In fact, Andrea was one of the people who originally convinced me to move from Dallas to Atlanta (for job). After she left Atlanta, I had not seen her for nearly 15 years. We fixed that problem today!
It was great to see her today, learn about her life journeys and the lessons from life she has drawn so far!
Two years back, on this day, around this time, I had called my brother. Like I had done every morrning for many, many years. Instead of the usual pleasantries, his immediate question was “Khobor peyechhis?” (“Did you get the news?”)
In a flash, I knew what must have happened. Dad was in his last legs shuttling between nursing home and home almost weekly. He had lost his will to live for over five years. Mom dying a few weeks back had added unthinkable amount of psychological pain to him over and top of the physical ones he was enduring.
“Andaaj kortey paarchi”, (“I can guess”) I said after a brief pause. Somewhat relieved that dad might have finally been released from all his anguish and granted his wish to die.
“Thik aachey, tora bero. Sabdhaaney jaas.”, (“Ok. You guys go ahead. Stay safe.”) I told my brother. They were getting ready to go to my dad’s place to take care of all the last rites and formalities.
The one regret was that my visa to India had not arrived yet. In spite of getting my second vaccination a week before, I was not able to make it to India to see him one last time since my special visa had not processed yet.
Which was a bit of an anti-climactic end to the once-a-quarter trip I used to make to see him. Honestly though, if the actual suffering he was going thru was even a fraction of what I could see in our video calls, I did not want him to drag one for even one more minute waiting for me to get my visa. I was content to live with the memories of those near 50 visits to see him before the pandemic.
That said, “Ekbaar aay. Ma maara jaabaar por dekha hoyni”, (“Please come once. I have not seen you after losing your mother”) – those words from the previous night over the video call rankle my mind till this day and I wake up at nights with cold sweat.
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The first ever picture I have with dad (circa 1966) and the last ever picture I have (a few weeks before the world shut down in 2020)
Seems to tolerate all my bad jokes better than other family members. Tuey is very friendly and full of gratitude. You can see his rather pronounced level of thankfulness when I offered him a treat Sharmila had sent from Atlanta.
This brings to mind an old Mark Twain quote: “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”
It was early 2019, I think. I had walked into the bar at the hotel I was staying in after a long day of work. The idea was to clear out some emails over drinks and then grab dinner at the bar. Except that it was very noisy at the bar that evening.
I packed up my stuff and went to the formal dining restaurant next door – called Seared. The restaurant was empty. As was the bar inside. Except Tom – the bartender.
I sat there and started chatting with Tom. I remember never opening up my laptop to do emails. I spent the whole evening chatting with Tom.
Even today, if I stay in that hotel, every evening, I make a beeline to him and ask him for his special Old Fashioned!!
Janice and I go back to virtually the first time I started staying in the Itasca Westin. I remember the years when she was taking care of her mother and we used to exchange stories of what both our parents were going thru in old age. You might remember the incident where she was instrumental in retrieving my sun glasses that I had left in the JW Marriott in Marco island!
I am going to miss her a lot!
I distinctly remember the day. It was Sunday, July the 10th, 1983. Nearly 40 years back. It was so far back that there was no such thing as an Apple Macintosh at that time. Compact Discs (“CD”s) were going to be soon introduced.
On that day, I landed up in my first residential school. I was 16 years old. My friend from middle school – Pratik and I became room mates in the dorm of our new school. We set up our room after reaching around noon and then ventured out to bid our dads goodbye. They had come to help us out and had to go back home – which was about five hours away.
Our room had a third bed. We were curious who our other room mate was going to be.
When we came back to our room. there was a lady who was setting up the third bed by herself. I figured that was our room mate’s mom. I introduced myself. She told us about Rahul Guha – her son, and our new room mate.
She asked us about our backgrounds, our families and filled us in with Rahul’s details. Rahul, in the meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. He had gone to look for his old friends. (Rahul had studied in that same school in his earlier years; hence was very familiar with the campus).
Finally, Mrs. Guha offered us a lot of sweets. Which we readily grabbed.
Over the next two years, I had the chance to visit Mrs. Guha at her residence in Kolkata a few times. Usually a few of us – Dip and Navin come to mind immediately – would land up at Rahul’s place to have a good time and some delicious food.
Rahul and I then went our separate ways in 1985 after finishing high school. I did get a chance to meet him once in Jadavpur in the ‘80s and then a few years back when he was in Atlanta for work.
As it turns out, Rahul came to the US in 1991 and spent most of his time in New York and Boston.
A couple of years back, he moved to Chicago. While wishing him happy birthday the other week. I realized that Mrs. Guha was visiting him.
I am sure by now you have guessed that I fox trotted to his house moment work took me to Chicago. The three of us talked a lot about our old times and that house in Kolkata. It was incredibly exciting to see Mrs. Guha after so many years. The only downside was that I missed Mr. Guha – who we unfortunately lost a few months back!!
Like those good old days, this day too, Mrs. Guha made a cup of tea for us. With the unforgettable Bourbon biscuits (no relation to the brown alcohol) from India, no less!!
Hope to see Mrs. Guha again when I am in New Delhi next time!!
