26 July 2017

The icing on the cake in Florida

Words like Florida and “icing” are difficult to put together. But there was really a “cool” reason why we chose last week to make our annual visit to Fort Lauderdale. Because that afforded us a chance to meet Madhumolli and her family – Debjit and Damayanti who were visiting the US of A from their abode near London, UK.

Madhumolli and I were batch mates back in Durgapur. We never were in the same school but had common friends and then over time we became friends ourselves. There is an old story here that I insist mentioning – that those days she could not stand me (apparently, she had standards 🙂 ) and to this day, she has fought my storyline tooth and nail 🙂

We are very different people – she is the quiet and strong types and I am the … Well, let’s just admit she is the quiet and strong one. She loved medical sciences. I loved engineering. And sometimes they did not mix too well. There was something I had said once when I went to visit in her hostel in Calcutta Medical College and she simply grabbed hold of me and started dragging me to the next building – which was a morgue!! It was not that difficult to drag me. In fact, I will go ahead and admit that I was (and am) the garrulous and weak type!! 🙂

Madhumolli’s mom, incidentally, was Sharmila’s Bengali teacher in eleventh and twelfth grade.

Over the years, I have kept up with her by phone and personal visits in UK and Kolkata whenever I got a chance. My last meeting on July 11, 2013 was a memorable one. You can see the picture here… (http://www.rajibroy.com/?p=3385). After a day full of meetings, I had quickly changed into my running clothes and then hauled myself to Slough to keep an old promise I had made to her daughter. She had started running the previous year and I showed up to keep the promise of running with her next time I was in London. In all that excitement, we got Debjit – who had just arrived from Brussels – to run with us for some distance – in his office clothes!! And I turned around immediately, came back to the hotel in London and after a shower went out for a customer dinner!

Almost to the day, four years later, we met again in Fort Lauderdale. Most important, we were there with Damayanti the day she turned eighteen!! It was also very interesting to watch Natasha and Nikita exchanges notes with Damayanti on each other’s countries!!!

We met twice during our stay in Fort Lauderdale. Had the most enjoyable time!!!

This picture was taken as the lovely dusk enveloped the beach where we went for a walk…

Category: Intersection Points, Vacations | 5 Comments on The icing on the cake in Florida
23 July 2017

Back to the future…

This is where our US journey had started. Nearly a quarter century ago, after getting married in a court of law in India, we had headed out to the US. And this was the airport that we finally had stopped our journey in. After thirty hours of flight or so, I was completely dazed and thoroughly ill equipped to understand anything foreign (e.g. I had entered a “Restroom” at the airport thinking that is where I could catch some rest during transit 🙂 Don’t blame me – in India, we called them “Toilets”).

In any case, our entire married life has been in the US and it all started at this airport in this country.

We come back to this airport every single year.

Category: Musings, My Family, Vacations | 5 Comments on Back to the future…
20 July 2017

Intersection point before we could even get on to the plane!

The four of us were waiting to board the plane when Sharmila asked me to look behind me. I saw a lady that distinctly looked like somebody I knew from the past but I was not sure since she had her sunglasses on.

I looked at her for a few seconds to see if she would notice me while being on the call that she was on. Again, because of the sun glasses, I was not sure whether she saw us and knew nothing of us or it was indeed Vanessa but she had not seen us yet.

I took a few more attempts and even called out “Vanessa” couple of times.
Without any luck.

Eventually, I concluded that it was somebody else and turned towards the boarding gate waiting our turn.
Till somebody from behind called out “Rajib?”

Well, what do you know? It was indeed my old friend from Canada – Vanessa. I met her over a decade back in Toronto but she lives in south Florida now. In fact, during a previous annual trip to Fort Lauderdale, we, as a family, had met her and her family. Her daughter Gigi was a small baby then.

Vanessa is also a fan of Sharmila’s paintings and I believe a couple of her paintings are on the walls of her house!!

The trip down the road has barely started and we already met a fellow traveler with who, many moons back, we had walked a few steps together …

Category: Intersection Points, Vacations | 1 Comment on Intersection point before we could even get on to the plane!
18 July 2017

Summertime!!!

