I had finished my dinner with Jon and had pulled up the rental car to the valet at the hotel. I saw the valet guy take the keys from the person who had the previous car and walk towards the car. Then, on second thoughts, he ran back to the person who was going up the steps to the checking in counter. I could see he asked him something, the guest nodded, both smiled, shook hands and parted.

“Is he somebody famous?” I asked the valet looking at the clean shaven, well built African American gentleman walking away. I was expecting him to be some kind of professional athlete.

“Yes. He is Mr. Booker”

Now, I have to admit I did not know who exactly Mr. Booker was but the name was vaguely familiar. The valet guy for some reason told me he is the mayor of DC. Which my irate daughters later pointed out is actually a lady. And this was the famous senator from New Jersey – Mr. Cory Booker.

After he was done checking in, I was wondering whether I should go and talk to him. He probably gets too many strangers walking up to him and bothering him.

I finally took the plunge. “Mr. Booker?”, I asked as he was grabbing a couple of bottles of water.

He turned back and said “Yes.”

“How many times do you get asked that question everyday?” I asked. Since I could not come up anything better or more interesting to ask.

“More than you think”, he said and laughed and put me at ease.

It should have ended there with me wishing him good night.

Instead, I proceeded – “I am from Atlanta but I have a daughter in DC. She just started in GWU.”

“Really, what is she studying?”

“Well, she wants to do law”

“We need smart kids in law. Good for her.”

“I know this is imposing on your privacy but would you be open to taking a picture with me? My daughter will be thrilled” I asked a little worried that incessant requests like this probably irritates folks like him.

“Oh! absolutely!”

As I was trying to look around to ask somebody to take our picture, he did something startling. He took the phone away from me.

“What is your daughter’s name?”

“Nikita!”

He put the camera on video mode and started taking a video of him and me. And he said “Hey Niki! Here I was minding my own business here in Milwaukee and this guy who can be my stunt double walks up to me and says he knows you. Hope he knows you! Wish you all the best. You have a cool dad!”

And I am yelling “Oh! My God!!!”

Then he took a selfie with me, made sure I got his Chief of Staff Veronica’s contacts (who also a took a selfie with me) and asked me to pass it on to Niki and that if she wanted an internship ever, she should contact Veronica.

We bade each other adieu. I checked in and went to my room. And then sent the video to the girls. One remonstrated with me for not mentioning her name and the other was in sixth heaven.

But for once, both agreed that dad may not be always somebody to be embarrassed of.

That was my 15 minutes of fame!!

I had not seen Jon in ages. We had worked together in a previous job and had I personally learnt a lot about airplanes from him. I remember he taking me to the hangars and explaining the intricacies of flying and maintaining the airplanes we owned.

And the beer and wine we used to have in Sheboygan!!

We had thought of meeting for an hour and a half. It was three and a half hours by the time we got kicked out of the restaurant!! It is difficult to express the feelings of meeting old friends like Jon after a such a long time. We had some nice learning moments exchange notes on reflections from our times together!

I also found out that his daughter is a teacher. Hopefully, I will get to work with another Wittman from the family soon!

“What is your name?”, I asked the usherer as she walked me to my breakfast table in the completely empty restaurant at Carvallo Point Lodge in Sausalito.
“Mereseini”
“Can you spell that out for me?”
Which she did.
“And what is the last name?”
“Vatu”
“V-A-T-U?”
“Yes”
“Wow! I have not heard those names ever. Where are the names from?”
“Fiji”
“Fiji?”
“Yes”
“Wow! You are the first person I know from Fiji!!”
“Oh! At first, I thought you are from Fiji too!”
“Why?”
“Well, Roy is a common last name in Fiji. In fact our soccer superstar has Roy as his last name.”
“I did not know that!”

As I mentioned, there were no other customer around. Which gave me some time to get to know Mereseini.
“Your last name – does it have a meaning?”
“A rock”
“Oh! It reminds me of another country near you – Vanuatu! It has the letters of your last name”
“You have been there?
“No. I have never been to the Polynesian islands. But I have heard about those countries. The other country there that I know with the letters of your last name is Tuvalu. Which has a funny capital name. But I cannot remember.”
“Funafuti”, she reminded me.
“Yes. I had forgotten!

