As most of you know, I am nothing if not making new friends on the road, get to know “their story” and create intersection points. Sure beats airline delays, long waits at queues and such. Also personally enriches me as I get to know different perspectives that people have.

This morning, I had a very early breakfast meeting at Four Seasons in Atlanta. Reached there a little early to beat the Atlanta traffic. It was a good thing too. I got a chance to make friends with the manager at the restaurant there – Megan. Lots of interesting stories.

First, her dad is the developer of an app I use in my iPad extensively – “Notability”!! How cool is that? I do not think I have ever met anybody who has actually developed an app that I use in my day to day life! Made a note to meet him when I am in the West Coast next time.

Found out that Megan has recently moved from Boston to Atlanta. If you remember, before I moved to Atlanta seven years back, I used to work in a Boston based company!! And get this – that company was founded by a professor from her college!!!

One thing that amazes me about young folks these days is the clarity of thought they have around what they want to be. I had my usual “What do you want to be when you grow up”? question. (As you also know, I keep asking this since I am still looking for some good ideas for myself – I am still open to growing up and making something of myself).

I compared her ability to articulate her goals to mine when I was her age. I find the same superior maturity of thought in my soon-to-be-16 year old daughter too. Growing up, I did not have that many choices. I did whatever the guy from the previous year or batch did. There was never much thought put behind it. Partly because I grew up in a country with a lot more people running after very few resources and partly because taking risks was probably not inherent in me.

And then I had to leave to go to my day meetings….

After a day’s worth of work, met good old C.S.Devasish aka “Buck” from my MBA days who had stopped by Atlanta for work. I had met him in Boston last year after many many years. Therefore, a lot of unfinished stories were finished today. Buck was one of our super smart guys in MBA days. So I am always intrigued by his points of views.

Today, our topics de jure included politics – American politics, Indian politics and overall geopolitics in general. From how gerrymandering is poisoning American politics to the Modi effect in India to the possibility of Balkanization of India to the greatest post President statesman Jimmy Carter to the fear of US of pushing Russia too close to China – we covered all topics under the sky 😉 The other common interest we have – big data and it’s social effects took up the rest of our time.

Before long, his ride had arrived and we had to part ways. Hoping to get the two families together this summer…

I reached the Starbucks to meet my two young friends (see previous post) a little early. So, I figured I would freshen up a little in the restroom and settle down with my emails and such till they showed up.

As I returned from the restroom, I saw a Starbucks lady arranging the wine bottles (yes, this one had wine) and as my eyes made contact with hers, I gave the usual polite “How are you?”. And then in a fraction of a second, I realized who it was. So, I stopped and exclaimed “Hey, it is you!”. She also nodded saying “I thought it was you when you walked in”.

And that is how I ran into Heidi Dawson!! After such a long long time!! I had completely forgotten that when she moved back from North Carolina, she had taken up a job as a manager of that Starbucks.

I also remembered how – many years back – on a Friday morning, three of us went for a run – she, myself and her dog. And such was her pace that it was a matter of intense debate after the run who had a longer tongue out – myself or her dog!! 🙂

“So, are you running lately?”, I asked.
“Yes, I have a race coming up this weekend”.
“How long is the race?”
“100K”

At that point of time, I did the following math – Hmmmm… 100K means about 65 miles. So, that would take me an hour of drive on the highway. I get really tired and bored driving an hour on the highway. Probably not an appropriate time to bring up the fact that these days I am running 5 miles. On a great day 7 miles! 🙂

So, in a jiffy, I switched topics to enquire about her husband Tim and the three dogs 🙂

Seriously though, it was so great to see an old friend after such a long time. We caught up on what has happened with each other thru these years. I miss running with my old friends….

Before hitting the sack last night, there was just enough time to meet some more of my old friends. Got a chance to meet Willie Weng and Greg Yut from my old code development days in i2.

Greg drove for over half an hour very late at night and Willie came straight from the airport after his business trip on his way home to meet up. Can you imagine what our important topic of discussion was? It was not about life, learnings or much about our old friends (well, a little). We spent most of the time discussing the frustrations of having to deal with teenager kids!! Between the three of us, we have six of them (Greg takes the lion’s share with four :-)).

Heaven knows, we have become like our dads!!! 🙂

Again, it was great seeing two of my most memorable friends from early days of my career with whom I got a chance to work on a daily basis and learn a lot!!!

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….