Met Aluru in Atlanta after 25 years!! We lived in the same hostel (dorm) and both did Computer Science together. Last saw each other in early half of 1989!! It was absolutely fascinating catching up with him.

I always love catching up with my computer science friends. Partially because, I had a lot more interest in actual application development than research. Thus, unlike most of my classmates, I did not come to US to study further in Computer Science. But I am absolutely elated by the unbelievable achievements of my classmates – one of them is in charge of Google Search, one of them is in charge of Microsoft Bing, four of them are top notch professors in the best universities, few of them have their own very successful companies…

The life story of Aluru was no less fascinating. The thing that intrigued me was the fact that mid way in his career, he switched to a whole new stream – Computing Biology. Now, you will be totally excused for not knowing this – but I sucked at Biology. I was never good at remembering things. And history and biology needed me to remember things. But I was okay with Math. Dropped biology and took up statistics in my eleventh grade (junior year).

You can imagine my disbelief when he started talking about math and biology being the same at some level. For me, I topped out that level when I could say “A frog has four legs”. That is really how close I could put biology and math together 🙂

But I was even more awestruck when he started explaining to me about the genome mapping and splicing of the DNA. Now, I am really really worried that my behavior can be explained by a bunch of algorithms! Actually, what I am really afraid of is that Aluru is soon going to meet my wife. She is undoubtedly going to ask him to reprogram those algorithms for me. And I am intimately aware of the fact that he got a Computer Science degree – so he must be knowing a thing or two about programming!!!

Aluru, it was great catching up with you after a quarter century….

In 1983, I met a guy called Manajit in my junior year (11th grade). Last I saw him was in 1985. Our paths ever since could not have been more different. 29 years later, found out that he lives in Denver. Was waiting to find an opportunity to meet him some day. Today was that day !

Saw him after almost three decades over dinner this evening. It was mind blowing remembering those dorm (hostel) days (we were in a residential high school) and he reminded me of at least half a dozen friends that I had nearly forgotten about ! Looks like more intersection points for me to seek.

I was certainly exhilarated to hear his life story. Served as a reminder to me that hard work can overcome most setbacks and obstacles. Good to see him succeed so much. Hard working people deserve the best!

Another guy I was able to spend an hour and a half this week was with a long lost friend – Kondal! We worked together in my first job in Bombay back in 1991-1993. Had a fleeting glimpse of him and his family a few years later at a restaurant. Was able to sit down and chat after a long long time. I still marvel at my friends from my first job who stayed true to their love of technology. He is surely one of them – and I have lost all ability to code these days… He was waxing eloquent on “cloud” and I was wondering if it might rain in Dallas 🙂

It was simply wonderful seeing him after such a long time and catching up on so many people he has kept up with and I have not….

It was a little late by the time the meetings ended. But that did not deter a couple of my friends and their families to come and meet me. Subrata and I went to middle school together. Nirmalya (much younger than me) used to play together with my brother and myself and other neighbors every summer when he visited his uncle – who was my neighbor! The last time I saw his daughter was when she was barely standing up in his apartment. Now she is a sixth grader!!

That was one of the best Indian food I had. And certainly the most awesome “adda”!! Also, I can’t remember the last time three forty-something Bengali guys sat down with so little hair to show for themselves 🙂

Remember yesterday how I ran into an old friend and sat down for a cup of coffee in the terminal before we split? There was a very interesting side story that happened at the cafe that I never mentioned.

Tom and I sat down at the first cafe we could find – actually it was a bar – and he ordered a diet coke and I, a coffee. As we finished up our chatting, I asked the guy at the bar – who seemed to be our age – if he could do us a favor and take a picture on my phone. You could see that something was not right. He took the phone and had the screen facing us. He asked “which buttons do I press? I do not have a cellphone. I do not know how these things work”. Just as I started saying “turn it the other way and press the big white circle on the screen”, a fellow passenger on my left offered to take the picture. And that is what we did. That is the picture you saw.

Couple of minutes later as Tom and I started wrapping up, it struck me – did the guy really say he does not have a cellphone? He probably meant a smartphone. So, I hollered at him and asked “What do you mean you do not have a cellphone?” Much to the surprise of everybody sitting around he said “Never did. Never will”. I persisted “You do not have a cellphone?”. “No sir. Just a landline. Don’t want a cellphone”.

Totally amazed, I went “Wow! We will need to drag you to the twenty first century one of these days”. And the lady on Tom’s right yelled back – “No. Let him be there”. Evidently, a lot more people think of cellphone as a nuisance factor. Just when everybody in America is thinking of getting out of landlines and have a cellphone only….

Unfortunately, we had to leave soon. I had a office meeting coming up. Tom had a flight to catch.

I am going to go back to that cafe and find that guy out. I have a lot of interesting questions for him. I am sure he has some cool stories.

