In all the weariness of last week’s travels, I forgot to reflect on and tell you folks about meeting a very very old friend of mine. I saw him after thirty years!!!

My namesake – although he spells it “Rajeev” – and I went to school together for our eleventh and twelfth grades (high school junior and senior years). I remember him as an exceptionally bright person. He was very strong in math and statistics. I used to marvel at how he cracked the permutation and combination problems. And another thing I remember him for was his handwriting. He had a great handwriting – very consistent and clean – but the font size was geared towards letting people read from hundred yards or so away 🙂 (We had a great laugh remembering that). And I also remember visiting his parents in Asansol for a few hours. I distinctly remember his mom’s energy level and kindness.

During last week’s “breakfast in DC – lunch in Milwaukee – dinner in Tampa” whirlwind meetings crisscrossing the country, I was able to get my old buddy Rajeev Ranjan Bhattacharya and myself together for an hour or so in DC – where he has moved in a couple of months back. I could have picked him up from a crowd very easily. Nothing has changed in him. He looks exactly the same. He has got all the hair intact on his head. Probably quietened down a little. But still has those insightful comments that I had gotten used to from him thirty years back.

It was great to catch up on his family, his career in Australia and US and some of our old friends. The most sad part was realizing that I will not get a chance to meet his mom again.

I do wish I had a paper and pen with me. I wanted to see if his handwriting has remained the same!!

It was not exactly the corner corporate office where the CFO and the CEO intensively pore thru the numbers trying to make sense of the business. Still, there was a lot of business numbers to go thru. So Dan and I pulled into a Chilis outside Milwaukee airport (he had driven from Sheboygan and I had driven from Chicago airport) and settled into a quiet corner ready to have our working lunch and thread thru the numbers.

After a perfunctory glance thru the menu, we put in our orders and everything was going as predicted till our young waiter asked us his perfunctory question “Is there anything else I can get you?”. It has become a reflex action for me by now. “Sure, you can get me a million dollars”. I am really glad that I had that reflex action because as the events unfolded in the next few minutes, I got to make friends with a very driven young man who, I, personally have a lot to learn from.

Back to the conversation with Ryan Spindler – which is what we found out his name happened to be.

He: “Do you really think sir, if I had a million dollars, I would be here?”
Me: “Where would you be?”
He: “I would own a business”
Me: “Really? What kind of business?”
He: “I have a few ideas”.

By now, Dan was totally into the conversation. Dan, by the way, is the same gentleman who was with me when I found out the connection between him and the bar lady manager from Japan (of throwing the dart fame) as well as he is the same guy who found his college football teammate during a dinner with me. He, I am sure, thinks I am the craziest guy around. Noticing Dan did not think I was wasting his time, I pressed harder to know Ryan a little more.

Me: ” Tell me, if money was not an issue and you could use the million dollars to do something that you are passionate about, what would you do?”

You know, for a young well built gentleman, I was thinking he would talk about adventures, surfing, traveling and such. Therefore, you can imagine my intrigue when pat came the answer “I would open up a Pizza place”.

I incredulously asked “Pizza place? Why? How did you come up with a Pizza place?” And that is when I learnt a little more history of Ryan. He started is career being a Pizza chef and loved it. Unfortunately the place shut down. And he is making a living waiting on tables but his heart is still in making pizzas.

What absolutely mesmerized Dan and me is the ease with which he handled my business questions – “how would you create a differentiation against a crowded mom and pop pizza shops?”, “how would you allocate your capital?”, “how are you going to source your talent?”. At the end of that, both Dan and I were like – “God! Somebody give him a million dollars”!

We had to get back to work though. I asked Ryan to leave us alone for sometime and make sure he met me one more time before we leave. And that is what he did. When he noticed that we were packing up, he got us the check (actually showed us how to use the self-help ordering and check out system Chilis has now at every table).

I handed him my business card and wrote down my personal contacts. I asked him to keep my contact and reach out if he ever needs help. I promised to see if my network could help him and that he should always feel free to get some unsolicited advise from me 🙂 Then I asked him “So, you seem to be a very driven guy. What is your best achievement till date?”

And that is when I got to know that this young well built gentleman you see in the picture tipped the scales over 380 pounds barely six years back. And he fought his way thru down to 180 pounds. He talked about the various frustrating plateaus he faced and how he had to try very different things every time to keep losing weight! Always curious about factors that drive folks to such great results, I asked him “What got you started?”.

“Oh! many things. Most of them very petty”, he said.

“Tell me one so I can feature it in my blog”, I pleaded.

