he would go try them on his mom and Lauren and impress them!

Eventually, it was time for me to go. It was getting late. We took a picture and parted ways. I am hoping that I will not have to wait till he comes of drinking age before I see him in the bar again!

Chris, Zeke and I went to an Italian place for dinner in downtown Fort Wayne. Unfortunately, it was closed – like every Monday. So, we strolled over to another place. Moment I entered, I thought I recognized the place. We sat at the bar. I asked the gentleman at the bar if somebody called Izzy worked there.

“Yes. She is here. She has gone to the back right now!”

Eventually Izzy came out. A few years back, after a full day of work at office in our engineering center in Fort Wayne, I had stopped here for dinner. And over dinner, made friends with Izzy. Got to know about her life and her family.

“Did you finish up your course in pedtrician nursing?” I remembered that was her goal.

“Almost done. 6 more months”

We caught up for a few minutes, took a picture and we went back to our own work.

Hope to see her next time when she is a full fledged nurse already!