20 April 2014

Lucky intersection point!!!!

Had a great lucky break within a couple of hours of landing in Kolkata. Recently, had traced down a long lost friend of mine from elementary days – Sibapriya Dasgupta – in Midnapore(150 km from Kolkata). After landing at my brother’s place, I called him up to enquire after his parents (I was aware his parents were also ailing like my dad).

To my great surprise, found out that he was in Kolkata today for another few hours and that too not very far from where I was. Decided to have a quick drink (although he is a teetotaler) together. And sure enough, soon, I was able to see him for an hour or so!

Last time I saw Sibapriya was Mar 1983!!! Over 31 years back! He has still remained the nice, even keeled, very well balanced person. I was amazed by some of the details of myself that he could pull from three decades ago!!

We talked about our parents, our teachers, friends from school and families. One interesting topic of discussion – and he is a doctor – was the possibility that medical science is dealing with our parents in a wrong way. Instead of focusing on extending their lives when they are clearly not enjoying life, should our medical sciences factor in the inevitability of death and focus on making the rest of the years very enjoyable, painless and peaceful?

Great stimulating discussion. Hope I do not have to wait for another 31 years before I get to see good old Sibapriya again!!!

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18 April 2014

My chariot for tonight

There is my plane – A380 – for tonight. It is one humongous beast. Other planes look really puny next to it!

The end of one wing to the other is nearly the length of a football field!! That Wright brother’s flight that got us into flying? They flew only half that distance!!!

The plane has the height of a ten story building! (This one knocked me off)

The plane weighs the same as … not ten, not twenty, not even hundred but 165 fully grown elephants!!!

My daughter’s entire elementary school can get in and then they will have some more seats open!!

It has space for 3000 suitcases!!!

I am told fifteen hundred companies manufacture various parts of this plane!!

If you took all the wires in this plane and laid them end to end, they would go over 500 kilometers!!!

It is amazing that with all that, it flies for fifteen hours continuously at 43,000 feet!!!

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18 April 2014

“Intersection points” getting popular

I was just wrapping up my call with Sharmila before jumping onto the flight to New York when I saw good old Shahid and his family walking past me. You may remember him from an old post and picture of the two of us sharing shayars and ghazals in a bar somewhere in Bombay after customer meetings.

In any case, I finished out with Sharmila immediately and yelled out for Shahid. He saw me, brought his family to introduce to me and guess what his first words were? “Another Intersection Point”, he said!!!!

I am like. “Yess!! I am going to start a cult”. đŸ™‚

Anyways, it was great to meet Shahid, Munira and the kids!!!

10 April 2014

Intersection point in Florida

While vacationing in Orlando, found out (thanks to FB) that good old Hari was in town for a conference. A few months back, I had met him after over twenty years. Had promised not to let another twenty years go by before we meet again. No challenge there!!

Sharmila captured some moments during our discussions at a bar – you can see that they were as intense as the good old days!!! đŸ™‚

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