In i2, we had a lot of “Raghu”s. For example, there was a Raghu Ram and there was a Raghuram. We used to refer to the former simply as “Raghu space Ram” in conversations. This one is Jayaraman Raghuraman. (To further confuse matters, his Facebook name is Raghu Raghuraman). We just shortened it to “J Raghu”.

J Raghu and I had spent a lot of time together from getting beaten up by customers (we just could not churn out good code as fast as sales would sell) to having recruitment drives in premier colleges in India.

Raghu is one of the few people I have seen in my career who has taken a lot of risks in life. And invariably has worked hard to eventually make them excellent bets.

Once in a while though, he drops his guard and lowers his standard to come out and spend time with old friends like me 🙂 🙂

In between office meetings and Zoom calls, there was an hour gap to grab lunch. With a person I started working with when I joined Riverside Insights and now has become a personal friend. Julia was very instrumental in the early days of carving out Riverside from the mothership – especially in the area of creating an engaged culture among the workforce. She was and still is wildly popular with the employees.

She eventually left the firm she was working with, moved to Austin and branched out on her own. Had a great time catching up and having fun like the good old days. (Don’t miss out on the silly bunny ears she still tries to pull on me)

Good to see her flourishing so well in her personal and professional journey!

Breakfast with our office team from in and around Austin – Cristy, Rhoni, Amy, Tony, Chris and Eric. This was at Patika. Nice sitting area outside.

Turns out, I had some more time left in the evening. That was enough to meet another i2-er from the past. Suzanne and I were in the same software development team but I did not know much about her at that time.

And then four years back, one September morning in Atlanta, she pulled up in our driveway with a customized camper that she lived in and painted from in the long road trip she was doing across America.

That is when I got to know the fascinating side of Suzanne.

Like that day, today too, we talked about her varied interests in life – sculpture, painting, photography, videography and so on. But mostly about the art of living life, our old and new friends.

The weather was perfect in Austin. We were sitting outside. And our time spent together was made even more enjoyable by the most cheerful person I have seen – Julia Zandy – who was waiting on us. She being half Persian, we three chatted about Iran and one of my favorite stand up comedian – Maz Jobrani!!

I had the chance of working with Ted back in my Dallas days. I remember him being extremely funny and very level headed in his thinking. During my Austin trip this week, he was my first port of call!!

Speaking of ports, we talked a lot about our trip to Eleuthera and the Bahamas in general. (He grew up in the Bahamas).

Found out that he has two elder sisters.

“So, growing up, you were the …” – I was going to complete that with some phrase like “youngest child spoiled by everybody” or something like that.

Instead, he finished my sentence – “…yeah, I was the dumbass”.

“What???”

“Yes, my sisters were both valedictorians and I barely scraped thru”. Then he went on to explain the challenges of growing up in a small island with one school and the same teachers teaching all the siblings and therefore constantly getting compared to his sisters 🙂 🙂

We also chatted about all the fun and challenges of our kids and the old friends we had worked with.

Thank you Ted for coming out and spending the evening with me..

Satyaki was in town for a couple of days. That was a good excuse to meet up with him and Amitesh this morning for a cup of coffee. Saw Satyaki after about three years (coincidentally that was in Amitesh’s house). And saw Amitesh after errrr… a few hours 🙂

Tracey (only the second person I know who spells her name that way) and I have worked in Equifax in our past lives. We left the company at around the same time. I knew she had moved to Nashville but did not know much more than that.

Fortunately for me, she was gracious enough to give me some time for coffee this morning in between her busy schedule. (She runs HR for an international division and has crazy hours).

I got to learn about her life story which has taken her from Iowa to Georgia to Colorado back to Georgia to Tennessee and she thinks will get her back to Georgia again! Unlike most of my intersection points, we talked a lot about topics from our professional lives.

Specifically, we discussed the potential long term challenges in Work From Home culture. We both seem to think that employers and employees alike have not quite fully fathomed the long term effects. We discussed onboarding challenges, how to inculcate the feeling of belonging when the whole employee base works from home, how does performance evaluation change and how does one go around building culture.

It was a great discussion and learnt a lot from her!

We also talked about her trips to India and thought we should do a trip together one of these days. Together with our common friend – Hunt Jackson.

“Before, I let you go, Tracey – I have my usual question – what have you learnt from life that I can learn from?”

“Travel”

“Travel?”

“Yes, travel as much as you can. To different places and countries.”

“Because there is so much of the world to see?”

