Katherine Ramos and her husband Juan Carlos! Katherine made our team’s stay extremely comfortable. Went out of her way to arrange for Covid tests when our original option failed. If you ever get to this side of the world, do look her up – she will take good care of you.
Hope to see you two next time again!
Sharmila and I were enjoying our drinks in Alpharetta downtown when I thought I recognized a lady walking on the street. Walked up to her – and sure enough it was Traci and Chris! Traci and worked together in Equifax a decade back. And their daughter and Natasha went to school together too.
It was so great to see them after such a along time. Looks like they live close to Alpharetta downtown too. Hope to see them more often!!
“You know I have dementia, right?”, asked John.
He had barely sat down in my car and put his seat belts on. And those were some of the first words he had for me.
I had no idea how to respond.
That morning, his wife Shelly and I had talked. She had mentioned about his increasing degeneration of cognitive abilities. We had agreed that I would come by and take him out for a coffee and snack.
I met him after many years. We were in Equifax together. That was two companies back for me. In between, I had showed up for his retirement party in Equifax. I remember we had gifted him with a bike. He is still crazy about bikes. That is when I had met Shelly for the first time.
Of course, I was not going to talk about his cognitive stuff with him. Having seen my dad and many of my hospice friends, most do not recognize that they are losing their cognitive capabilities.
You can imagine then why I was dumbfounded when he broached the topic right then and there – without any fear or favor. In hindsight, I had really nothing to be surprised by. John, as long as I have known him, has always been a straightforward person. He was and still is very open and honest.
Over coffee, I got to know a lot about his personal life and his past professional life. He was struggling here and there in his articulation but was clearly delighted that he could relive his past successes and happy moments thru the stories he kept telling me.
One of the highlights of his career was a small company that they had successfully sold to Experian (competitor of Equifax).
“So, you made a lot of money?”, I asked.
“I did alright”.
And then to prove that old mischievous John with a wicked sense of humor was still lurking around, he asked me:
“Do you know why I lost most of that money?”,
“Why?”, I asked, genuinely curious.
“Because I had married twice before I met Shelly!” he winked!
I almost snorted my tea out!!
I was good seeing you John! I look forward to many more coffee meetings!
Geoff Dougall!!
So many idle chats we had had back in the late 90s and early 00s. Theoretically solving in our heads all the problems that the company we worked in was facing. Sometimes, Ted Dimbero used to join us and mostly leave us in splits with his inimitable humor.
I remember the Dougall family visiting us in our house in Coppell, TX. I think Geoff had a couple of kids and we had only Natasha. Then Geoff left the company and Dallas and joined his dad in the CPA firm he owned in Portland, OR.
I had to meet this gentleman this time when I was in Portland for a few hours. And what a gentleman he still is. It was a delightful couple of hours catching up on his family, his kids and how he has grown his business. Then there were those exchanging of notes on beautiful vacation spots and the discussions around politics in US and the geopolitical situation in the world.
Like good old times, theoretically, we solved a lot of problems. Instead of our company’s this time it was for the whole world!! Coming to think of it, if I were to solve any of world’s problems, I sure want this gentleman on my side!!
During this trip to India and the previous one, I have been generally avoiding meeting people like I normally do due to pandemic concerns. Exception of course being my immediate family and in a couple of rare cases a couple of very elderly folks since I am not sure if I will ever get a chance to see them again.
While in Durgapur, I received a request from a gentleman called Manojit to meet just for a few minutes. Not sure why, I agreed to do so. I had never met this gentleman before. We became Facebook friends sometime back when he had introduced himself as a batch mate of my brother. About three years back, I got a FB friend request from Parikshit who introduced himself as Manojit’s son.
Manojit showed up at the hotel with his wife Paramita. A 30 minutes meeting rolled into over an hour. The big reason was that we kept on finding newer and newer connections between us. Here are a few samples:
Manojit and my brother, as I mentioned, was taught by the same teacher. Manojit is also great friends with my brother-in-law’s best friend. Manojit and Paramita – who has lived in Muscat – are friends with Sharmila’s college classmate Tapas. In a weird connection, Tapas’s son interned in the company I work in in Chicago.
Manojit’s sister Swati, we realized, is an old classmate of my sister Tanusree. In fact, next day, when I told this story to her, she demanded that I immediately call back Manojit and get Swati’s number. Apparently, she and a few of her classmates had been trying to track Swati down for some time.
Paramita – wouldn’t you know – was in the same class as my sister-in-law during elementary school. I was impressed that my sister in law immediately recognized the face when I showed her the picture. Paramita Ray is also a friend of another Paromita (also a Roy) – Sharmila and my close friend in New York.
Paramita’s sister is a batch mate of mine. Different schools but with a lot of common close friends – like Mausumi – who I went to school with from first grade to fourth grade!
Proceeding further, my mother in law, as it turns out, was Paramita’s teacher in High School! As was my friend from Dallas – Pratyush’s mother!!
I can go on and on like this – but you get an idea how excited we all were as we found out yet another set of connections!
We agreed that our next meeting had to be in Doha when Sharmila and I fly to Kolkata next to completely unentangle all the connections we have!
Manojit and Paramita, it was great to see you! We should have met long time back!!! Also, Paramita, I found out from Chaitali that you are a great singer. We have to have a session some time soon!
My brother and I had just checked in and then settled down at the restaurant in Westin Kolkata. The idea was to grab a quick lunch and then head out to explore all the places my mother had spent time in.
