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….