13 July 2021

A familiar spot

“You will not know me sir…”, I started my conversation with the gentleman who had just stepped out of his house when I rang the bell. If I could get a penny every time I have started my conversation with a stranger with that familiar refrain of “You will not know me…”, I would be a rich person today. Well, maybe not as poor, at least.

“My name is Rajib Roy…” I continued.

“Oh! I know you.”

That floored me. “You do? How?” I stammered. I started looking him up a little more purposefully. Perhaps we had worked together in the past?

“Oh! We still get your mail,” he casually answered.

“Ah! so you know of me, then!! Indeed we lived in this house for nine years. This was our first house – for my wife and me. Both my daughters were born in this house. We have a lot of memories here.”

“Why don’t you come in?”

“No. I am between meetings in Coppell and Mansfield. I thought I will just swing by to see the house from outside.”

We stood there and talked about his family – his five kids and how two of his young daughters have converted my library cum music room into their bedroom. And the neighbors we used to have then. After a few minutes, I told him that I needed to go.

“Would you mind if I took a picture of the house from the front?”

“Sure thing. If you don’t want to come in, you can go to the backyard from the side gate to take pictures.”

And with that I got the two shots in this picture of the first house Sharmila and I had bought and moved in to. That was 1998. Sharmila went into labor literally the day we had moved our stuff. Natasha, Sharmila and I – we all moved in together a couple of days later. I still remember opening up boxes after boxes looking for a spoon to make coffee the day after we all came back from the hospital!!

The backyard – specially the pool and the water behind brought back rich memories of the two girls. Pool was their favorite spot. Their friends used to come over and have pool parties fairly regularly. (In our friends’ circle and in the neighborhood, we were among the first ones to have a pool those days).

After taking in the view for a few seconds, I had a “Bye Bye Pool” moment like my father in law as I withdrew!

I am fortunate that work lets me still come back to Dallas and re-live some of the memories of those beautiful days long gone!!

Category: My Family, Travelogs | 2 Comments on A familiar spot
13 July 2021

Wonderful evening with the Whitneys!!

That was some fun times spent with my crazy friend Roger and his family. I had not seen Shauna, Spencer and Emma for quite some time. It was great to meet Claire too!

We talked about the time when I gained respect from the passenger sitting next to me when he realized I knew Roger personally. And of course our trip to Mongolia. And that time we kept razzing a very young Spencer with “Whatever dude! You kissed a girl!!”

But my best reflection of the evening is that the discussions between my psoriasis and Emma’s tattoos, I think we covered all topics skin related 🙂

Hope we can get the two families together for a vacation some day!!

Category: Intersection Points, Our Friends | LEAVE A COMMENT
13 July 2021

The precision makes very little sense

I was cruising in our Airbus 321 this morning to Dallas when I wanted to check our flight map and the following screen came up. Note the figure against distance traveled. Throughout the flight, the system kept updating the distance, but always gave it till the second decimal digit in miles!!

Think for a second. That makes no sense right? A second decimal place in miles would mean about 50 feet. The plane itself is three times as long. At 31,000 feet height at a speed of 500 mph, it takes us less than a tenth of a second to cover a second decimal in miles.

It is an irony that my flights get delayed by hours but I am given my flight progress in less than a tenth of second accuracy!!

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13 July 2021

Who makes up these answers anyways?

This is one more of my pet peeves about something making no logical sense. I was completing some mandatory security and compliance courses when the quizzes got me completely stumped. Not that I did not know the answers but that there was no way to truthfully answer them.

Look at the first example. “All of the above” is the right answer. But the aforementioned “above” includes an option “None of the above”. So, if I say All of the above is true, then I am also saying None of the above is true. That is a paradox that cannot be solved.

Take another one. The second example. The first option is “Answer 2 and 3”. That choice makes NO sense. If that was actually the answer, then that means “1” (which is this option itself) would be true too. Only thing that would make sense is to make it a complete set and say “Answer 1, 2 and 3” (1 being this option itself).

These folks might be experts in security policies and all that but not in logic. But then again, whoever has ever accused any government or corporate policies to be logical? 🙂

Category: Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
11 July 2021

I am surprised I had never come across this before!

For a fountain pen aficionado like me, I was intrigued that I was not aware of the existence of these things. I have used dip pens in the past – you know with nibs in the end and usually a holder or a quill at the other end. But these are very different kinds of dip ink pen.

First, they are made of all glass. Second, the nibs are not flat. They are all cylindrical or bulbous! I was wondering how the ink would flow. (Usual nibs have that slit between the tines that has the ink flowing due to capillary force). Turns out the ‘nib’ has intricate shallow trench like etchings that wrap around like the threads in a screw. The ink, when dipped in, is held in those “trenches” and slowly flows out.

Fairly unique! Got a few delivered from China. Was never aware of this. Were you? Wrote the first letter to my niece using this!

Category: Fountain Pens | LEAVE A COMMENT