1991 June. I was sitting with the rest of the new entrants in the training room in an air conditioned windowless room in SEEPZ, Mumbai. Presently, somebody came and announced which project each one of us would go to. Mine was “CPC”.

Subsequently, I met my super boss (my boss’s boss) – Raj Sundaramurthy. That started an incredible journey for both of us. We are extremely different persons – well, other than the curious penchant for dad jokes. He is an accomplished cricketer and bridge player. I am decidedly not. He is a movie buff. I had once asked Salman Khan who he was (we were sitting next to each other on a flight and everybody was staring at him). He is the best software manager I have come across (and I have come across a few). I became a software manager because my coding skills sucked.

And yet, through all that, we have stuck together as thick friends. We have run together. We have laughed together. We have had sinful amounts of alcohol together. We have been each others’ support system during our darkest days in personal lives. And we have always tried to outdo each other with our dad jokes. He inflicting his ill-gotten knowledge of Bengali was more than met by my staggeringly poor Tamil (for a person who has spent 4 years in Tamil Nadu).

One of those low days in life involves his wife slamming the phone down on him. We were working late at night. His poor wife, in advanced stage of pregnancy with the first child, had to come down from her flat and walk to a nearby telephone booth to call him. It was VERY late at night and she had no idea what had happened to him. Sensing imminent danger, Srini and I flung ourselves to his service. We took an auto rickshaw and accompanied him so that his wife’s anger would at least partially melt upon seeing us.

Upon seeing us, the only thing that melted was Srini’s and my presence as we high tailed it from his door. I do not think we even bothered to wait for the elevator as we scampered down the stairs to find the nearest auto rickshaw.

Well, that aforementioned wife – Viji – now calls me their “forever” friend. Never seen a lovelier – or for that matter, a more gullible couple 🙂

Being the glutton for punishment that he is, he let me work with him in not one more, not two more but three more companies with him. (There is only one company I have worked in where we did not work together).

He went from pillar to post on his engineering skills. I settled for a less demanding CEO job.

To this day, through that interesting, intriguing and invigorating life journeys, our paths have intertwined in a double helix like a DNA. If you discount that DNA bit, he is nothing but an elder brother to me, thata I never had.

Thank you Raj and Viji for letting me live yet another of those brilliant evenings together.

I raise my drink this evening to many more of them in the future.

It was early 2006. I had finished a few months with the company I had joined the previous year. The CEO – who was my manager – took me out for a lunch to my favorite dinner place. When I say my favorite dinner place, I mean the TGIF that was next to the Courtyard I stayed in because I did not want to venture out too far in the Boston cold. I lived in warm Dallas and trekked to Boston every week.

My dinner those days were two glasses of wine and some French Fries. Or as the aforementioned CEO lovingly called it “Dinner of the Champions”!!

After reviewing my performance, he dropped a big surprise on me – “I want you to move to sales and run sales. I think you will be good at it.” I was fairly taken aback. While I had run service sales before, this was the first time running product sales. And those breaks do not come too often.

I cannot speak for him how it worked out for him, it certainly worked out great for me. I can honestly say that in a big way that break made me who I am today professionally.

After many a moon, I got to meet that gentleman – Jonathan Colehower today at a Starbucks. There was a flurry of memories from the past that came back. The people, the customers, the investors and all the fun we had. I had not seen him for a very long time.

Of course, we had kept up thru phone calls in between. Thru his health crisis and his wife’s. It was heartening to see how the Colehower family trumped over the vagaries of life. It was especially encouraging to hear how his three daughters have grown up so successfully.

Jon still lives with his health crisis. And the conversation today of how he deals with it was another reminder to me about life being so much about what you make of it and not playing the victim card.

It was so good to see him doing well physically, professionally and most importantly, emotionally. He seemed happy with his lot. That, above all, is what we all strive for!

May your tribe increase, Jon!!

Lynette, her mom Lia and her dad Matt were my running partners when I used to run in groups. Lia was undoubtedly the one in the family with who I ran the most. One unique quality about Lynette is her love for reading, literature and books. I remember discussing P.G. Wodehouse with her those days. Not too many people who have grown up in the US is aware of this incredibly humorous British author. Google “funny lines from PG Wodehouse” to check me out!

Two and a half years back, Lynette got married to Nathan. As luck would have it, he teaches English !!

During our conversation on Lynette’s birthday a few weeks back, we talked about learning new languages. She inspired me to pick up a new one. I am thinking Arabic. We also promised that we will have a coffee together and I will get to meet Nathan soon!!

Today was that day!! Wonderful conversations!

I wish this young couple all the best that life can offer to them!!!

