11 February
2017
11 February
2017
Speaking of mixed messages…
So, I came back home. That was her cue to leave home. She dutifully took the daughter to the dance class.
But made the classical mistake of letting me know that she had cooked “ghugni”. You can check Wikipedia for this. And you will learn that there this is not a dish that can be rejected by somebody faint of the heart.
Let’s just say somebody finished the whole bowl of ghugni, taking full advantage of nobody else being at home. To speak of nothing of not having eaten any home cooked home for a week. And that somebody suddenly realized that she was going to be home….
Attempting for a soft landing, he sent the following message (see pic).
And he received the response in the pic.
The smiley was great! Maybe I was off the hook. But then came the ominous “almost home”. That can go either way. Right now, I am having pictures going thru my mind of a school teacher with her glasses down her nose and a stick in her hand reprimanding her student……
11 February
2017
The countdown never stops. You just reset the clock.
There are few things that qualify as being more “American” than being a new house owner. With a mighty mortgage interest to pay, I might add. It was barely five minutes that I had walked into my first house in Texas than when an elderly lady (turned out later I found out she was my dad’s age) came to introduce herself. That was my first meeting with our the-then-neighbor Lavern. Later, we got to know her daughter Melanye who was my age and Sharmila and Melanye had kids almost at the same time and we just became great neighbors. Lavern bought a Maltese dog. Natasha got so attached to it that eventually we had to get our own Maltese.
Unfortunately, life has a way to tear you apart. First, we left Dallas. But I kept up with Lavern. Never missed going by our house when business would take me to Dallas. Never missed talking to her on her birthday.
Then the walk thru the darkness started. She called me up one day to let me know that Melanye had met an untimely death. Frankly, I still block myself off from that and have not processed it totally. Jim – Lavern’s husband, had taken a turn for the worse. They moved to Phoenix. Then he passed away. She made me promise to her that I will visit her when I come to Phoenix.
The phone calls continued. And then one fine December 2nd, the call said that the number was not valid no more. No problem, I said… she has new numbers. So, I sent her an email. I know by rote her email id. I had helped her set up the AOL account. Mail bounced back!! I was helpless. I had no ability now to reach out to Lavern. In USA!!! I tried a few usual tricks – checked Facebook etc for her or her other daughter (I got to know her too). No luck!
For about three years, I continued to search the internet for property records and white pages to look for her. I had narrowed it down to one address but no phone number. And three years later, I was in Phoenix airport to drive to Tucson this week. I had my math worked out. I would dash to the address – surprise her and in 45 minutes start screaming down I-10 for the Board member meeting in Tucson.
Except that she did not live in that address!! However – and there is a long story about who I met there – I will write about it later – but, I did find Lavern’s new address and that was all I needed. Presently, I pulled into a complex that has been built for seniors. After going thru security, my biggest problem was finding the house. I was going around in my car all over looking for house number 322. Stopped three people in the complex. Very old folks. But very helpful folks. Nevertheless, of no help to me since they did not know or remember how the numbering scheme worked in their place. One even had to yell at her husband to remind her what their own house number was. [Some day, I want to sit with that couple – you know – just to spend a little time with them]
In my frustration, I was going from street to street and one point, in my desperation, I backed out so hard, the wheel of my rental car hit something. I came out to check the damage. Fortunately, it was only the tires and rim that were scraped. Thanking my luck, I came back and sat down in the car. Looked up – and there it was – house #322. Hallelujah!!! Heaven knows, I needed that break!
Parked the car – not so legally, I think – there and ran in thru the gate.
Pressed the bell. No response.
“Lavern?”, I yelled. No response.
“Lavern?”, I yelled again hoping to wake her up from her afternoon sleep,
There was a muffled “Yes?”. Somebody was desperately trying to wake up from sleep.
Good news – somebody was there! Bad news – nobody that sounded like Lavern.
Very afraid that I had hit a wall, I bleated out “Lavern, this is Rajib here”.
“Huh”? The voice – a little more coherent – said.