After we had placed our order, a young gentleman caught my eye. He was looking towards me. I had the feeling I must have met him before. From behind the mask, I could not recognize the face at all.
He stepped up – “How are you, sir? Everything okay?”
“Yes, yes!”, I said as I focused on his name tag. Tathagata. I feverishly ran thru in my mind the dozen or so staff members’ names that I knew in the Westin but could not still place him. The name rang familiar but I could not see the face.
I think he sensed my struggle. “I was at the JW Marriott, sir!!”
Immediately, the memories came back to me!! Of course! This is Tathagata – the bartender at the lobby level bar in JW. He diligently fixed me with a Hendricks and tonic followed by a glass of wine every evening in March when I stayed there with my siblings and their families for a few days.
“What are you doing here?”
I learnt that he had moved to Chennai (the Sheraton, I think) and then had to move back to Kolkata since his mom fell ill.
I promised to see him in the evening at his bar.
He fixed me with one of his signature cocktails. And I picked up some wisdom around “blue peas” and how to make a gin change its colors with it (and again with the tonic water). I have to try this at home.
It was good to see Tathagata after almost nine months and learn aa few things about his trade.
Subrata was in town for work. Fortunately he was able to make some time to visit us. Caught up with him after a long time. Monisha, Subrata, Sharmila and myself used to get to see each other fairly often. We were in the same community in Dallas and we had kids of similar age. Then, we moved to Atlanta and they moved to Indianapolis. We talked a lot about those good old days in Dallas.
Hope to see Monisha also some time soon!!
You probably remember from my post a couple of days back how my friend from office – Deval and her sisters Krupal and Rachana gifted me their dad’s vinyl record collection. Well, get this…
Two days later. It was 9:40PM my time…
“Deval?”
“Yes?”
“Are you busy?”
“No. Having drinks with Chris and Celia.”
I felt reassured that I had not woken up Deval. She was out with two more of my friends from work.
“Well… your dad…”
“Yes, what about him?”
“Was he the CA in a factory called Voil Industries?”
I can only imagine the confusion that must have descended her.
“He was a CA alright. I have to ask my mom about that factory.”
“Ok. Let me try this. Did you folks live in a bungalow in Baroda?”
“Yes.”
“Was there a movie starring Snehlata shot there?”
“Yes. The movie was shot in our bungalow. How do you know that?”. Again, I can only imagine her confusion.
“Well, believe it or not, I have found a connection to your dad.”
“WHAT???”
Let’s take a brief pause here. Let’s see what else happened that day.
I am sure you remember my motorbike friend – Rakesh Rao. He is the organizer, the lead rider and the guy who keeps our team of riders together. He has been a veritable source of tips and tricks for a new rider like me.
Well, he sent a very cryptic “The world is really really small” message to me and his wife Priti the previous day.
I texted “What is going on?”
“I will explain to you when we meet”, he responded.
And later that night, he spilled it all to me. He had recognized Deval’s dad’s name from my post. But he waited to talk to his dad first to make sure he was right.
And that is how I got all the information and the connection.
“Well, your dad had a classmate in Tanzania. His name was Jashwant C Rao. His son is my personal friend in Atlanta. We go out motorbiking together.” I kept explaining to Deval.
“WHAT???”
“Yes. His dad owned Voil Industries!! And my friend has been to your bungalow many times. Remembers you folks!!”
Can you imagine that?
What is the chance that my motorbiker friend in Atlanta and an office friend in Chicago are connected by me AND their dads who were classmates in Africa?
Thank you Rakesh for helping join all the dots!
It is really a small small world, as you say! It feels so great to sit in the cross section of all these intersection points!!
I thought twice… I thought thrice…
“Should I call out her name? What if it is not her?”
The moment I saw her walking into the airplane aisle, I thought she looked like my teammate Vicki. But the challenge was she had a big mask on and I just could not see enough facial features to come to a conclusive judgment.
What was even more interesting was that instead of going past me, she stopped near me and started putting her luggage up. And then sat down in my row one seat over on the other side of the aisle. She was trying to put her luggage up. Seeing her taking a few moments, I got up to help her. But by that time, she had already put the suitcase in. I sat down.
She looked at the passenger behind her and apologized “I am not tall enough”. And for the life of me I could not figure out whether the voice matched the one I have heard in Zoom calls and the couple of times I have talked to her directly.
I looked across my row. Her face was against the bright light from the window. The contour of her face did not help me much – I have not spent that much time with her. And then, there was the mask, of course.
My mind kept going back to a couple of months back when in a similar fashion, a gentleman sat down next to me and started talking to me mistaking me for one of his friends. And of course, I was trying to figure out how did I know that person. I figured my memory was failing me. We had a great laugh later and have become friends. In fact, I am friends with his son now too!!
Got busy with some office work and completely forgot about the lady till the boarding was completed and we had to shut down our laptops. Looked at her again. Still not sanguine.
Then an idea flashed across my mind. I texted her. You can follow the text message in the picture.
Turns out it was indeed Vicki Thomas. She was going home from Chicago and was connecting thru Atlanta. I was headed home too from our Chicago office!
Of course we had a great laugh. Took a selfie (which I am terrible at) after getting down.
Meeting Kiran invariably means I need to sharpen my brains. The topics of discussions are usually fairly deep and requires a lot of thinking. This time, the talk was about bias and the importance of being able to listen to the other side of the story. One thing we marveled about was – be it politics or religion or Covid vaccinations for that matter – how we quickly divide folks into one side or the other. But in reality, most people lie in a vast grey zone in that spectrum.
Great discussions!!
