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!

While vacationing in Belize three years back, I got a message from an old colleague Patrick Butler – who at that moment was in Nepal that I should go meet his old friend Giovanni – who was a bar owner there and ask him to make his special cocktail. So, Sharmila and I took a 50 minute golf cart ride to reach this much-advertised beach – ironically called Secret Beach.

While minding our own business in the waters there, we noticed an young couple nearby. To give them some space, we started moving away. We did not go far. The gentleman called us and asked if we could take a video of them dancing. To which we readily obliged.

Of course, a call to take a photo or video in Rajib-speak translates to a life time of friendship! We got to know Sara Marie and Lee and their fascinating journey that evening. And ever since, we have kept up thru birthdays.

Lee’s is an incredible life story of pain and ultimate triumph of happiness. I am a big follower of his writings in Facebook and Linkedin. I have never – literally never – seen anybody that matches his gracious attitude and magnanimity!

I got an interesting request from Sara Marie today (it is Lee’s birthday today). Apparently Lee is a very difficult person to find a gift for. So, she did something very personal. She wrote up about him in her own words.

And reached out to me to see if I could publish it in my blog!!

If you go to the Guest Writer section of my blog, you will see this heartfelt piece from her… https://www.rajibroy.com/2025/08/04/from-orphaned-in-korea-to-lighting-up-the-world/

It is Lee’s birthday!

And Sara Marie’s gift!!

But I was asked to put it in my blog!!

I assert I am the happiest of them all today!!!

Sara Marie and Lee, we are incredibly lucky that such a chance meeting happened to us. We got to know two very special people!!