On our usual stroll in the evening in downtown Alpharetta saw this Indian couple sitting on the side wall. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be none other than the Raos. Came around and saw their mom and cousins were sitting there too!

Ah! Those coffee-fueled mornings and deadline-crazed nights! Distant memories as they were, they were the only bonds we needed to thread these dozen odd ex-i2ers living in Atlanta together celebrating Hiten’s visit from Singapore.

Stories flowed, laughter echoed (is there anything else that happens when Jim Wilson is around?) and the years in between simply melted away. As I have always professed, we forget numbers, we forget product names… but we always remember the faces, the words spoken and the nostalgic moments.

Jobs change, paths diverge, colleagues move on. The bonds built over sweat equity along the way are timeless though!

Here’s to shared memories, inside jokes and friendships that will outlast any cubicle wall!

I had parked my motorbike, taken my helmet off and had just walked into the coffee shop. Immediately, I started scanning the patrons for somebody I was scheduled to meet. This was my first meeting with the person – so I was very focused on doing some pattern matching with the Linkedin picture I had seen of him.

And then in a jiffy, my eyes did a quick retrace as I thought I saw somebody all smiles at me. Sure enough!! It was good old Stacy working at a table!

We had become friends when I used to work out of Roam. You might remember some of her incredible cappuccino art from some of my old posts.

She had then moved to a new job. And today I got to see her for the first time after that!

That was a great start to the morning!

First time I met Laura was at work around 2007 when we had moved to Atlanta.

Then Sharmila and I paid her a visit in her house in Chile around 2011.

In 2017, Laura moved to Atlanta and I got a chance to meet her in a coffee shop in Alpharetta. And then, although all these years we have lived within a few miles of each other, we never managed to meet.

Till today, of course! We met in another coffee shop in Alpharetta literally a few steps from that old spot. It was a great reminder how much downtown Alpharetta has changed in these few years!

It was one dark morning I had run with Natasha with the rest of the Windward Road Runners group. And that started a friendship that has lasted for two decades – although we have run together only a few times after that day.

Sharmila and I met her in Qatar in few years back and even before that I met Natasha and her mother outside Doha airport while switching flights. And for the last few summers, I have enjoyed meeting her and her younger son Matteo when they visit Atlanta. I learn every time from both of them.

Today was that evening for this summer!