After the boat ride, I was grabbing a drink with my new friend Sanjay. Lo and behold!! Ran into Ashley. Sharmila and I have too many lakeside memories with her!

I first ran into Harvey in 1994. I had been transferred by Citibank to Dallas from Florida. That was April of 1994. A few months later, a few fresh Texas A&M folks joined our group. That is when I met Harvey first – August 1994 – in the Citibank campus in Westlake, Texas.

A couple of years later, I left Citibank for i2 and soon, Harvey came over too. Eventually, they moved to Austin and we to Atlanta.

While I had not seen Bing for probably 25 years, I did get to meet Harvey about 10 years back when a few ex-i2ers got together in Austin. (I was visiting then).

Harvey and Bing is visiting Atlanta and swung by yesterday. We had a great time talking about our old friends, the good old times and life as empty nesters now!

After finishing up dinner with the Ghoshal family, I still had a bit of time to surprise the birthday girl – Debjani. This morning, while driving to Atlanta airport, I had called to wish her and surreptitiously found out her evening plans. She was going to be with Subhasis at a place of her choosing – Escape 360 Cafe in McKinney.

And that is exactly where I found them!! Our excitement was enough that after the Cafe shut down, we sat outside till near midnight chatting about our old days and even older friends!!

Asok-da and Sumita-di were two of the very first Bengalis we had met when we moved to Dallas. It was during the 1996 Durga Puja – which was held in Grand Prairie. I had not seen them in quite some time. My last couple of attempts to meet them were thwarted by their own travel plans! This time though I was able to see them – nearly two decades later – in their house. HAd a marvelous time reminiscing the past!

On our usual stroll in the evening in downtown Alpharetta saw this Indian couple sitting on the side wall. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be none other than the Raos. Came around and saw their mom and cousins were sitting there too!

Ah! Those coffee-fueled mornings and deadline-crazed nights! Distant memories as they were, they were the only bonds we needed to thread these dozen odd ex-i2ers living in Atlanta together celebrating Hiten’s visit from Singapore.

Stories flowed, laughter echoed (is there anything else that happens when Jim Wilson is around?) and the years in between simply melted away. As I have always professed, we forget numbers, we forget product names… but we always remember the faces, the words spoken and the nostalgic moments.

Jobs change, paths diverge, colleagues move on. The bonds built over sweat equity along the way are timeless though!

Here’s to shared memories, inside jokes and friendships that will outlast any cubicle wall!

I had parked my motorbike, taken my helmet off and had just walked into the coffee shop. Immediately, I started scanning the patrons for somebody I was scheduled to meet. This was my first meeting with the person – so I was very focused on doing some pattern matching with the Linkedin picture I had seen of him.

And then in a jiffy, my eyes did a quick retrace as I thought I saw somebody all smiles at me. Sure enough!! It was good old Stacy working at a table!

We had become friends when I used to work out of Roam. You might remember some of her incredible cappuccino art from some of my old posts.

She had then moved to a new job. And today I got to see her for the first time after that!

That was a great start to the morning!

First time I met Laura was at work around 2007 when we had moved to Atlanta.

Then Sharmila and I paid her a visit in her house in Chile around 2011.

In 2017, Laura moved to Atlanta and I got a chance to meet her in a coffee shop in Alpharetta. And then, although all these years we have lived within a few miles of each other, we never managed to meet.

Till today, of course! We met in another coffee shop in Alpharetta literally a few steps from that old spot. It was a great reminder how much downtown Alpharetta has changed in these few years!

It was one dark morning I had run with Natasha with the rest of the Windward Road Runners group. And that started a friendship that has lasted for two decades – although we have run together only a few times after that day.

Sharmila and I met her in Qatar in few years back and even before that I met Natasha and her mother outside Doha airport while switching flights. And for the last few summers, I have enjoyed meeting her and her younger son Matteo when they visit Atlanta. I learn every time from both of them.

Today was that evening for this summer!