I distinctly remember the day. It was Sunday, July the 10th, 1983. Nearly 40 years back. It was so far back that there was no such thing as an Apple Macintosh at that time. Compact Discs (“CD”s) were going to be soon introduced.

On that day, I landed up in my first residential school. I was 16 years old. My friend from middle school – Pratik and I became room mates in the dorm of our new school. We set up our room after reaching around noon and then ventured out to bid our dads goodbye. They had come to help us out and had to go back home – which was about five hours away.

Our room had a third bed. We were curious who our other room mate was going to be.

When we came back to our room. there was a lady who was setting up the third bed by herself. I figured that was our room mate’s mom. I introduced myself. She told us about Rahul Guha – her son, and our new room mate.

She asked us about our backgrounds, our families and filled us in with Rahul’s details. Rahul, in the meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. He had gone to look for his old friends. (Rahul had studied in that same school in his earlier years; hence was very familiar with the campus).

Finally, Mrs. Guha offered us a lot of sweets. Which we readily grabbed.

Over the next two years, I had the chance to visit Mrs. Guha at her residence in Kolkata a few times. Usually a few of us – Dip and Navin come to mind immediately – would land up at Rahul’s place to have a good time and some delicious food.

Rahul and I then went our separate ways in 1985 after finishing high school. I did get a chance to meet him once in Jadavpur in the ‘80s and then a few years back when he was in Atlanta for work.

As it turns out, Rahul came to the US in 1991 and spent most of his time in New York and Boston.

A couple of years back, he moved to Chicago. While wishing him happy birthday the other week. I realized that Mrs. Guha was visiting him.

I am sure by now you have guessed that I fox trotted to his house moment work took me to Chicago. The three of us talked a lot about our old times and that house in Kolkata. It was incredibly exciting to see Mrs. Guha after so many years. The only downside was that I missed Mr. Guha – who we unfortunately lost a few months back!!

Like those good old days, this day too, Mrs. Guha made a cup of tea for us. With the unforgettable Bourbon biscuits (no relation to the brown alcohol) from India, no less!!

Hope to see Mrs. Guha again when I am in New Delhi next time!!

I think it was 2019. Every Monday evening when I walked into Marriott Schaumburg, Alex would be there ready with my room key and the laundered clothes that I had left previous Thursday. I got to know about her family – especially her dad. All the four sisters got very close to him after their parents divorced.

Alex then moved to another property and now is the manager at Renaissance Ohare. Over lunch today, I learnt about her full lifestory. The most entertaining was how she met her boyfriend! I also did not know before the meeting that Villalobos is a Peruvian last name meaning the Village of Wolves!

As my Chicago trips come to an end, I tried to meet many of the friends I had made over the last five years in the bars and restaurants of the hotels I stayed in. Many an evening were spent chatting with them. I will miss each one of them.

Pina was in Westin Itasca and then moved to the Renaissance near Ohare. She came from Sicily many moons back to Chicago and never moved out of here!!