20 April
2014
18 April
2014
“Intersection points” getting popular
I was just wrapping up my call with Sharmila before jumping onto the flight to New York when I saw good old Shahid and his family walking past me. You may remember him from an old post and picture of the two of us sharing shayars and ghazals in a bar somewhere in Bombay after customer meetings.
In any case, I finished out with Sharmila immediately and yelled out for Shahid. He saw me, brought his family to introduce to me and guess what his first words were? “Another Intersection Point”, he said!!!!
I am like. “Yess!! I am going to start a cult”. 🙂
Anyways, it was great to meet Shahid, Munira and the kids!!!
17 April
2014
Another intersection point!!!
Here is another friend who created an intersection point for me. Had not seen Surajit in a long time. He was in Atlanta for work and he managed to find some time between both our packed schedule to have a drink together. Or two!!
You can see us in some animated discussion around the larger meaning of life and what should be our focus be given all our learnings from life!!
13 April
2014
Intersection Point on a Sunday morning
Full credit to Kaushik and Anwesha for us being able to create this intersection point. Last couple of trips to Boston, we just could not get our timetables to match. Therefore, I was delighted when they let us know that they would be in Atlanta for an event. This time we got together and had a great time catching up and adda and laughter!!!!
12 April
2014
Caricature of me!!
11 April
2014
Intersection Point – Navin Saxena!!!
Navin Saxena!!!
Became very close to him in 1983-85. Then lost touch. Had a fleeting glance of him in 1994. And then lost him again. Decades later today, managed to catch him in his own lair – or at least his hometown.
Early morning today, in Atlanta airport, called up Rahul in New York to enquire if he had some contacts of Navin in Portland. Six hours later, landed in Portland, called Navin and surprised him by saying I was in town. At the end of the day after all the meetings were done, went to have dinner with him and his family. Missed his daughter who was out of town for a tennis tournament.
So many fond memories came back from the past – we were in junior and senior (high school) together. Those studies in hostels… the cricket games in dorm courtyard… those common friends… the trip to Dip’s house in New Chumta tea estate … visiting Navin’s house (my first exposure to a swimming pool and playing tennis), Rahul’s house (Kolkata), Rajeev’s house (Asansol), Rakesh’s house (Hind Motor)… the paper clipping that his parents had saved that had his and my picture next to each other (we had done not so bad in our high school exams). [my parents even today have that clipping of our picture together in the newspaper]…
The only sad moment was learning about his dad’s demise. He was very nice to me that one time I had visited them in their house.
It was a magical time. I was so absorbed in catching up with him and following his successes that I did not get much of a chance to get to know his lovely wife and really smart son a little more….
It was great to sit down with him for a couple of hours and talk like those days … nearly thirty years back.
9 April
2014
Nikispeak again!
This time it was after security check in Orlando airport. Nikita and I went thru TSA PreCheck and breezed thru in fifteen seconds. As we were waiting for Sharmila and Natasha to clear thru the normal security lines, I jokingly suggested to Nikita “Let’s take the train and go to the terminal. They have their boarding passes with them. They can always come there by themselves”.
She got extremely concerned by my attitude. “Dad, you have no heart”!
And in three seconds added, “Just like your hair”
🙂
9 April
2014
Nikispeak this morning
Niki and I were discussing geometry as we waited at the airport. We were talking about octagons when she excitedly said “You know dad, how I remember that octagon has eight sides”? I asked her “How”?
“Remember octo-mom? She had eight babies. That’s how”, she said!
And in my mind I went “I wish I had such props to remember my math when I was growing up” 🙂
9 April
2014
Intersection point in Florida
While vacationing in Orlando, found out (thanks to FB) that good old Hari was in town for a conference. A few months back, I had met him after over twenty years. Had promised not to let another twenty years go by before we meet again. No challenge there!!
Sharmila captured some moments during our discussions at a bar – you can see that they were as intense as the good old days!!! 🙂
6 April
2014
One more intersection point…
What good is a vacation if not to see somebody you have not seen for over 12 years? Found out that Vijay Ramachandran lives within an hour of where we are vacationing. I did not have a car but he was gracious enough to drive down with his family. Had almost four hours of great time with his family.
Talking to Vijay after such a long time, I was reminded of one of the core reasons why i2 had succeeded – it had one heck of a bunch of really smart guys. Vijay was Exhibit A!!!
It was great to meet his family who I had never seen before. Sitting with his daughter and son on the boardwalk of Hollywood Beach eating pizza reminded me of an identical situation when my kids were that age and Sharmila and myself had pizza at the same place nine years back!!!!!
