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!

Some of the best experiences of my life on the road have been the interesting people I get to meet while traveling. Take this evening as an example.

I was sitting at the hotel bar, catching up on work emails and enjoying Fortunato’s smoked Old Fashioned. In fact, we were all watching Fortunato at his craft, when I struck up a conversation with the gentleman and lady on my left. I explained to them a little about the drink and the smoking process.

One thing led to the other and we made an evening out of it. Turns out Bruce and Mary-Lou were in the city to watch the game and checked in to the same hotel where I was staying. Found out that Bruce has a thing for cars and a passion for retro models.

We were having a great conversation about all things in life when I finally asked him my now familiar to you question: “What is the life lesson you have learnt that you can impart to me?”

Bruce looked at me for a few seconds and said “Wait. Give me a minute. I need to think before I answer. Nobody has asked me this before.”

And then after thinking for a little while, he said “Follow your passions”.

“Follow my passions?”, I asked

“Yes. Follow your passions. Be yourself.”

“Got it. Can I take a picture of you two? I am going to write about our meeting in my blog”.

“Sure”

After the photo, the West couple excused themselves. It was getting late.

But I needed to follow my passion. So, I started blogging!!

After Chitra-masi, I had to visit another person from Durgapur who had influenced me a lot in my early childhood – Dubey-kaku! As a bonus, got to meet Kakima, Ananya and Blake. And of course little Hanae!! Coincidentally, the last time I met Dubey-kaku (about three years back), it was in the same house in Hayward and with all the same folks as in the picture. Hanae was just a couple of months old then!!

She has grown up so much!! Although still not wise enough to avoid a bespectacled bald person!!

Great chat with the whole family. I think I have convinced Dubey-kaku to do a road trip with me before he leaves for India in December!

One of the wicked smart persons I know – Jacob Zodikoff – unfortunately, had thrown his back during a run and could not make it to our meetings in office. Undeterred, I made him come out of his house and join me for a coffee near his place.

Discussions with Jacob are always incredible exercises in learning for me. I met him first a couple of years back when he was barely 22. I was two and half times his age. (I know, the wrong person is throwing his back while running). But his sheer level of intelligence and wisdom is breath taking. In the last few years, we have discussed a lot of things – some have nothing to do with work – and I have always come away realizing that there were many other angles I had not thought thru on the said topics.

Today was no different. Over a cup of cappuccino, the topic de jure was if our traditional way of thinking macroeconomics is relevant any more or have we gone past some tipping point where our theories around the interconnectedness of growth, interest rates, inflation, minimum wage etc has to undergo fresh thinking.

Good coffee. Great debate. Incredible company!

I was very tight on time with meetings the whole day. But Magesh was kind enough to ride up to my office so we could grab lunch together. Magesh and I have gone to the same engineering college (he was senior to me) and even worked in the same company in Dallas.

But the fondest memories I have – and we talked about them – were those from the couple of years he had moved to Atlanta. There were those motorbike rides during the day and evening whiskeys at Zolas with Sharmila and Priya invariably joining us.

Then there were those intense debates on whether time was a fundamental concept or a man made concept. Not to forget the one time we sat down to figure out which was greater – e to the power of pi or pi to the power of e?

Ever since he moved back to California, I miss his sharp sense of humor (“You can talk the talk. Can you now text the text?” 🙂 )