23 March 2024

End of an era: Aug 9, 2007 – Mar 23, 2024

Aug 9, 2007: The day the car came into my garage for the first time (top pic)
Mar 23, 2024: The day the car pulled out of my garage for the last time (bottom pic)

For a person who thinks of a car as a simple object to take him from point A to point B safely, I have an inexplicable emotional attachment to my cars. For some reason that is beyond logic, I refuse to give up on them even when they are way past being safe.

After I came to this country in 1993, my first car was a Honda Civic. By the time I gave up on it 14 years later in 2007, it had more pockmarks on its body from hailstorms in Dallas than two small pox afflicted felines battling themselves till the referee called it a draw. The lit up, flashing dashboard made me reminisce of Diwali everyday, the electronics to pull the windows up and down were long gone and towards the end I had to pump the brakes every 30 seconds at a red light in the rolling hills of Atlanta to prevent it from rolling. That is when Sharmila took the car decision off my hands. She called in Reddy from Dallas and Joydeep from Minneapolis to physically get rid of my car and help me buy a new one.

Atlanta is such a city that you can enjoy the roof down in a car nearly 8 to 9 months a year. So, I got this convertible as the second car of my life. It was lying in the dealer’s lot as previous year’s demo car. Believe it or not, as small as the car is, all four of us came back from the dealer to our home squeezed in that car. With the roof open, of course. We were literally spilling out of the car from all sides.

Once I got past my mom’s question of what would I do if it started raining (strangely enough, she was satisfied by my answer that I carry a big umbrella with me) and my dad’s disappointment that for so much money I got only two doors, the rest of the ride has been fairly smooth.

It lacked all the modern safety features – reverse camera, side car presence warning, lane slip warning and all that. No USB charger, no bluetooth either!!! But it could merrily play a cassette tape, if you could grab one.

After being together for 17 years and spending nearly 220,000 miles (350,000 kms) together on the road – mostly by ourselves – I finally bade adieu!!

It will take me some time to get over this.

Category: My Family | LEAVE A COMMENT
23 March 2024

Look who I ran into!

It was a glorious morning. Sharmila, Jay Jay and I went out for a longer walk than usual. On the way back, stopped by Valor Coffee to pick up a cappuccino. Sharmila and Jay Jay waited outside while I went in. I was third in line.

So far everything was as I would expect. Then I noticed the gentleman standing second in line. Right in front of me…

“Alex?”

He turned around. It was indeed him!

We used to work together many, many moons back. In fact, he was one of the first professionals I met in 2007 when we moved to Atlanta. Over the next few years, I proceeded to learn a lot of strategy and strategic marketing from Alex. He was our CMO then.

I even remember running a 5K one afternoon in a race somewhere in Johns Creek area with his family!

It was great to see Alex after such a long time!!

Category: Intersection Points | LEAVE A COMMENT
22 March 2024

It is amazing how the brain works!!

This is one more of my friends from the hospice. She has a different real name but she wants me to call her Pauline. A nonagenarian by age, a lot of her cognitive functions are lost. Her brain often misfires leading her to talk to her stuffed cat or relatives that have been long gone.

Except when you put a piano in front of her!! I did not even know that. I was sitting with her in the lobby when one of the staff members mentioned that the facility has a new piano and my friend can play it. I pushed her in her wheelchair to the piano expecting her to fiddle with it.

While I am not familiar with all the songs she played, they were certainly mellifluous – and this is important – she was absolutely keeping to the rhythm of the beats. Her brain clearly knew how to keep count of intervals of time. She got so excited that she had me take videos of her – while she sang full throated to the tunes she played!!

After every song, she would step back and say something like “I heard you play this” which of course meant there was a part of her brain that was misfiring again. All I had to do is encourage her for one more. She would pull her wheelchair up to the piano again and start playing.

And I am not talking about one or two songs. Her memory function for music was sharp enough to remember at least 8 different songs!!

It is amazing how complex our brains are. But it is also instructive to realize that even if some parts of the brain of an elderly person (some of us have had parents go thru this phase) have deteriorated, there are other parts that can absolutely thrill the person and take them to their happy zones! Trick is to find out what it is.

Category: In Transit | LEAVE A COMMENT