2 January 2014

The world gets smaller…

Last day in India. As I finished up my breakfast meeting with Shridhar (more on this 100 country backpacker later) and started saying goodbye in the Executive Lounge of JW, guess who walks in with that characteristic unforgettable smile of his?

Deep Bhattacharya from Shanghai!!

I met him in Atlanta thru a common friend more than a year back and ran together in Fowler Park. And then I run into him in Bombay!! Apparently he has checked into this hotel too!!

Unfortunately, both of us had to run… but these are the fleeting moments of interaction points that make our lives so enriched!!!!

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31 December 2013

Till we meet again…

One by one, everybody left. First, my father in law and mother in law left. (Dad had a great time since he finally got a chance to talk to somebody from Durgapur for a couple of days). Then my sister and her family left for vacation. Now my brother and I am leaving with our families. Two days of 15 people together quickly got reduced to 2. I can only imagine how they were feeling as they trudged back to their flat all by themselves. With only each other to support thru the pangs of departure…

Btw, dad had again come down and stationed himself on a chair outside the building gate so that he could say Goodbye.

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30 December 2013

Why the street dogs chase me…

On our way to my birthplace, we stopped at a tea stall for some tea. The first thing my animal loving siblings did was to find out the nearest street dog and fed it cookies bought from the tea stall owner. And then played with it. No wonder they chase me every time I run. I am sure they recognize me as my siblings’ brother and expect cookies…

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30 December 2013

Sharmila has nothing on me now :-)

You guys are aware how I love finding out my old friends, connections, people I knew etc, right? Well, Sharmila is certainly no fan of that. She thinks I overdo it. (Not that I am claiming causality – just pointing out the correlation that if the old connection is of opposite gender, she thinks I am totally crazy ๐Ÿ™‚ )

However, her dad – my father in law – was very impressed how I tracked down Khokon after 37 years. He was also impressed by how Facebook, GPS etc has helped me. Sensing his excitement, I suggested that he should try the same thing.

Yesterday, when I was bringing my family back to Kalyani to my parents’ place, the in-laws (dad and mom) also joined us. My father-in-law mentioned that he has heard that one of his college friends (he passed in 1957) lives in Kalyani.

This was a reasonably easy search – his friend’s son went to college with my brother in law. A couple of phone calls later, we had my father-in-law’s friend’s address.

This morning I walked him to that address and asked him to have a good time and call me if he needed to be picked back. He came back with his friend three hours later – evidently after having a whale of a time. They met after 56 years!!! That beats my 37 year record with Khokon hands down!!

I requested a picture of them that I could put on Facebook. They gladly obliged.

I asked Sharmila what she thought about all this. I got some cold water thrown on my face ๐Ÿ™

Whatever, dudette, your dad thinks I am cool!!!

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30 December 2013

Chalu-pa run across the continents

The Sunday morning Bengali running group was on vacation. However, everybody ran at 8 am on Sunday in a virtual Chalupa run. The first five pictures are from a few members running on the beaches of Florida, the next two are Sudakshina and Manas doing the authentic run in Atlanta and the last one is myself and my brother running in India. Apparently distance cannot separate our running together spirit….

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28 December 2013

Prized find!!

As I posted in my last blog, my brother and I dragged my mom and my sister to visit my mom’s second youngest sister (“masi”) and her husband (“meso”). The village that they live in – Kakgachhi – is barely 26 miles away. It took us two hours one way to drive there!!! We surely encountered more square feet of potholes than that of road surface!!

But it was great to see my mom so happy to see her sister after decades. And I scored an invaluable prize too!

On a hunch, I asked “meso” if he still had his wedding pictures. Not knowing my ultimate interest, he was overjoyed by my interest in seeing his wedding pictures. This goes back to 1980. He brought in an old dusty album!

Ultimately, my Machiavellian scheme worked out!! After painstakingly going thru pages and pages of photos, I found one that I was hoping to find!!

That is me in the row behind with the glasses on. The girl next to me is my sister. The lady in front of her left hand is my mom! And the lady on her left is the “masi” who we visited today!!!!

That is me in 1980!!!!

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