You can imagine me. Here is a brown stranger barging into an Arizona house with a small but finite possibility of getting shot for mistaken identity. I had to quickly establish that I was not a burglar or anything. So, I put my office jacket on that I was carrying in my hand. Like that was going to help me against the bullet 🙂
“Lavern?”, was my next – and completely unthought thru step.
“Huh?”. This time the voice was clearer. And was certainly in the process of waking up.
Wait a minute, Rajib, I said to myself. You know that voice! Wait… Wait…Wait… and then I yelled
“Mikey? Is that you?”
“Yes”.
!!!!!!!
“Mikey, this is Natasha’s dad. Your next door neighbor from Coppell”.
The whole scenario changed!
“REALLY???” was the yell that came out from inside. He recognized me in on shot. A lot of noises inside the house later, out came a sleepy guy in sleeping clothes. And the only think I could recognize was his face.
“I can’t believe you came to see us!!!”, he said.
We hugged each other for what seemed like ages.
Over the next 15 minutes or so, we reconstructed her lives back. Turns out he moved from Texas to join a community college in Phoenix and live with his grandmother. He has plans of going back to Texas (Texas Tech to be precise) soon. Lavern, unfortunately, was at a bible study at that time. I missed her. But I got to see Mikey.
I apologize, I forgot to mention to you – the kids that Sharmila and Melanye had around the same time? – they are Natasha and Mikey. You can see why we were close. Thru the whole time, he kept saying – “I can’t believe you came to see us”. And I was like “I can’t believe I am with you”.
“I have something to show you”, I told him.
“What”?
You see the night before I started my weeklong business trip, I had searched my photo database and saved out a few pictures of Lavern from nearly 20 years back, hoping to show them to her when I met her. For whatever reasons, I found and saved some pictures of Mikey too! And the dog that inspired us to get Princess!!
I showed him the picture!
“That’s me?”, he asked.
“What do you think?”.
He is the guy in the red sweater with that Maltese dog, by the way!!!
I had to take leave soon. Else I would be late. But not before I had taken down Lavern’s new contacts.
An hour into the drive, I got the expected call from Lavern. We talked again like those good old days. And like those good old days, she asked me “Promise me you will come and visit me whenever you are in Phoenix”.
“Lavern, if I could keep my promise the first time after so many years, I certainly can do it the second time. You just keep yourself healthy. I will be back”.
And the countdown started….clocks had been reset….. again….
10 February
2017
A trip to Vivacity Distilliery
When I go to our Corvallis office, I usually come back the same day without staying overnight. Coming in from Phoenix to Portland and then driving to Corvallis this time, I was sure I would be too tired to drive back to Portland. So, I stayed back. Which meant, I had some extra time in the evening than normal.
That was a great excuse to go check out a local gin distillery and get a better idea about the whole distillation process. You may recollect that this year, my goal is to research and learn about gins as much as I can. Previously, I had looked up a distillery nearby but their website said they were open for visits only every other Saturday or “whenever you see our car in front of the distillery”. But our local office leader – Kris – had talked to them beforehand and convinced them to open it for a visit for me that evening.
It was a great trip. Got to know the owner Caitlin Prueitt. Missed her husband Chris Neumann. They had together started the distillery barely six years back. In fact, this might still be the only woman owned distillery in Oregon. Caitlin took me thru the backside of the distillery and thanks to her patient explanation, got to see first hand how gin is made.
The copper still was impressive. She named it “Jules Verne”. You can see it in the picture. She uses corn to produce the base ethanol and then adds junipers and other botanicals before using steam to start the distillation process. I was a little surprised by the height and size of the column. If I remember correctly, condensing thru the column ( I think it is called continuous distilling or something like that) was a big innovation in alcohol making since it reduced the number of distillations you have to do and yet have higher proof alcohol with less impurities.
I was curious about how long the whole process took. 2 to 3 days apparently. Since this is a contemporary style gin, it is ready to be collected and bottled and does not have to be aged or anything in barrels. She makes two different gins – Banker’s (this was named for the manager of the local bank that gave them the loan to get this started) and Native (which has predominantly botanicals and herbs from Oregon. 14 out of 17, I believe).