And that is when I got to know another facet of Ryan. Evidently, he likes Indie and Rock music. And he likes wearing jeans and tucking his shirt in so that the belt buckle would show. He evidently loves large belt buckles!! And one fine day, he realized that his gut was overshadowing his entire belt buckle. And that was when he drew the line!!!

I could only say “Wow!” as I wished him the very best and bade adieu.

So, if any of you happen to be near Milwaukee airport, swing by the Chilis nearby on 27th street (there is only one – next to the Home Depot and I think the town there is called Franklin), to say Hi to this driven young gentleman and wish him all the luck!!

My current executive team is in Atlanta for our monthly meetings. We pick one of our offices nationwide and rotate our meetings in those cities. One of our common practices is for the local executive to arrange for a networking meeting when we are done with our office stuff.

This time, it was my turn. So, I invited the executive team from my previous job (which was in Atlanta) to join my current team for a dinner. As always, we had a great time. It is simply magical to watch a great talented team meet another great talented team.

The highlight of the evening was as I introduced one of my current team members – Dan – to one of my previous team members – John – they immediately recognized each other from a previous life. Apparently, they played football together for their college (Univ of Wisconsin, Whitewater, I believe).

Who knew that after playing for the same team more than a quarter century back, they would accidentally find themselves in the same place at the same time – connected by a common executive separated by two companies?

I have to admit that it was great watching them catch up on their common friends, families and the time ever since they met last.

Awesome!!

The customer meeting in Austin had just gotten over. My sales team, happy with the proceedings, dropped me in my hotel. It was getting close to noon. And I had a long drive to Houston. To catch a flight to Cincinnati. Then drive to Lexington. Yes, I trust my driving more than those small planes with multiple hops when it comes to certainty of reaching my destination.

The margin of error was going to be small. I had the prospect of accidents on 290 or simply get blinded by sharp thunder showers. As luck would have it, both happened on my way. Fortunately, I am writing this from my flight to Cincinnati.

But before I left Austin, I had a chance to catch up on another intersection point from the past. For exactly 25 minutes. I was aware that Srinivas Palamarthy was nearby and a few calls and text messages later, we found ourselves at Annie’s bar and cafe. I always thought that our paths crossed in i2 only. Today I found out how wrong I have been.

Not sure why this never came up in any previous conversations (we worked in the same group for some time and I have talked to him before multiple times), but I realized today that he and I are from the same engineering college. Separated by only two years. And he lived in the hostel/dorm adjacent to mine!! I had many friends there and often visited that hostel/dorm! He recognized all of my friends and gave me some updates too!!

So this is the third intersection with him. College, working together and a chance meeting in the city he lives in now.

Srini, as we were prone to calling him, has remained the same. Physically, emotionally and intellectually. Looking at him, he does not seem to have aged even one day from the last time I saw him in 2003. He is also the same humble guy that can put you at ease from the moment you run into him. He has this unbelievable way of making you really feel good about yourself. I was certainly very proud of how his career has progressed and how he is crucial to RetailMeNot’s vision and plans. Good to see humble people like him succeed in this world.

That was the message Shruthi and Hank had written on the back of the nice gift they had for me this evening. As always, it was a delightful evening with this great young couple. Shruthi’s dad and I have worked together virtually in every company I have worked in. Having seen Shruthi ever since she was a few days world to now when she is a working lady living her own independent life, it is almost impossible to believe how fast time can fly by.

Their message for me was a reference to, of course Austin’s reputation of keeping itself “weird” as well as Sharmila calling me “quirky”. Speaking of Sharmila, Hank and she has a common background – both are or have studied Architecture in Texas (UT and UTA).

It was simply great to see them again. It has been many a moon since I stepped my foot in Austin last. Could not have gotten a better welcome!!

Remember how one evening, while spending a few idle hours with my inlaws in our backyard, I realized that Bidisha is a relative of mine? Bidisha being the person that we got to know regarding a nanny and while my family has met her, I have never met her. Of course, since she is my new found relative, I had figured that I would meet her next time I was in Dallas.

Last night, after 1:30 am (I am sure too much drinking was involved 🙂 ) I got a message from Amitesh that her husband was in our town. He (Amitesh) was able to get the three of us together for lunch on my way to the airport.

That was a great hour. He is a SMU professor. Most of the discussions were around the fallacy of prediction methods – from biases in selecting independent variables to faulty assumptions in correlation methods to the almost impossible problem of finding discontinuous functions mathematically (unfortunately, real life does not work in a smooth curve). It was a very intellectually stimulating discussion. The yellow curry at Thai Spice was not bad either!!

Now I have two more books to read, thanks to Neil Bhattacharya!!