“Tell me a little about your country. All I know is your capital name, Vijay Singh and Fijian water – which I am not sure if it is from Fiji at all”.
“Well, it is a poor country. And living is hard.”
“Your family is there still?”
“Yes”
“Why did you come to America?”
“I had heard that there are lots of opportunities to work here.”
“Who told you? How did you know there is lots of work opportunities here?”
“By reading up and hearing from other people”

“Okay. So, how did you come here?”
“I have a green card”
“Thru your husband or family here sponsored you?”
“Oh! I am not married. I won the lottery.”
“The green card lottery?”
“Yes. I did not get the first time. So, I applied again. I could not believe my luck when I got it the second time. I came here last year.”

“Wow! So, now that you are here, what do you want to do with your life?”
“I want to join the army”
“The army? Why?”
“I have always wanted to be in the armed forces. Plus the benefits are very good”.
“I see.”

By this time, the server had arrived to take my order. And I had to once again go thru the coin toss in my mind – what was it going to be? – vegetable omelette or two eggs sunny side up?

Chomping thru the breakfast (the coin came up on the sunny side up, by the way), I could not help mull over how industrious and adventurous young folks like Mereseine are. Coming to a completely different country in a completely different hemisphere – north south wise and east west wise – with nobody here – to restart life from scratch. And how luck is such a crucial factor in the journey of life.

Not to speak of how blessed we still are in America.

Hope to run into Mereseine – and more folks like her – in my journeys.

With classmates from engineering days in India. Thank you Aluru, for organizing this.

Chiringa has been our “go to” place for a few years. It is not the food or the drinks (although they have their bright spots)… you come here for the people and how they treat you. Every single person here – (Charlotte, Susan,Emily, Emory, Kylie, Logan, Rebekah… ) will make you feel like family. But the best of them all is Lauren – the manager and uber-all here. The way she treats her employees and customers is a lesson many retailers can learn from. I know. I have watched her for the better part of four years now.

Today was a great example of that.

After a long day of hospice service, motorbike ride, boat ride, I finally settled down with Jay Jay in Chiringa for a drink and some food. (it is a six minute walk for me). Jay Jay met Jocelyn.

Jocelyn is the young daughter of the couple who cleans up the place. I have met them before. Jocelyn has quickly become a big fan of Jay Jay.

Speaking of Jocelyn, I saw Lauren sitting with her and doing something. I took
a picture. Apologize for the completely out of focus picture. Not sure what happened.

“What are you guys doing?” I enquired.

Turns out Lauren – (get this – the manager) – helps Jocelyn (the daughter of the cleaner) with her homework and actually gives her more homework!!

That is incredible!

Lauren is one of the most hard working person I know. She is on her laptop trying to keep the business going every time i see her. On top of that, she does this??

Can’t think of a better person. Can’t think of a better place.

“So, you are doing homework with her?”

“Oh yes! Jocelyn is very smart. I know her from her birth”.

You see that blurry guy in the blurry picture? That is Jocelyn’s dad. He came forward to show me the picture of Lauren holding Jocelyn when she was born,

I was stunned!!

How many retail business managers do you know who would visit the hospital to ring in the baby of the cleaner in the restaurant?

You know – I don’t care about the menu anymore. I just want to be here. And if this world has any sense of fairness, I want these kind of human beings to succeed in life.

Originally, I was scheduled to be home tomorrow morning. But my dinner meeting today was canceled. So, I switched to an evening flight back home. Like the meeting with Amy yesterday, this change too was blessed by fate with an undeniable upside.

The Skyclub was crowded. But I had a Zoom call to take. So, I settled in a nook away from the main area of the club and got on to the video call. Mid way thru the call, i heard my name being called out. Here too, my ear problem came in handy. Since the right ear is completely swollen (we still do not know why), I had my AirPods on only in my left ear. Which is why I could hear my name being called out.

I looked up and saw this lady smiling at me. Clearly she was on a call too on her phone but she was obviously addressing me. And in one of those rare occasions, my facial recognition algorithm failed me. Fortunately, she realized that and offered “Monica”. Aah! Ms. Moore!! Immediately, memories flashed back from that day – Gosh, some 10-12 years back? – when I was introduced to her on a stage under spotlights. We were panelists in a forum discussion together.

I asked my Zoom call folks to hold on and quickly chatted with her. Found out that she is on my flight too and that both our calls were ending at half past. And when the calls did end, I met up with her and caught up on the time since we had met.

“Do you remember where that panel discussion was?”, I asked.
“I do not”.
“Me neither”
“It was called Money 2020”
“Wow! You certainly have a better memory than i do’

After that panel discussion that day, I had befriended her on Facebook and Linkedin. Of course, the birthday calls started. But also I used to get updates on her from my close friend Sanjib (Monica was his customer and friend) and Sreerupa.

