Made two new friends in Urmila and Anindya today. Turns out Urmila knows our friend Budhu from Knoxville from her college days. And Anindya grew up in Durgapur for some time and is fairly close to my college friend days – Nilanjan!!

Rishi had left Narendrapur just around the time I was getting in. But I had heard a lot about him from our common friends like Rahul, Navin and Rajeev. We have been Facebook friends for a long time but never had a chance to meet. Shampa, his wife, is actually from Durgapur and we have a lot of common friends between her and me and also between her and Sharmila. And she is my Facebook friend too!

But our paths physically had never crossed! Till today … at Hasnu’s wedding!

I get to meet friends that I had completely lost touch with! Mohsin and Tamanna from Dallas!

Ran into good old Debashish and Kakali at Hasnu’s wedding! Brought back so many memories from Dallas days. It was heartening to realize how much “Debu” (as we call him) always has prospered in every aspect of life and how little Kakali has changed. She is still that light-hearted, constantly smiling, energetic woman that I remember from Dallas over a quarter century back!

When we landed up at the wedding reception, we did not recognize anybody around us. So, Sharmila and I were keeping to ourselves when a lady approached us. The face looked vaguely familiar. And then it all came back to us.

Bishakha from Dallas! We knew each other, way back when – back in the 90s. Then they had moved to California. Once in a while, Sharmila and I would talk about her and her husband, Debarag. Over time, we lost contact completely.

Strangely enough, a few weeks back, their topic came up when Sharmila and I were sitting in a bar. Somebody ordered a gumbo, and we immediately remembered the first time we had ever had gumbo! Back in 1996 or so, and Bishakha was the chef!

I am so glad she recognized us at the wedding. We missed Debarag, who is in India for work. Hope to see all four of us together sometime!