If there is anything as exciting as meeting old friends while traveling on the road, it is probably making new friends in this exciting journey on the road we choose to call “life”.

Here is a new friend I made this week while catching up with my old friend – Reno. (See previous blogpost). And his name is Alejandro from Mexico. He was intrigued enough by my interest in making drinks that he gave me a couple of tips from his trade. The most valuable was the art of making layered drinks without getting the layers mixed up.

And here you can see him showing us how to make three drinks simultaneously!!! That was cool how he served three customers at the same time!! I need to go back some time to learn how to juggle bottles in the air while making cocktails!

Again, the best part of enduring all the pains and hassles of flying every week with all those delayed flights and getting lost driving in downtown streets and that uncomfortable light in the hotel room that you do not want to switch off and make it too dark to stumble around looking for a glass of water in the middle of the night – nor can you sleep when it is on – is undoubtedly getting to see old friends – even if for a short time.

This week, I finally managed to catch up with gold old Reno. Long time back when I had just moved into Atlanta, I had the chance to run with her multiple times in our Windward Road Runners group.

A very successful executive, she kept getting promoted and kept moving cities. Twice I almost caught up with her – once in Utah and another time in Oregon. This week, finally managed to get some time after long work hours on both side to meet up for a quick drink or two.

It was great to catch up with her professional success, her runs, trail hikes, her family and our old friends from Atlanta.

I look forward to seeing her down the road again…

Here is an interesting story from my travels of last week. My new friend Dan from my new job and I went out for dinner in Sheboygan when I was there early part of last week. There are not a lot of places to eat but Dan found us a nice place in Kohler called The Blind Horse which is a great restaurant. They have their own winery too!

As Dan and I started talking shop sitting at the bar over a drink, we got too engrossed to leave the bar. We canceled our reservation in the dining area and ordered food at the bar. After we were done, we started talking to the manager of the place – Yui – who was also helping at the bar that day.

She asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Sheboygan. BTW, I am yet to see another Indian in Sheboygan from my four days here 😉 So, no wonder, she was curious 🙂 Anyways, after we were done with our stories, I asked her about her journey. And I got the most fascinating story ever!

Yui was born in Japan and finished her school there. She had, at an early age, also visited Australia and stayed there for some time. Early on, she realized she did not like cities and crowd. She wanted the countryside and rural pace.

One day, her parents and siblings were at a bar in Japan that had a huge map of US. They were discussing about the places in US. None of them were much aware of US cities. Eventually, they started playing a dart game. On a whim, Yui came up with an idea – she said she would cover up all the crowded places in US and throw a dart. Wherever it landed, she was going to pursue higher studies there.

So they covered up all the places whose names they knew. The logic was if they knew about it, then it was famous and popular. If it was famous and popular, it had to be crowded. So, pretty much with California, New York, Florida, Dallas etc covered, Yui took a dart and as she put it “threw it as hard as I could”.

Upon closer inspection she saw that the dart had landed at some God-forsaken place called Kenosha. In the state of Wisconsin. This was the first time they found out there was a place called Kenosha. Or for that matter a state called Wisconsin. But that was it. She decided that she would study in Wisconsin. Her parents were totally cool with it.

A little research pointed her to Lakeland college nearby. It helped that they had a branch in Tokyo. She found out more information from that branch, applied and came over. She studied in Lakeland, met her husband here and now is managing the restaurant and winery.

What an outstanding story!!

Would you have the guts to let your life course be dramatically altered by the tip of a dart?

If any of you ever swing by The Blind Horse near Sheboygan, don’t forget to say Hi to her. She is also a great mixologist if you are into cocktails..

In all this excitement, Dan suddenly asked her something about the small place that we was from in Japan. Yui was surprised at the level of detail that Dan knew about her place. Finally Dan revealed his marine background and how he was stationed by her place for a few months.

Go figure!!!! What are the chances of that? He was stationed by the small place where she threw a dart to come to the place where he lives!!!

See, this is why I travel. This is why I love meeting people. This is why I love joining the dots!!!

Here is an intersection point with a difference. I did not create it. The other person did!

I was a speaker at a Big Data and Analytics event in Atlanta yesterday. After I was done, as I came off the stage, there were a few people who wanted to ask a few more questions and introduce themselves. It is after all, a big networking opportunity. I noticed one guy waiting and I thought I had seen him somewhere before but could not immediately remember. My best guess was I had met him in a similar event previously.

As my eyes met his, he stepped forward and asked “Do you recognize me?”. I had to admit “I remember your face but cannot place you.” His next statement simply floored me “I am Harish Pandit. You taught us object oriented programming in 1992”. I went like “What?” I had to hear this. I pulled myself out of the crowd and got some quiet space with him.

And he told me the whole story. I had joined my first job in 1991 in Bombay. He joined the next year. Our training department had roped me in to teach Object Oriented programming to the new batch. And he gave me specific examples I had given the class to explain the whole concept!!

I was astounded by his memory!! He brought me up to speed about some of those juniors. Seems like my students – if I can call them that – have done mighty well in spite of my efforts 🙂 Also got his contacts to catch up with him later. Turns out he lives not too far from me.

Had he not recognized me I would have completely missed this intersection point that I would be in the same room with somebody 22 years after being in an another room together half a world away!!!