18 December 2014

You never know who you will run into in the airport

For the second time in as many days, I found myself standing in the Atlanta airport security line. It was early in the morning and I was generally taking it easy. In fact, I was observing the distinctly German looking gentleman in front of me struggling to get all his stuff into the conveyor belt for screening at the TSA Precheck line. Every five seconds, he would remember he had one more thing in his pocket and he would hurriedly pull it out, and put it in one of his bags. Finally he was done; and as I was just starting to swing my shoulder bag onto the belt when I heard somebody call out “Is that Rajib”?

“It sure is”, I said as I looked at the general direction of the voice. Turns out it was the gentleman right behind me. He was standing there all the time as I was observing the gentleman in the front. And that is how my otherwise slow morning got to a very fast start. It is not often that I meet Chuck Townsley – an old buddy of mine. In fact, we have not met ever since he left our company – more than ten years back.

I was so excited that I started talking to him then and there; after a few minutes, the TSA guy reminded me that our bags have cleared and we had to be screened too!!

Both of us had about fifteen minutes at hand. So we grabbed a chair nearby and caught up on each other’s lives. It was fascinating to hear about his career success. Especially how he has worked his way up into IBM Sales.

On the professional side, I have always admired IBM’s ability to grow a formidable sales org – not just by talent but dealing with complexity of overlay sales orgs and highly nuanced compensation models. In fact, Chuck and I talked about sales compensation plans for quite some time.

Eventually, it was time to go. We got somebody to take a picture of us and I walked him to the train station in the airport. Just as I was leaving him there, he stopped me and said he wanted to mention something. I was naturally curious.

He narrated a story of an event that happened when he was leaving the company where we worked together. And he said “Thank you for making that happen”.

Frankly, I had forgotten about the incident. But I was struck with his sense of gratitude and generosity. All these years, and he still remembers it. And then I realized, this is Chuck we are talking about. He has not changed a bit!!!

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16 December 2014

MIL-FIL Mehfil: An eye for an eye

Remember all those fun experiences when my in-laws were visiting us? And the recent funny realization of how wise my FIL is in not giving into my MIL’s demand for a new TV (and instead get her cataract removed? 🙂 )
Well, there was another mini-episode yesterday. I called up my FIL last morning regarding some paperwork related to his accident and surgery while in US. He seemed audibly upset over the phone. I asked him if he was distracted with something.
“I am not sure if it was such a great thing to get your masi’s (that is what I call my MIL) cataract removed”. he said.
“Why?”, I asked, worried that there might have been some post-op complications. Which would be terrible since her other eye is non-functional from a very early age.
“Well, because of that, I am getting yelled at the whole day”, he somberly replied. I had no idea why would somebody yell at him for getting the cataract removed.
This is what I learnt as I pressed him on. Evidently, my mother in law can see crystal clear – so to speak – that everything in the house is NOT being put back in their right places after he uses them. She can now clearly spot the cobwebs on the wall and the dust spots on the floor. All those days of making short shrift of house cleaning has come to a screeching halt for my FIL and the housemaid. Hence all the yelling…
Barely able to conceal my laughter and then wisening up, I enquired “At what age do you get cataract?”.
“Oh! Seventy or so”, he said.
“Twenty five more years…”, I mused to myself as I subtracted Sharmila’s age and put my phone down 🙂

Category: Family in India, Humor | 5 Comments on MIL-FIL Mehfil: An eye for an eye
14 December 2014

Who said Bengalis are afraid of the cold?

In a resounding thumbing of the nose to the proverbial Bengali fear of “Thanda legey jaabey”, nine of the Chalupa runners – including the high schooler Pooja – showed up for the below freezing point run this morning. Manas, who already had put in a 5K run before starting for another 5K with us was a visual proof of the frosty temperatures. When he started with us, all the small sweat beads at the edge of his hair on the head had frozen and in the glisten of the morning light, he looked like one of those Christmas lights you pay money to buy. (or as Bengalis might put it, “kadamphool” 🙂 ).

Anyways, it was a great run in the morning. Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures. While fiddling with my iPhone with my numb fingertips trying to set it up on the trash can, I accidentally set one of the filter modes on.

Ran into old running buddies and ultra runners – Lia and Samantha on the trail. Lia had to withdraw from a 100 mile run because of her back. So, it was good to see her on the running trail again. As I explained to her, there was something that made me withdraw from the 100 mile run too. It was the thought of having to run 100 miles 🙂

Finally, as always, the highlight was the coffee session (“adda”) at Starbucks. We discovered a budding poet in Samaresh today. And got a Sylheti 101 course from Arup, Sheuli and Malobika. The hapless students – Sharmila, Sanjib, Manas and myself were none for the worse at the end. And I also got my old Starbucks moniker “Hey You” back on my cup!!

And finally, also ran into Heidi – the manager of that Starbucks and another old running buddy!!!

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