One of Nikita’s and my favorite late evening pastime is to play trivia and learn random stuff (yesterday, we learnt about the southernmost capital of a country and the actual color of the fur on a polar bear). Today, we played cards by some Citronella lamps in the dark…

Category: My Family | 3 Comments on Summertime!!!
12 July 2017

I wish I could spend some more time with this guy…

Magesh and I have crossed paths multiple times in life – we were in the same engineering college, we have worked in the same company once and we have now lived in the same city twice. In fact, I see him often now since we work out of the same executive office facilities.

Once in a while, we get a chance to grab a drink in the evening. And those meetings are invariably invigorating for the few grey cells that I have left. I remember, a year back having a beer with him and arguing about how to prove which is bigger – e to the power pi or pi to the power e.

Today’s long friendly banter was around whether time is a fundamental concept (he supported this) or an imaginary concept (supported by me). Debating with Magesh is always about learning how smart people like he thinks… I got some great lessons today…

Category: Intersection Points | 1 Comment on I wish I could spend some more time with this guy…
9 July 2017

Touching thank you gesture to all my readers

About a week back, you might have read in my blog or in Facebook my feature on Jessica (“A profile in courage”) and her own writeup (as my first guest writer) on her travails and how she has fought back every inch of life.

Many of you showed your support for her quietly, some by putting comments in my blog, some by voting that you “Like” her fight back story and some more put in encouraging words for her in Facebook.

She has taken great inspiration from your thoughts and words of support. I got this card from her recognizing how much your words have meant to her still ongoing healing process.

I know I post too much. Guilty! Too many of the running pictures, not so funny jokes and what not…. But the realization that my readers and I together, made a difference to somebody wonderful like Jessica, makes it all worthwhile for me.

Allow me to name all the ones who put in encouraging words on my blog and Facebook…

Shout out to all of you that made Jessica’s day and many more of you who did it quietly…

Sri Ganesh (my senior from my first job), Mrs. Bhowmic (my geography teacher in middle school), Sharmila (the one who reminds me how much I post 🙂 ), Amitesh (my alter ego in Atlanta), Ranajoy (my junior from middle and high school), Anushree (my classmate from elementary school), Subho Nath (my runner friend in Atlanta), Sumana Rao (my colleague from i2 days turned personal friend), Geeta Bhandari (my colleague in Mumbai from my first job), Vicky (one of my first colleagues who had the tough job of keeping me honest as my exec admin in i2), Moniruddin (my actual first friend of life), Brandee (my colleague from previous job in Atlanta – who also say right outside where I sat and was the brunt of a lot of my terrible jokes), Nita-di (our friend from Knoxville and my elder daughter’s heroine), Vineet Seth (my colleague from i2), Raja-Gautam (my friend from Atlanta), Debbie (Jessica’s friend), Tracy Fitzpatrick (my colleague from early start up days – another victim of my terrible jokes), Monolina (better half of my classmate from eighth grade), Swami (my peer, friend, philosopher and guide from yesteryears), Sibapriya (classmate from my middle school – and the first one to throw in his words of support for Jessica), MRs. Gurung (my home room teacher of eighth grade), Baisakhi Chakraborty (my friend from school days and a survivor by her own right – from an accidental incident and somebody who I consider lucky to be still on her friend’s list), Dipita (my wife’s classmate), Karen (my colleague from i2 days), Jayanta Biswas (another classmate from middle school), Jyotiswar (yeat another classmate from middle school), Shernaz (my colleague from first job in India), Amy Swotinsky (my colleague from my job in Boston), Sonali (spouse of my frind from middle school), Michele (colleague from my first job in Atlanta) and Lisa (colleague from my job in Boston).

I am really really proud that people like you who made a difference to Jessica count me as your friend!!

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2 July 2017

Who would have guessed?

There was no way any of us would have ever guessed on the day after our tenth standard when the three of us went three different ways that we would actually come together under the same roof thirty four years later. With our spouses with us! In a country on the other side of the world!! In a winery up in the mountains!!

We were barely sixteen years then. The gap in between has been more than twice the number of years we had lived till then!!! As you can see from the middle picture, there was a lot of catching up to do!!!

That was a great afternoon with Manny (Manbir), Virginia, Subrata, Sharmistha, Sharmila. We also got to meet Manny’s daughter Simran and his niece Harneet!!

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