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!

Roughly translated, “When four buddies get together….”. This meeting of 4 ex-i2ers was made possible entirely due to the dint of Naren’s entrepreneurship. He was visiting from Seattle and had arranged for Karthik, Madhav and the two of us to have a dinner together. As it always happens with ex-i2ers, it was a trip down nostalgia lane.

You may remember Stephen as the person who had mysteriously left a coffee art book at my door when we were not there. He lives very close to me and insists that he walks regularly in downtown Alpharetta. But we rarely get to see each other!! We had worked together in our old company for some time.

Today, we finally scheduled some time and met up at a local coffee house. Incidentally, I did not drink my tea with the biking helmet on. As we were leaving, I suddenly realized that I had not taken a picture of us. Thus…

Of course, there was no way I was letting Stephen go without teaching me more about coffee. Learnt a lot of new things including how to work around the sour or bitter tastes of coffee. I also had to pick up some notes on how he has kept himself so healthy inspite of being failry ahead of me in age. Loved his discipline and passions for other things in life he has.

It was a great time for me. I am glad we talked on his birthday a few days back and decided to meet up. Need to do this more often.

It had been a whole week since I last visited an airport. To alleviate some of the withdrawal symptoms, I gathered my laptop, an umbrella, some paper and pen and headed towards downtown Alpharetta. The idea was to sit down at Boarding Pass in one of those Delta seats that they have (they also have those carts they wheel down the aisle in Delta planes!!) and catch up on some work.

After finishing talking to the owners – Murilo and Christine – and gathering my drink, I started walking towards one of those flight seats. And that is when I heard my name being yelled. Looked at the corner table and who else did I see but good old Tina!! We worked together some 15 years back. I have a lot of memories of her as one of our brightest and fastest growing executives. Lately, I had been getting updates of her from another CEO friend of mine (who she had started working with) but I had not seen her for over a decade!

It was so great to catch up with her and meet her husband Diego, her son and his girlfriend!

Now, I have to look her up in Blairsville when I go there in my motorbike.

If you did not know Roam, think of it as a version of Wework. Mostly in Atlanta (with the sole exception of one in Grandscapes in Dallas).

Now, I have been a member there for the better part of 15 years. Almost from the time the original location opened in Alpharetta. I am literally the longest standing customer. I have gone thru 4 companies and still go to Roam to work when I do not have an office to go to. The locations may not be the best, the lack of windows and outside view does not compete well with other companies and certainly there is no free food and snacks like you will get at Thrive or Industrious – but the people at Roam are just outrageously great. I do not know what they do in their recruiting process but each and every one of them are the kind of professionals you want to interact every day – very helpful, always smiling and always worried about giving you the best service.

If there is one ding, it is that the young folks who join there, often find great opportunities and move on. It is, of course, great for them. For me, I have to start my relationships all over again. To give you an idea, I wish 20 Roamers and ex-Roamers happy birthday every year. And I probably do not have contacts for another 20. But that has also afforded me to keep up with the life journeys of the young folks as they have flourished in their personal and professional lives!

In exactly that vein, got to know Tanvi Reddy in Roam Alpharetta last year. She is midway between my two daughters in age and I got to know about her and her family during the time she was there. One of the things I remembered her most by is that she had just graduated from the college that my younger one goes to.

And then she vanished one day.

It was only when I called to wish her a happy birthday a few days back that I realized she is in New York with a new opportunity. I mentioned that I will be in the city for work and also to meet my other daughter.

We were both able to squeeze some time between work to grab a coffee in Union Square!

It was so great to see this young professional again!

Aimee and I worked in 2010 and early 2011 when she left the company we had just acquired. After that, I had kept up with her during our catch up calls every March for her birthday. (Coincidentally, my daughter, she and I have three consecutive birthdays!!).

Over the years, I got to know how she overcame learning challenges as a young child and how she found her calling as an entrepreneur focusing on educational products on similarly challenged kids.

She was in Atlanta for a conference and that gave us an opportunity to catch up over dinner. I think this is the longest I have spent any face to face time with her.

Some great discussions on how to deal with people who think differently and in general, how to survive and excel by being different in a world where people choose to be around similar people.

Had a thought provoking session! And a lot of catch up of our colleagues from yesteryears!!

I had not seen Mark in over 5 years. Thankfully, he was able to take some time off his super busy schedule to trek it to my hotel to have a coffee in the morning. It was incredibly great to see this great human being. And also to reflect on the learnings from the time we worked together and ever since.

Also picked up some tips on my new hobby – bicycling! He has been doing that for the better part of a decade and a half.

Natasha and I met a few times over the past few years after that summer in 2008 when we met in a running trail. There was that time when I came out of an airport I was transiting thru to meet her and her mom. The last time was when Sharmila and I met her in Doha on our way back from Jordan.

Met her this morning during her visit to Atlanta. After all these years, you would think I would at least know her name. No! Found out that her first name is Carmen. And there is a very interesting history of why she goes by “Natasha”.

But the best part of the morning was meeting her younger son Matthew. Incredibly well put together, I had a very mature discussion with this rising senior. Our topics varied from taking a year off for backpacking to how we did programming in the 80s (what is a computer card? 🙂 ).

Hope to meet both of them again as they swing by Atlanta once more towards the end of July. I need to finsih up some of the loose ends of our discussions with Matthew.

Got to sit down with our new stranger-turned-friend Bill and we talked about his life with motorcycles! Learnt a lot from him.