Anand and I tasted both of them and we both thought the Native was more flavorful and burst into juniper and citric aromas more boldly. I got a bottle of each and now I have left them to their fate in the hands of the those gentle and delicate folks at the airlines Shove The Baggage department 🙂 🙂
10 February
2017
Oh! Portland! Thou truly art weird!
Sitting at the corner in a restaurant in Portland, I was having lunch with Tobin – an office colleague. We were going thru some business reviews when I looked up from our discussions to check the outside and saw an unique sight. As you see in the picture – there was a gentleman walking by us in what I would not even call a kilt – that is a skirt, fair and square. All pink in color! No less!
Tobin, who also saw what I saw made a quick hash of the question I did not even get to actually ask – “Ah! yes! We keep Portland weird”.
In any case, eventually, we had to order food. I was glancing up and down the menu and something caught my eye. After we placed our orders, I showed Tobin what caught my eye. As you see in the picture, it was about The Unipiper. Google “The Unipiper” or look up in Youtube. You will learn about a young guy who has been on national TV who goes around the city in a unicycle (those are the one that have only one wheel!!) playing a bagpipe usually dressed up in his Scottish kilts and a Darth Vader mask!! And sometimes he blows fire from the bagpipes!!!
After lunch, Tobin and I walked back to office and as I entered the office for the next set of meetings, I ran into Brian at the door. “Hey, Brian. How are you?”, I said. “Good, good. And you, Rajib?”. “Pretty good myself”… etc etc etc
So you are wondering what has this got to do with anything? Brian IS The Unipiper! We actually are teammates!!
How often do you read about your teammates in a menu card at a restaurant?
Totally cool. And weird. It is Portland, after all!!
10 February
2017
You know you have been on the road way too many times…
… when you wake up at 3:45am, quickly get ready, rush to the airport, go to the gate and realize you misread the departure time by a clear hour and a half!!
Funny part is when I checked in my bag, as I was exchanging pleasantries with the lady at the desk, she asked “How are you?”. And I said “Way too early”. And she said “Better late than sorry”. I grinned and said “I know”. Actually, I did not know what she was talking about. I was thinking she would sympathize that I had to wake up way too early and might suggest a coffee or something.
Now I know!! Ah! At least, it is Friday.
9 February
2017
From the deserts of Arizona, straight to the cold and rainy Northwest
7 February
2017
Couple of miles among the cacti…
5 February
2017
Second half marathon of the year
Technically it was a rest day for me today after the 10 mile run in the hills yesterday that entailed a total climb of 80 floors. Last evening though, I got a crazy idea. I am going to hit 51 soon. I started wondering how much can I push my body to endure at this age. Ergo, decided to join the Chalupa group for a run this morning instead of taking rest. At any point, if the body started complaining too much, I was going to pull over and walk back.
The first few miles were pretty enjoyable. Partially because I was distracted as Samaresh, Sanjib and Arup who were ahead of the pack with me kept talking and cracking jokes. By the time we came back to our starting point, we had already completed four miles. Went back to the trail to meet up Mrinal-da who was bringing up the rear guard of the group and gave him company all the way back. That made it five miles. But I sensed that I could push the body some more.
So, after the mandatory Chalupa group picture, instead of going for Starbucks with the rest of the team, I dove back into the trails. And that is when the “walk thru the desert” started. Without any company and the trail being near desolate on a cold and cloudy morning, I started losing tempo and motivation soon. The sixth mile was getting boring. The seventh one was very slow. On the eighth I could hear my feet dragging. And the left knee, occasionally, would sting a little.
Stopped at the end of the eighth mile. I was still two miles away from the starting point. Needed to do something to get motivated. Started stretching the left leg – especially the calf, quad and the hips. And waited for a runner to come by who I could then run along with. Not a single one came by after waiting two full minutes. So, tried a different approach. I do not like listening to music while running. I feel one should always be very alert while running in trails. But I got the iPhone out and started a Noorani sisters’ song.
