Met Sara Emily Bowling Ovacik Waller tonight. And that is just one person!! Also met her recently acquired husband Richard. Met Sara after almost a dozen years. We worked together in i2 where her job was to keep my the then boss honest! Which was a feat unto itself!! Apart from some catching up of old friends, there were some great recollections of hilarious incidents. Not all is worthy of the august company here. But certainly, we can talk about the time when she wrecked our common boss’s new red BMW 🙂
Seriously though, I was really glad Sara could make some time for me. Nothing like catching up with a true human being like her.
Like I said, met her new husband Richard too. Not only did he impress me with his handlebars, he actually understands his cocktails!! Here is a guy I need to know a little more and learn a lot about mixology!!
Great evening!!! Hope to run into them once again…

In Dallas for a day of meetings. Got a great start to the day with a breakfast meeting with Sandy Seibert and Tracy Fitzpatrick. Two of the best recruiters I have had a chance to work with in the past. We recollected the days when they had helped us build one of the best companies in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Got a great glimpse of why they have been so successful in their careers. They could breakdown the strategy of their companies (that they have worked in) in a startling level of detail and great understanding that can often put business managers to shame.
We caught up with a lot of our old friends. I had not seen either for about ten years.
I tried to understand the key drivers behind their success – often fighting back very devastating situations. (Sandy wrested the upper hand in her fight against cancer). Both credited their parents and upbringing for their work ethics and values.
So I asked each what is the one advise they had for me. Tracy’s insight: “Never be afraid of getting out of comfort zone”. Sandy offered “Retain a sense of humor”. All three agreed that what Sandy meant for me was “First get yourself a sense of humor. Then retain it.” 🙂
Loved the meeting. Energized me so much to see my old friends being so successful in life – not just professionally but personally too. Inspired me to set my own bar higher.
Hope that someday they will get together and start a world-changing HR business!!

Morning (long) meetings with customer in Maryland, followed by an energizing lunch with a colleague and then a three hour drive to New Jersey for a customer dinner. I was exhausted last night after this. And my hotel was still over an hour drive away (I stayed next to the airport so as to catch an early flight today).

However, on the way, I knew was a very very old friend of mine and his wife – who I also knew independently. So, sure enough – never a person to miss an intersection point, I showed up at their house pretty late at 8:30.

And I am glad I did. It was two hours of non stop laughter and talking about common friends we knew. I have not laughed that much in a long time…. or had such great a time. Even their daughter got caught up in the action and stayed with us the whole time (which Jayeeta explained later has never happened before). In fact, the only reason the party broke up was that she still had some homework to finish for the next day!!!

You see the picture of the idol? That is an wooden idol carved by Partha. He has got this whole set up in the basement where he does wood work to relax. You see the table we are all sitting at? That is a production from his relaxation.

Still cannot believe how much fun I had in those two hours. And then on my drive back, I realized something. The three of us have had a lot of common friends … we have talked so many times over the phone… we almost lived in the same city some time back…. Found out that my close fiend and Chalupa member Sid’s grandpa’s sister’s granddaughter is Jayeeta!

And yet… till last night… Partha and I had ever met each other only ONCE – for about five minutes … in Durgapur station waiting for Bidhan Express in October 1983 … we were introduced by either Subrata Kolay or Debotosh Paul, I cannot remember!

And Jayeeta? This is the second time I met her in my life – first time when she and her parents came to visit my roommate Pratik Pal in my residential school days in 1984 and then a couple of years later at the same roommates’ house in Durgapur where I had gone to visit his dad Dr. Dilip Pal who had recently broken his leg…

Over 31 years later… meeting somebody only the second or third time in your life…. there was no way you could have guessed it from the amount of fun we had together!!!

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.