If any of you go to Atlanta airport, check out Cafe Intermezzo in Terminal B (it is near the center of the terminal) and ask for Jason. You can identify him by his shoulder level hair. I have no doubt he will regale you on why he does not want a cellphone…

Wherever I go, I try to make time to meet old friends that crossed my path. Because I have decided that is important to me. But in places where I have a lot of friends, that becomes a difficult optimization problem 🙂

However, there are a few guys guy, I will meet anytime I go to Dallas. This time , I had enough time to meet one of them. Why do I make time for him?

Maybe it is his long hair (Heaven knows, I have none)
Maybe it is his tall height (God knows I am not)
Maybe the fact he spends so much time with wife and two daughters (I know I don’t with mine)

But an hour with Larry Mason – now that is something I will go the end of the world for.

Last time we met a few months back, it was about how to set up my website. This time we spent discussing horror stories of Dell support, Microsoft support and yes, stupid Apple policies!!!

Mr. Mason, you are one of the best! Even if only your feet get to travel first class 🙂

Saw Tammi after – oh! probably 10 years? I still remember the first day she showed up for work in my team in 1996 or so – I was asking myself “How the heck do you pronounce Gagne”? 🙂 We worked together for a few years and then she quit to raise her family.

What was delightful to learn was how one fine day, she decided to follow her passion – teaching. While raising her two kids, she got herself thru the teaching exams and certification and is now a high school teacher for math and physics!! Maybe I should get some ideas for my puzzle section from her next time 🙂

Speaking of courage to follow your dreams, she took it upon herself to be a bodybuilder and went on to become a regional champ a few years back. To put it in perspective, I still go to the gym only to take a shower 🙂

We had a great hour or so catching up on our families, old team mates and life in general. I admire her ability and courage to pursue her dreams. True happiness can only come from being who you are. Not what you think others think you are. Or should be.

An hour and half into the return flight to Atlanta, I was going thru one of those questions that always vex me in these 2-3 hour flights. Especially after a couple of cups of coffee. The question was “Go to the restroom now or wait till we land and use the ones in the airport”. I know, I know, my mind is preoccupied with too many little questions 😉 In my defense, once in a while I do wonder about big questions – a la Adrian Mole – like “Is God married?” 🙂

In any case, today, I decided to be safe than sorry. And I am glad I did. As I was walking back from the restroom, I bumped into a very old friend of mine – Tom Groom – sitting right in the first row with his Beats in his ears and pecking away on his MacBook.

We could not talk much in the plane. But after we got down, he had just enough time to grab a coffee with me, sit down and catch up before he scooted for his connecting flight – and I headed back to office for another day of meetings.

The serendipitous nature of how these intersection points get created is mind boggling.

Maybe I should go to the restrooms more often 😉

Sitting in a plane a few minutes before we take off, I lobbed a call and the following conversation took place:
“David?”
“Yes?”
“This is Rajib here. Rajib Roy”
“Hey Rajib! What’s up?”
“Just checking on you. Love your running updates. By the way, is it not your birthday today?”
“Indeed! The big 50!”
“Happy Birthday!! Big 50 huh? Feeling old”?
“Nope ! Now I get to the 50-55 group in races. Best chance to pick up some medals”!!

Only a runner would think that way!!! What a great attitude!!
Thank you for a great start to the day, David!!

A long day in DC was getting over. Speaking at an event in the morning? Check! Long customer meeting in the afternoon? Check! Business dinner in the evening? Check! Now what? What better time than to dig up one more of those “intersection points”?

I am really glad I called Venkat (or as he is called now – Ram) and asked if he had time to meet after dinner. Not only did he agree, he gracefully volunteered to travel for 45 minutes to come to the city. I was going to travel to meet him but he would have nothing of it.

A great energizing meeting. We were deep in our discussions when we realized it was nearly midnight and we called it a night. It is not often that I can hear somebody talk about the concept of religion in terms of De Moivre’s theorem. Somehow we got talking about the futility of trying to explain the precepts of religion and spirituality with the constructs of pre-frontal cortex based rationale and reason.

That is when he talked about how something as irrational as “e” (he had a great way of explaining “e” in terms of compounded interest compounded every infinitesimally small time intervals) raised to the product of another irrational number “pi” – nature’s great truth of an unchanging ratio of any circle, big or small – multiplied by an imaginary number “i” – gives us something very rational and something our mind can process – minus one! The point being there are various truths that reside outside our mind’s ability to comprehend thru rational tools.

Also, we had a discussion on why “i” is completely mislabeled as “imaginary”. It is perfectly a good number that has real life practical uses. It is just that our minds cannot process that concept or whatever that number is. So it is more an “unimaginable” number than an “imaginary” number!!!

Of course, we also talked about other sundry things like common friends we have from the past. Speaking of our past, Venkat and I met first in 1989. I was a senior (fourth year) and he was a freshman (first year) in IIT Madras. In fact, we were in the same dorm (hostel). Then I ran into him again for a few years in the first start up I worked in Dallas. In fact, we were part of the same software development team!!

And then nearly fifteen years later, I got to see him again last night!!!