There have been a few hits and misses with this family…
In 2017, met Tapas and Jhumpa at a common friend’s place in Kolkata. But Bijin did not come.
In 2019, I went to Oman (where they live) for work but they were visiting India. (perhaps, got wind of the fact that I was coming!)
In 2020, Bijin joined our company as an intern but he was working from Purdue and I was working from Atlanta.
Finally, in 2021, managed to meet all of them together in Chicago!!

Nearly six years back, Harish had walked up to me at a industry conference and introduced himself as somebody who I had apparently done a training class for in my first job (nearly 30 years back). I had not recognized him but was very impressed with his memory.

Caught up with him again today! I did not realize that he is an avid chess player and a teacher too! We had a great discussion on how much of chess is intelligence versus memory (pattern recognition).

Also, got a lot of tips on how to swim (I am terrible at it).

But the best part was remembering the days in COSL. One of the best company cultures we had every worked in!

Last time I saw Prabasaj-da in school was 1984. Then almost thirty years later, ran into him unexpectedly at our local Durga puja in Atlanta. In spite of promising to see each other again, somehow life got in our way. Next time I saw him was seven years later at a coffee shop.

We set a target to meet with the family after Covid vaccinations. Fortunately, within six months or so, we were able to get the families together. I had not seen Kathleen since the Durga Puja either. We went to Wolf Mountain Vineyards to grab lunch and have some chat time outside.

The weather was gorgeous and the north Georgia mountains were beautiful.

But the highlight of the meeting was Aliya – who I had not seen before. She kept us thoroughly entertained and engaged. Not to speak of the time when she split us into two teams and then when asked “What are we supposed to do?”, she sheepishly admitted – “I have not thought this one thru”!!

Loved her intellectual curiosity and playfulness!

30 years… 7 years… half-a-year… I think we are trending the right way!!