If I have mentioned this once, I have mentioned this many times that twenty three years of travel has taken its own toll on me but the unique experiences I have gained on the road has made it totally worthwhile. Of all those experiences, the ones that I absolutely love are those that involve meeting complete strangers on the road.

Each and one of them has had a story to tell. Each of them has had a very interesting journey in life and after every meeting, I have left with a great sense of satisfaction that my path in life intersected with theirs. Today, I met another such unique person.

I was in Milwaukee on my perhaps-last-business-travel for the year. I needed to meet my colleague Mark – who is also our CFO and COO – and get a lot of things knocked off before the holiday season started. Mark, being a very organized person, was there in the hotel at 7:30 sharp and one by one we kept finishing up the long list of things he had for us to discuss and decide.

Towards the end, we had moved near the bar of the hotel and were getting things done at a great pace. But I was also getting tired. That is when I decided to completely frustrate Mark and get distracted by talking to this lady who had been sitting at the bar for about an half hour or so by then.

“So, where are you visiting from?”, I started in my traditional way.
“Key West”
“Key West? I used to live in Coral Springs”
“I know that place”
“Did you fly out of Miami?”
“No, I drove here.”
“YOU DROVE HERE???”, I asked somewhat incredulously. “That is what – seventeen hours?”
“Ummm.. more like twenty six hours”, she said making short shrift of my knowledge of Geography

I figured that it must have been an interesting drive. As a background, Sharmila, Natasha and Nikita are driving to Dallas during the holidays without me and I have been trying to find out hotels on the way where they can stop over. That would be an eleven hour drive.

“Where all did you stop over?”, I asked remembering the above.
“Oh! I came straight up.”
“You came straight up? You have not slept for over a day?”
“Yes. I sleep less”
“How old are you?”
“62”

For a moment, I was dumbfounded. 62 and she drove 26 hours straight out flat.

“Don’t you feel lonely on the drives after some time?”, I had to ask.

Then I got to know Claudia a lot more deeply. Having suffered an alcoholic father during her formative ages, she fled home at the age of 16. Got married at the age of 17. Got divorced at the age of 22. And then fought her way back in life.

Remember Mark? Well, by now, even he had forgotten about our office work. At some point, the sheer energy of the discussion had sucked him in. And good thing too. For, eventually, we found out that Claudia had worked in GE for some and was the personal admin for the same person that became Mark’s boss in GE (much later though). Speak of intersections!!!

We had a great time learning how she, one day decided that she had had enough of the local cold weather and and thirty four inches of snow and went off to Florida. And she comes back to meet her family in this area….

Eventually, Mark and I had to get back to the last parts of our work.

Such people and such stories have always been great inspirations for me as I have crisscrossed the world for work. Fighting adversity and living life in your own terms – that is what it is all about. We are all given a different deck of cards. We do not get to control that. What we do get to control is what we do with those cards. It is all about playing them with class and vigor…

So, if anyone of you see a BMW X3 driving down southbound I-75 in a few more days with the lady in the picture driving it, do not forget to give her two thumbs up.

And I hope you now understand, why I cannot wait for the new year to come around – I need to foxtrot to the airport in the hope of meeting a few more great human beings and learn from…

I had just finished my evening stretches and was glancing thru my FB status updates when a particular one stopped me right in my tracks. It was an update from my best friend from school days – Avijit Bose. He had posted a picture of his dad who left us three years to the day. There was a heartfelt message Avijit had written that moved me no end.

Avijit being my best friend, many a morning, afternoon and evening was spent in each other’s houses. As two young kids, we could not be any more different. Be it in sports, popularity with boys and girls of that age or general street smartness, he was head and heels above me. I was the nerd of the two of us but I held my ground on the basis of my school grades. Or so I would like to believe.

And that is an important point because Mr. Bose used to always highlight my grades and ask me to encourage my friend to study. I used to be like – “Are you kidding me, kaku? He is doing fine. Now, can you ask him to teach me how he makes everybody laugh?”. Avijit was and still is one of the funniest guys around. I was and still am awkward as hell. But I was and still am inspired by his sense of humor.

I was treated as nothing short of their own son by Mr. and Mrs. Bose. They took me to their relatives’ places when they used to visit them during vacation times. I got to know Avijit’s extended family and wherever it was, Mr. Bose would check on me ever so often to make sure I was feeling at home.

Now, as awkward as I was, there was one thing that attracted me from a very early age and that was Indian music. Specially classical. Mr. Bose was an accomplished flute player. I could sit endlessly listening to him play the flute. Avijit – who was a great tabla player – would sometimes play with him. There was this incident where both of them were invited artists to a program and got onto the stage to play. Uncle saw me sitting in the crowd and I am not sure what overtook him, but he called me to the stage over the public address system and asked me sit next to him and play an instrument. Now, that instrument did not need much playing – I simply had to hold on to a couple of notes. But I felt very proud of myself that was on the stage for a public performance.

Much later did I truly understand how great it was of him to realize what such a gesture would mean to me. For the record, that instrument could also be put in a auto play mode!!

There are many many such small incidents of he always being very nice to me. Above all, he treated me as a family member. There were many things Avijit was not allowed to do… except when I was going to be with him too! He put an incredibly blind faith in me.

Mr. Bose was also a chain smoker. The constant flute playing and the smoking finally did him in. Three years to this day.

When I saw my friend’s post, an immediate pang of realization shot through me … and that is of all those missed chances to say Thank you to Mr. Bose. Of late, I have made it my life’s mission to meet as many of those elderly gentlemen and ladies in India who touched my life in so many ways. For all that I still realize a harsh reality for myself…. So much is owed. So little gratitude has been shown…

Mr. Bose, thank you for being a part of my life. In many ways, today, I am who I am because of how you influenced me. I just want you to know that in so many ways you influenced me that I believe you still live thru me…