To Duke
Half way to dropping Tasha at Duke University. She has packed more luggage than the whole family packed for the whole India trip for the same time!! Why do girls pack their entire life when they go somewhere? — at Paco’s Tacos & Tequila.
Home, sweet home!
My mark sheet!
While in India, dug up this gem – my first grade report card!! Note the teacher’s advise on improving my handwriting 🙂 Subsequently, thru the years, other teachers added a few more things for me to improve on… and then the wife came along and added a whole lot more to the list 🙂 but my handwriting never quite improved 🙂 The crowning ignominy was in eighth grade, when my teacher demanded that I practice one page of handwriting every day during summer vacation. I finished the whole assignment in the last two days of vacation. You can only imagine the output 🙂 Much later in life, inspired by my friend Aditya Garg, I picked up calligraphy and went back to fountain pens!! Oh! The irony!!! 🙂
Starbucks!!
Splashdown!! To Terra Firma… or rather Terra USA. Straight into 4 cups of Starbucks coffee!!! No amount of immigration or custom checks confirm that we are back home as much as the first sip of Starbucks!!! — at John F Kennedy International Airport.
Jayita!
Jayita!!!! One more person I had the privilege of being in elementary school together. Met her (in Dubai) after 36 years (lost contact at the same time as Subir Hore). Last time I saw her, she was digging into a masala dosa with her sister at that dosa shop in Benachity. I had gone with my dad to the shoe shop next door -Nee Shing – to buy shoes for my new school!!! It is absolutely amazing to see how much my elementary school students have succeeded in life. I would like to believe that some of that has rubbed off on me too!!

No fighting!!!
Leaving India!
Mehndi
Meeting my deskmate after 36 years!!
Funnily enough, we discovered that our lives have taken such twists and turns that from benchmates, we have also become relatives. Very very distant though. Let me see if I can get this straight: my wife’s brother’s wife’s sister’s husband’s brother’s daughter’s husband is Subir!!! No kidding!!! And we were able to piece this together all due to three pieces of lost luggage by Air India!! Don’t even get me started 🙂 — with Subir Hore.