I had posted about the FAA computer glitch this morning and that I could see from my hotel window how the runways in SFO were totally empty. Somebody else also was looking at the empty runways from his hotel room a couple of miles away from me. That was Ranga my friend from college days – in fact, we were in the same hostel (dorm) during my engineering days and I had become fairly close to him and his parents and siblings who lived in Kolkata for some time.

“Rongoraajon”, as he would be called in Kolkata!!

He saw my FB post and we quickly realized that we were very close to each other. I was heading out for the airport in a few minutes. He had meetings during the day and was going to go back home (San Diego) in the evening.

It was a shame that we stayed this close to each other for a couple of days and did not get to see each other.

Not so fast.

From inside my hotel shuttle to the airport, we started texting and he offered to drop me at the airport on his way to the meetings. So, I got down from the shuttle, pulled out my suitcase and waited for him.

He showed up in 10 minutes.

That 8 minute ride to the airport was a big upgrade to my original plans.

Always good to see this old friend again!!

I had settled down at Divine Cafe to catch up on some quick work when a familiar face walked up to me – “Are you not Rajib Roy?”.

“That I am”, I replied as I recognized my colleague Patrick Tan from fifteen years back. In fact, when I moved to Atlanta, we used to work in the same team. I had not kept up with him for many many years.

It felt good to catch up on his professional life, how his three kids have grown up and even got to meet his wife. (She took the picture).

I am so glad that he recognized me from the other end of the cafe!

Ran into old colleague Sri Chari at the Atlanta airport. I was waiting for my backpack to make it thru the security check when Sri, who had spotted me first, called out my name. Fortunately, both of us were flying out of Terminal A. That gave us an opportunity to settle down in the Skyclub there and catch up on our lives over the last decade.

I was sitting at my desk working in one of those shared office space places in Alpharetta when a young Indian gentleman started approaching me. He seemed new to me. I have been working out of that place for over 12 years and could not recollect seeing him before.

“Rajib?”

Well, that surprised me. I thought he was going to ask for some help or directions in the new place. But it seemed like we knew each other.

“Yes. You have to help me out a little here.”

“20 years back. Dallas.”

“i2?” I asked.

“Yes”, he replied. But I still could not put the face and a name together.

“You have to help me a little bit more.” I admitted.

“Pradheep Sampath.”

That is when it clicked. Product Manager in Nayan’s group. All sorts of three letter acronyms – LSP (large scale planning), SPP (Spare Parts Planner) started flowing fast thru my stream of consciousness.

From there, the joining of dots flew fast and thick. We remembered a lot of our past friends and some memorable events from our Dallas days.

I had to get back to my Zoom calls after the coffee break. But, good news is that Pradheep will be visiting Alpharetta from DC regularly. Looking forward to spending more time with him!!

(As a reflection point later in the day, it reminded me of something I tell my folks at work always. When we meet again many years later, we will forget product names and financial numbers. We will always remember people and specific interactions. That is how we humans are.)

I was at the Korn Ferry dinner this evening (thank you Jeff Mckinnis) and guess who was sitting at our table? Good old Mark Herrington!!! Another colleague from the 90s that I had not seen in over 20 years!! What a great coincidence!

“What do you want to be written on your tombstone?”, I asked her.

This is a question I often ask people I meet – not to be too dark, but to get a perspective of long term view of their own lives from them. Most of the answers revolve around core values of people – kind, family person, love, made a difference etc etc.

So, I was completely unprepared for what Robin had to say after giving it a few seconds of thought…

“BADASS!”

I laughed out aloud. That is so Robin. Right from the days in i2 back in the ‘90s, I remember her as the ultimate change maker. A lot of those fiesty arguments of QA vs QC (in software) came flashing by immediately!!

Following that, her career has been nothing if not “Badass”. Multiple times CEO, great exits and helping the community of startups grow – those are a few of the things that have defined her.

What has absolutely not changed is her sense of gratitude towards folks who she had worked with in the past. Which is what got her to drive thru Atlanta morning traffic for an hour and have a breakfast with me! (She was in town for some business)

I felt special that she did that for me. Getting to hear her personal reflections in life was nothing short of enlightening.

But then again, I would not expect anything less from a self-styled “Badass” person, either!!

It was just the other day Shreyoshi – we called her “Munu” – was this young little girl dancing on the Durga Puja stage with other youngsters – including our own daughters – in Dallas. And her little brother would cling on to her mom – Anindita all the time crying – while Anindita taught all these young girls how to dance on the stage.

And that Shreyoshi has grown up so much today. She was in Atlanta for a BCG project. And we were able to meet her before she headed out to the airport.

It was incredibly heartening to see how mature she has become. Very well articulated and very thoughtful in her answers. And her humility was striking.

Came back home and dug up some of the pictures I had of her from yesteryears!

Hope to see this young lady on the road more number of times and learn new things about how the next generation thinks.