It was interesting to find out her background in Venezuela and her husband’s in UK. But the most touching event she narrated to me was how both she and her son were told on the same day early last year that they had cancer (of course, different cancers). The best part of it is that they are both in remission now.

I loved the way she put it – “Listen, Rajib, if I had been told that I will have cancer and that my child will have cancer too, the one thing I would have asked is that I go thru it together with him”.

Panelist, successful executive aside, a mother is always a mother. Supreme human being. And Monica is one of a kind!!

Something was up in Chicago this week. I had meetings in downtown on Tuesday and Wednesday morning and then meetings in office west of the airport thru Thursday night. Every hotel in downtown was $800+ per night. The hotel next to my office – which I normally pay between $120-$160 per night was listed for $1500 for Tuesday night! And there was not a single rental car available with any company in any location.

I had finally settled for a hotel near the airport for Tuesday night. It was double the normal rate but at least it was under $400. This also meant, I had to use the train to go from meeting to meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

But life, I guess, has a way of giving back. If not for all this inconveniences, I would not have met an old friend of mine.

I had finished my breakfast with Tyler in the city and had come back to the hotel to pack up and check out. I was going to an Urgent Care for an ear related issue that has gone out of control. I had hailed an Uber and then instead of standing outside, waited inside the doors. (Was trying not to expose the ears to the cold outside).

As I was peeking thru the doors to see if my ride had arrived, I noticed somebody walking down the corridor of the hotel. She looked at me and then looked away. I looked at her and wondered if it was who I thought it was. She looked at me a second time but still did not recognize me. She probably had realized that I had been looking at her all this time that she was walking by.

She looked at me the third time. This time, I took a chance. “Amy?” I asked. She must have recognized my voice or face by then. “Rajib Roy?”

Turns out Amy and I used to work together some 17 years back in a Boston based company. I had left that job by 2006. Amy had moved away to New York. Many moons later, in December 2013, I did meet her in New York and we put in a run together in Central Park.

She was in the hotel for an event for that day! What is the chance of that?

Unfortunately, my ride had arrived and I had to leave. But not before we promised to make time to meet in the evening. We both had meetings scheduled till late. I was done only around 8:15PM. But Amy was kind enough to come over to my hotel to meet me. Deval from my current company was also there and we had a great time together. Most of it was about the old times together but some of it was about what Sharmila refers to as “crop circles”.

I will let you ask her what they are all about!

I have worked in industries ranging from banks to supply chains to identity fraud solutions to geospatial. But the current one – education – is probably the most mission oriented. I can see every day how we make a difference to kids.

And that gives rise to some interesting intersection points on the road. Take today for example. I had flown into Chicago, taken the train to downtown and started individual meetings. Coffee with Demetre, drinks with Nurzhan and then dinner with Lela.

Lela was already at the dinner table when I showed up a bit late. For all that patience she had shown, the first thing I did was made her get up from the table and move to the bar area. For some reason, when it comes to drinks or dinner, I prefer the high chairs.

I am so glad I did it though. We had barely settled down when one of the restaurant employees – a young lady – came up to us excitedly and looking at Lela, exclaimed “Miss Day?” Lela immediately recognized her.

As a background, Lela was with TFA (Teach For America) before she joined us. TFA teachers tend to work with inner city schools frequently in the poorest and most violent parts of the city offering lessons to kids who often tend to be troubled . Lela worked in such a school in Chicago before joining us. She was very clear that she was not going to take me there after sunset – it gets so unsafe.

Well, as it turns out, the young lady – Keisha – went to the same school. In fact, her younger sister was in Lela’s class. They recognized each other immediately.

I was totally intrigued by their conversations. Keisha was talking about her troubled childhood.

“How old are you?”, I asked her
“23”
“Oh! I have a daughter one year elder to you. I heard your conversation. Were you really troubled?”
“Oh! yes. I used to throw books at my teachers!”
“How about now?”, I teased her
“Well, I have settled down now. It is a little late now but now I understand how teachers like Miss Day made all the difference to kids like me.”

Keisha told me part of her life story. Puerto Rican by descent, she grew up like many other inner city kids with access to very little. She had her first baby when she was 19 and second one when she was 21. But she has a steady income now from the restaurant and is rebuilding her life.

To my usual “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”, she felt she needed a little more time to think that thru.

She thanked Lela again and left us to our dinner. I could not help wonder what kind of environment Lela and other TFA teachers have to teach in. And my respect for them redoubled for doing what they do. And making a real difference in the world. To the young kids that need it the most.