“But why, Rajib”?
“Because this is unsustainable”
“Okay. Let me finish it this weekend. I will stop next weekend.”
“Put your laptop away right now. Go do something outside. We will talk on Monday morning.”

That Monday morning was a long talk with Bob. It is not an easy job to explain to a 5 percenter from Accenture and a successful executive in a start up company that had a great exit why six successive weekends of work at office is not a sign of success, it is a sign of a problem.

It began a journey of working with Bob on how not to miss the big picture. He was way overweight. In these days of hyper HR consciousness, it is difficult to tell an employee that they need to take care of themselves – for the company’s sake and for sure for their family and own’s sake. But I absolutely blurted out the truth in a one on one.

My message was clear: “At your level, Bob, I care less about what you do over the weekend and more about how alert are you on Monday morning to make sound decisions. But I will go with your take”.

Like I said, that started a journey. It did not happen overnight. Slowly but surely, Bob saw life as I see it. Above all, he started valuing quality over quantity. He changed a lot of habits. Got onto a routine that helped him drop an astounding 60 pounds. Started sleeping better and not coming into office sleepy on a Monday morning. As you must have guessed, his professional career started flourishing too.

Somewhere, in his journey, there was a fork and I went a different way. But caught back up with him this evening since I was around his digs for a business meeting. It was just so great to learn from his journey. I took in a lot of lessons about his experiments with meditation. Having won the physical fitness challenge, he is trying the mental exercise part.

Funny part? On his career front, he has grown unabated. And that was the lesson for me. Every time I think you cannot have a balanced growth in life in corporate America, I remind myself of Bob Castle!!

She might have become a world renowned doctor flying to Dubai and Las Vegas at the drop of a hat to talk at local conferences that apparently doctors hold at high esteem – but to me she is the same friend I made about 30 years back. In spite of coming from the same small town Durgapur (once again apologies to the other renowned Durgapurian – Mr. Dubey for referring to Durgapur as a “small town” 🙂 ) and being in the same batch, I somehow never got to know Piyali while in Durgapur. We never crossed paths in school or in social circles.

After having met a common friend in her college, I happened to be headed in the same direction as she was going to go for her dancing class. In an apparently misguided moment of judgment, our common friend Madhumolli vouchsafed my character to escort her thru the streets of Kolkata. These were days of wearing shorts and going around barefoot in India. (Wait a minute! I see the same in the picture now too!! 🙂 )

And as Piyali has pointed out later, she had heard about me from other friends and our first meeting was the biggest disappointment in her life 🙂 (This is a true story). In her defense, she has not been much appointed with me in our subsequent meetings either 🙂

As today, so then too, I was a guy who would reach out to anybody who would give me some time. (And for some, I did not even hold that strict a standard 🙂 ). Over the years, I got to know her husband, her two sons and my brother and I would drop by her house for a cup of tea (and once for dinner) if we happened to be driving somewhere nearby in Kolkata.

This year she was in US for one of those conferences and I managed to meet up with her while she was visiting some friends and family in Carbondale, IL. On the surface, you might be surprised how we became friends in spite of having virtually nothing in common. But one thing I have admired her for and still try to inculcate in myself – her ability to refuse to follow the crowd and live life her own way. I have rarely seen somebody capable of that much independent thinking and have the humility to not impose it on others.

One of these days, I might actually learn like her to live life on my own terms. Maybe, she will finally br “appointed” with me 🙂 I know, I will be!!

We had an evening flight back to Atlanta. That allowed me to catch up on my work during the day and the girls to hit the common shopping spots in Dallas area (can you say Sam Moon? 🙂 ) before we headed back. Walking into the Delta Sky Club with the family, I was wondering if Nancy would be there. I was hopeful since I seemed to recollect that she always did the evening shift. If you remember – last year, I had met Nancy – that lady from Copenhagen – and had written about her great life journey. (See “The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.” ) . Initially, I looked around and I could not find her. The girls went out – no points for guessing – to do some more shopping and I got busy with the day ending office calls.

Eventually, I shut down the phone and walked up to the bar for a drink – and guess who was there? Nancy came out and we talked for a long time and caught up with her life since I had met her last time. She was excited that she was going to see her grandparents this month in Scranton, PA. (If you recollect, she lost her daughter to cancer last year). She seemed as jolly and full of life as I had seen her last year. She seemed to be very happy with her job in Delta (again, if you remember, she started as a volunteer a few years back after losing her husband and daughter).

Apparently she got very excited about my previous blog about her and she had shown it to her manager who had sent it to Delta headquarters Marketing department. She was very surprised to learn that I do not write for a living!! Maybe I will give it a shot some time!!

In the meanwhile, the family had returned and Nancy spent quite some time with the girls (Natasha and Nikita) and Sharmila. Finally, we took the customary picture together before leaving. And I have added the inset with the old picture of me and Nancy in it. She gave the best compliment before we left – “You guys have become my family from Atlanta”!!

Hope to come back to Dallas soon!