The Buck stopped here ;-)

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…

Category: Intersection Points | 1 Comment

22 March 2014

Nikispeak early in the morning!

Early this morning Niki and I woke up and we sat in her bedroom chatting in hushed tones so the rest of the house would not wake up. During the one hour chat, the topic came up about a livecam set up by Berry College in an eagle’s nest that she saw. (You can show your kids, it is very cute : www.berry.edu/eaglecam).
In any case, she was excitedly telling me about the egg hatching and the mom taking care of the baby eagle, feeding it and all that. Then, she mentioned that in the evening, the “husband” eagle flew in.

Barely concealing my amusement, I asked her how did she conclude that it was the “husband” eagle?

Niki just shrugged her shoulders and said “Oh! It was constantly fighting the mother eagle”!!!!

I conceded that no further proof is required 🙂

Category: Humor, My Family | 15 Comments

17 March 2014

An evening at Milton’s

Every Sunday Sharmila and I have our date night at Milton’s. When you go to the same bar every week for years you tend to get to know the folks at the bar and their families and many of the regular customers (and Sharmila too 🙂 ). And that is part of the charm of our date nights. Without Milton’s our date nights would not be as memorable.

Case in point: Today’s featured singer Jamie was merrily singing and I was focusing on my Bourbon, when a small kid – he could not have been more than three years old – escaped from his parents and strolled into the bar area. As if on a cue, Jamie started singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. As the kid watched Jamie mesmerized, all the folks in the bar spontaneously gathered around the kid and Jamie and joined in the song. Eventually, the harried dad who must have realized his son was missing appeared on the scene too!! After the song, everybody clapped loudly and went back to their seats laughing!!!

It is these impromptu moments in life that gives you what scripted schedule can never give you – they sense of some unique moments that probably will not repeat again!!

Category: Musings, My Family | 3 Comments

13 March 2014

Unexpected intersection point!

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….

Category: Intersection Points | LEAVE A COMMENT

13 March 2014

My cool friends

Most twenty somethings find me very weird. This is no different than thirty somethings or forty somethings 🙂 However, there are two folks – Shruthi and her boyfriend Hank who actually seek to meet me whenever they are in Atlanta. I know Shruthi’s dad from 1991 and have actually seen this young lady grow up from a few days old to the fine lady she is now.

I was very excited that they would spend an hour with me today. I find both of them very classy (I cannot think of too many kids that age writing hand written letters to thank me for an evening of discussing job choices and professional guidance. Most don’t bother to write a nice email).

Had a great hour with both of them at a local Starbucks. Made me realize how much smarter young folks these days are compared to when I was their age! As an example of how smart they are, Shruthi was narrating the story of a recent job interview she had gone to and how the interviewer reminded her of me. When asked how so, she went at length to describe how she found him to be a weirdo 🙂

I was so proud of myself, I asked the Starbucks lady to write my name as “Weirdo” 🙂

I wish I could many more hours with these really great kids!!

Category: Our Friends | 2 Comments

9 March 2014

Daylight Savings and my Mom

We had just finished the Sunday morning group run. I had a twenty minute drive home. Decided to make my daily call to mom from the car. So far so good. But, at a moment of indiscretion, I let her know about the clocks being reset today in US due to Daylight Savings. And then for the next ten minutes, I had to try my best explaining day light savings to somebody who has never been exposed to day light savings. She had quite a few questions and you could see that she was getting really confused with the whole concept. I think the core question she was trying to get past was “Why bother? It is not saving you any time”.

Finally, I tried explaining the practical ramifications. For example, when we ran today, it was much darker than last Sunday since today’s 8 am was last Sunday’s 7am. For a few moments she was very quiet. I figured she was now getting the hang of it. And I was sure the next thing she was going to ask would be a worried question like – “So, you did not sleep well last night?” or “Did you ever miss a flight due to this?”.

Instead, her question was “Khaabi ki ghori dhorey?” (“Are you going to have your lunch by the clock time”?). Only my Mom!! Only she can cut thru all the confusion of this stupid thing that sounds like you will save some time when you don’t and get to the central essence of her entire existence – “When will my son get to eat”?

I was so taken aback that I myself took a few seconds to process it. And then desperately trying to muffle my laughter, I offered “Keno? Khidey pele kheye nebo”. (“Why? I will eat when I feel hungry”). Even she admitted, after a few seconds of due consideration that given all the complications of daylight savings her son has to suffer thru, his logic was as sound as it will ever get!!

Heaven help all Indian moms if and when India ever switches to day light savings!!!

Category: Family in India, Humor | 6 Comments

8 March 2014

Rendition of Princess

Taking advantage of 70 degree temperatures and abundant sunlight, Nikita tried her hand at chalk paintings all over the driveway. Here is her chalk rendition of our dog Princess. Few minutes after taking this picture, Princess actually came by. She does not look like she was amused 🙂

Category: My Family, Our Best Friend | 2 Comments

6 March 2014

Nikispeak again!!

So, there is a Miley Cyrus show coming up. And I asked my usual question to the girls (by SMS) if they wanted to go. (I never go but many times they show up for all these concerts). I was anyways wary of exposing any of the girls (including Sharmila 😉 ) to “twerking” (I think that is the word, right?). So I asked the question in a negative way.

Again, Niki’s response was hilarious. I so wish this firecracker would remain 10 years old for ever!!!!

Here, see her response for yourself…

Category: Humor, My Family | LEAVE A COMMENT

6 March 2014

Nikispeak

After two very tiring days in Dallas and then rushing back for a customer dinner yesterday, I was dog tired and late to bed last night. Decided to change up my routine this morning – slept in till 6 am and then had a leisurely coffee at home instead of going for a run and all that. And since I had missed Nikita’s birthday day before (I was on the road), offered to accompany her to school today.

While driving there, I opened with an ice breaker – “Can you think of some
English words that have three consecutive vowels?”. She gave me one long look, answered “Aaaaaaah”and “Wheeeeee” and then closed her eyes!!!! But not before reminding me “No more academic questions before school hours”!!!

Needless to say, the rest of the trip was very quiet and decidedly vowel-less!!!!

Category: Humor, My Family | 6 Comments

5 March 2014

Some more intersection points…

Before hitting the sack last night, there was just enough time to meet some more of my old friends. Got a chance to meet Willie Weng and Greg Yut from my old code development days in i2.

Greg drove for over half an hour very late at night and Willie came straight from the airport after his business trip on his way home to meet up. Can you imagine what our important topic of discussion was? It was not about life, learnings or much about our old friends (well, a little). We spent most of the time discussing the frustrations of having to deal with teenager kids!! Between the three of us, we have six of them (Greg takes the lion’s share with four :-)).

Heaven knows, we have become like our dads!!! 🙂

Again, it was great seeing two of my most memorable friends from early days of my career with whom I got a chance to work on a daily basis and learn a lot!!!