Chris Kramer and I had joined Equifax pretty much around the same day. Other than being team mates, we had found another connection. His mother was the teacher for both Natasha and Nikita in their elementary school!!

We had a fun time catching up on old friends, learnings from our different jobs and our families!

“It does not matter, Rajib. Just tell me your route and I will intercept you at a Starbucks”, texted Neal.

Neal was not going to give up. He was determined to meet Nikita and myself. He tracked our route as we hopped between colleges and then met us up at a Starbucks by the highway on our way from Boston to Providence.

I have previously described this guy as one of the smartest persons I have worked with. The joy was all mine to see him and exchange notes again.

I had met Neal and Avia about two years back when he was in Atlanta for a wedding. One of the topics we had talked about that day was taking a year off between jobs. That day, I had come home and looked for a picture of me and Nikita during one of those times I had taken a year off. You might remember the post from here: https://www.rajibroy.com/2019/08/25/meeting-one-of-the-smartest-guys-i-know/

Thanks to Neal, we were able to put Nikita, Avia and the two of us (actually, their dog too!) in the same spot. It was a great time at Starbucks. Avia has grown up so much. Enough to realize that Nikita would be the better audience for all her stories than Rajib uncle!!

Neal and I caught up on all the exciting stuff he has been up to in the last couple of years. I have to admit – missed Kim and Veera though. We had missed them last time too!

Maybe next time!

After a lot of stuff going on in the personal front, landed up in Boston with Nikita. Turns out we were staying in a hotel not too far from Ram and Preetha. It was already late but not too late for Ram and Preetha to make some time for me. They are the nicest people that way. The last time I met them is when they came to Boston airport to meet me in between flights or something.

It was great catching up on each others’ personal lives and literally run down the roll call list of Optiant employees!!

Can’t wait to see this too again!

“You must be the guy Larry calls his ‘best manager in life’”, said the stranger to me.

I am usually not the one at loss for words. Ever. Even when I make no sense. Especially when I make no sense.

But I was stumped this time.

The best I could come up with is “I have been called worse!”

It is not often that one goes to Ohio unless they have family. And I do not. And yet, there I was. If you do go to Ohio, I guarantee you, you are not going to go to Independence, Ohio. Even the GPS tried to take me to a town called Independence in a different state. And if you know me… even if you found me in Independence, Ohio, it would be near a Marriott hotel. Not a Holiday Inn.

Certainly not a Holiday Inn where all the rooms were booked by aficionados of “Pez” swarming there for “Pezmania 30”! I know that for a fact because till about a couple of weeks back, I did not know what a Pez is. My guess is most of my readers do not know either. I am not going to describe it to you — you can read it up in Wikipedia. I am going to talk about the human angle to this.

“Larry, this is stupid! Why would so many people come together for a freaking mint dispenser? And they are such nice people, too.”

“You collect fountain pens?”

Ayayayayay!! He got me and he got me good!

It is never about the things. It is always about the passion. How else do you explain that I write with fountain pens or listen to music on much damaged vinyl records from India?

Passion is probably the best way to describe Larry.

We worked as team mates many moons back… I am talking nearly ten thousand moons back. But there has been something about this guy that has always kept me close to him.

He is the inspiration behind how my blog site looks.

He is the reason why I taught myself CSS and HTML.

He is the one who introduced me to ‘I wish you enough”

He is the one who taught me “The difficult, we will do now. The impossible, will take a little more time!”

We have gone thru a lot in our personal lives in those 20+ years we have known each other. He, more than me.

But we have stayed connected. Stayed together. I wish I was even more connected to him than I am today.

A few weeks back, when I was in Dallas for some personal business, I did get a chance to see Larry. And got to know about his fascinating “Pezmania” and 3-D printing. That is when I promised him that I will re-route myself from office to home (which in my case is Chicago to Atlanta) and go to the Holiday Inn in Independence, Ohio where he would be with many other Pezmaniacs.

Can you spot me in the picture? I am the most well dressed guy – in fact, the only one with a sports jacket. Standing right next to the one of the few true human beings I know – Larry.

Larry apparently had talked to enough people about me that before I left, I walked away with a lot of free gifts – including a T-shirt for my hospice visits!!

Larry Mason, as a runner (who is slowing down in this age of mine) – let me tell you something I have learnt about life from running. We all start from different points. And we all end at different points. It is never about those points. It is always about who you run a little… walk a little… together in that journey. Those two dates of starting point and ending point in our tombstones are meaningless – life truly is in that “dash”.

You were, are and will always be one of a kind.

For the record, I still like how your family calls me (“the most interesting man”) better than how your Pezmaniac friends call me 🙂

But my life is better because of who you have been to me. Not the adjectives you happened to have used to describe me. As undeserving as they might have been.

Here’s wishing to a few more intersections in life…..

The last time I met Kwok, we had remembered the times we had worked together back in the days. You might remember from the post then how I was absolutely taken in by this youngster’s willingness to learn new things and put in the hard work to do so.

That meeting was in 2017. I was visiting his town. Four years later, he was visiting mine. And we arranged to make sure we get some time for a drink and dinner.

This time our discussions were a little more esoteric than Unix scripts – Talent and Time. We had some good exchanges of experiences on the difficulties of nurturing and managing Talent. And also an in-depth discussion around whether Time is real or something we have made up to make sense of this universe.

Great time spent with this youngster.

As I lifted my eyes from the Zoom screen, I saw the young gentleman entering the shared office place I work from when in Atlanta. I recognized him immediately – but was on a call.

Once the call got over, I walked up to him and asked “Ben?”
“Yes, sir! I recognized you but was not sure what you were doing here”.

And that is how I ran into Ben Austin after a few years. Ben was part of Natasha’s close friends circle from middle school and they are still great friends. I remember him as the most level headed and responsible person in that group. Never shied from helping out his friends.

And he always called me “Papa Roy” !!

Ben also had great curiosity towards mixology. In fact, we reminisced about how, once he crossed 21, we had made an Old Fashioned together – with the cocktail smoker I had. He even remembered the wood chips we used that day!

Next time, I have an Old Fashioned – I will raise it to this young, aspiring medical professional!!