The booming voice of Jyoti started with the “Chan kithey gujaari aayi”. Not that I was too sure myself where I had gone but the quick beats of the song got me back to a faster pace. And as I ran faster, I realized that the muscles were complaining lesser. I guess the repetitive stress points had shifted to other parts of the muscles. And just like that, very soon, I was back to the starting point. 10 miles down.
My stupidity usually is boundless. Having done 10 miles, the next idea came – how about a half marathon (13.1 miles)? While I was energized by the last two miles mentally, physically I was starving. My entire food intake in the morning was a cup of coffee. Thought for a second and then went back to the car, retrieved the apple that I had kept for post-run recovery and post-run be darned, quickly devoured the apple. Almost immediately regretted it. I started feeling the cramps as a penalty for eating too quickly and not keeping myself hydrated adequately.
If I sat down, the cramps would increase. My best shot was to try and power it thru by staying distracted. All I needed to do is get to the one and a half mile marker somehow. If I could do that, regardless of how I came back – limping, dragging the left foot or even walking, it would be a half marathon distance. I went for negative splits. First half at 10 min/mile. Second one I speeded up to 9:30 and the third half went for a 9:00 min/mile. Good news? I was so breathless that I never once worried about the cramps.
Slowed down on the return journey and just the thought that I was a few minutes away from a half marathon run was enough motivation to finish up the rest of it. That 13 miles and change makes it 31 miles for this month. The math oriented ones probably realize this already – 13 and 31 are not only reverses of each other – their squares are reverses of themselves too!!
Now, one problem though: Everywhere I go, all the local Atlantans are greeting me and each other with a big “Rise Up” scream. And I am, like, “Dude! I can barely sit down now. What do yo mean Rise Up”? 🙂
5 February
2017
From Javadpour to Jadavpur!!
I know. That was a terrible pun. But that is exactly what Rupa said she was looking forward to if we could meet – some terrible puns. (Disclaimer – all my attempted puns are terrible). (and if you missed the context of the pun – the previous day I had met Roya Javadpour and Rupa did her Engineering from Jadavpur University)
The challenges were pretty steep though. She lived about a couple of hours away from my hotel. And I was in an event couple of hours further away from my hotel. She also had some work related appointments in the evening. And I knew I was going to get distracted by the beach and start running. We did promise though that one way or the other we were going to meet – regardless of how late it was.
And late it was. After the event ended, I had to drive up north – pulled over to put in a run – which meant that I had to find a LA Fitness to take a shower…. it was almost 8 PM when I finally got to see Rupa and Vishal.
Rupa was my classmate from MBA days. The last time I had seen her and Vishal was around 1996 – over 20 years back – when Sharmila and I were in California (we had no kids then) and we swung by Rupa’s house. Just to prove that old “Men are from Mars…. etc etc” saying, we exchanged notes and turned out I remembered the rental car color I drove to her house and she remembered exactly what food she had cooked!!! Sharmila and Natasha got a chance to see them last year when they were on a college visit. But for me it was over 20 years.
Here is the funny part. Or the not so funny part. I don’t think we had too many jokes or bad puns. We talked at length though. About a lot of things in life. About a common friend that Rupa and I had who is no more, about their days in CMC, about Mumbai days, about a company that Rupa and I had worked in, about our parents and so on, about the uncle and aunt she used to stay with for some time (and she had completely forgotten that I had paid her a visit there once)…
We were there for nearly three hours and I had not realized that everybody else had left!! We were the last ones and the staff was waiting for us to leave. I will tell you how engrossed I was in our conversation – I completely forgot to ask the staff to take a picture of us!!! That, for me is next to unthinkable. That is what Steve Jobs gave us an iPhone! Hello! So, next day, I had to plead Rupa to send me a picture of both of them. Without a picture, I cannot write stories 🙂
Some meetings really do not end even after you walk away. This was one of them. We promised to do a vacation together some time….