“Yes. But more importantly, there are so many different people to meet. Learn from different perspectives, cultures and ethos other people have. Without that, we become frogs in a well incapable of understanding the larger perspectives in life”.

Travel, it is then! Hunt, if you are listening – we three need to to get to India sometime soon!

I met Scott Leftwich – a decorated Commander in the Navy (pilot – and was attached to the White House for a couple of years if I am not very mistaken) in 2010. I believe it was in San Diego. It was in the context of the acquisition of a company.

Over the years, we moved on to different companies but we kept in touch. At least once a year – on his birthday. Every birthday, I would make a promise – “If I ever visit Nashville, Scott, you will be the first one to know”.

Today was the first day I ever stepped my feet on Nashville. And he was the first person I saw!!

There was too much to catch up on in one evening. For starters, we had the old business we ran together. And here is a funny – but predictable – thing: We struggled to remember numbers, dates and even product names… but we remembered the people!! We talked about all our team mates. That is a great life learning… it is always about people!!

We talked about growing old… we talked about houses on the beach… we talked about our kids. I might have even tempted him to get on a motorbike!!

We talked about the stuff about Working From Home that nobody is talking about and the challenges in Leadership most of us are not comfortable discussing publicly.

What was startling about this gentleman is how little he has changed. It is that same constant smile, that sereneness to take an uncommonly balanced point of view and that ability to make me feel good by laughing at my terrible jokes!!!

I got to see him soon again!!

I think it was first half of 2018 when I first met Katie. She used to work in Roam – one of those co-working spaces that I have used since 2010 or so. I was struck by the fact that she knew a lot about Indian dishes and even cooked a few at home. I think “daal” is what she had mentioned.

Over the years we became great friends and even shared a few Indian lunches brought in thru Grubhub. Eventually she left Roam and move on to bigger career moves.

Was good to see her today. (second time since she left). Caught up with her passion in painting furniture and for some reason I cannot fathom now (she is much younger to me), we talked a lot about arthritis!! Go figure!!

Found out that we share a common connection too – we are both claustrophobic!!

Sharmila, Jay Jay and myself had lapped up our first drink in Truck and Tap (well, Jay Jay did not drink – he had his kibbles) and decided to go walk for a bit before we sat down for a second drink. We started milling thru the Friday evening crowd – taking in all the Friday evening folks, dogs and small kids. Jay Jay started looking for more and more “marker” spots.

Suddenly, I heard from behind – “Hey, hey! I know you!!” Looked back and saw a very sharply dressed young lady – who we had passed just a few seconds back – seemingly addressing me. Did a quick look back to see if she was talking to somebody behind me – but she continued – “I am Maria”.

I am not terribly sure how our brains put these things in a flash – but right then and there, I immediately knew who she was.

“Maria? Portland airport? That bar? You two were headed for honeymoon to Bora Bora?”

“Yes!!”

“Ryan?” – I now addressed the gentleman next to her with the cutest little baby with him.

That was simply incredulous. Usually, I am the one who recognizes people and remind them (sometimes to their regret) of how we had met before. Also, I had gotten the airport wrong – it was Los Angeles, as Ryan pointed out.

It was way back in an October 2016 evening that I had dropped down dog tired at a bar in LAX airport to grab some Hot Wings. A young couple came and sat next to me. Of course, I had to make friends with them (I said I was tired, I did not say I was out of character). I distinctly remember Maria picking food from Ryan’s plate before he could even get started – and warning Ryan that nothing would change twenty five years later. Sharmila does the same!! (You can read the whole story here).

Maria and I stitched the story together for Sharmila – who, at the end, nodded knowingly – “That sounds like Rajib alright!”

Maria (actually Maria-Angela), Ryan and I had kept up with each other on birthdays. Both Maria and I lost our fathers in the meanwhile. And they moved to Alpharetta to have their first baby! Ryan apparently had mentioned to Maria that one of these days, they were surely going to run into me!!

Well, today was the day that his premonition would come true! I did not recognize them as they passed me! But they did!! In my defense, they look even more beautiful five years later and both had shades on!

In the meanwhile, Brooklyn (their cute daughter) had taken a fancy towards Jay Jay – who was wondering what the whole commotion was all about. I picked up Jay Jay so Brooklyn could touch him and play with him.

What a memorable evening it turned out to be!!

Who knew that simply moving my chair to give a young couple some sitting space at an airport bar would turn out to be another intersection point right in our home town – literally on the other coast – five years later?

Human beings and human relationships are such a wonderful thing.

And so is serendipity!