Thirty years later….

Today was the start of Durga Puja in Atlanta – the biggest festival for us Bengalis. Everyone dresses up in the best traditional clothes and shows up for various events for about three days.
I, too, showed up in my traditional clothes – which is a pair of shorts and a panel shirt. 🙂
The first thing that happened was that I got a dressing down from my wife for showing up in shorts. As I was cowering down and settling in a bench, the second thing happened!
A guy walked up to me and asked “Are you Rajib Roy”? I was almost like “Yeah. Who wants to know?”, when I looked up. And in a fraction of a second, thousands of neurons and dendrons must have connected (or whatever it is that connect when you remember something from the past) – and I yelled “Prabasaj Paul”?
He was one year senior to me in the residential school I went to for junior and senior years of high school. (11th and 12th grade). He was a legend in his academic prowess. So many times, he was my last resort when I was absolutely stumped with a problem and nobody could help me!!!
Last time I saw him was in March 1984!!! Almost 30 years back!!
It was unbelievably good to see him again!!!

Category: Our Friends | 13 Comments

10 October 2013

Puzzle – alligation?

While it is not exactly about mixing liquids, it involves pouring liquids alright.
You have three containers whose capacity are 12 gallons, 8 gallons and 5 gallons respectively. The 12 gallon container is filled with water and the other two are empty. You have nothing else. You have to divide the water into two parts of 6 gallons each. In other words, by a sequence of pouring from one container to the other, you have to eventually have 6 gallons in the 12 gallon container and another 6 gallons in the 8 gallon container.
How would you do it?

Category: Puzzles | 18 Comments

10 October 2013

One score and zero years ago…

Closeted in a day long meeting in Solana campus in Westlake, TX. After the meeting, took some pictures of the campus – especially of the building…
Twenty years ago, this is the building I worked in (different company). In fact, I started my career in Dallas here.
That was a cool coincidence…

Category: Vacations | 5 Comments

10 October 2013

Is this a biker gang?

Mr. Al Blake!!! We worked together nearly two decades back and the best we could remember we saw each other 16 years back.
I had some great discussions of life in general with him – the concept of being happy, the overinflated importance of a job, family, financial security….
We remembered some of the best people we had the chance to work with from our past…
I could have gone for another four hours just getting his incredibly balanced perspective . There is a lot I could learn from him…

Category: Intersection Points | 2 Comments

9 October 2013

Willie Weichi Weng (the other www :-) )

Willie Weng!! Or as we Bengalis are prone to pronounce it – Billie Beng!!! (and to the veterans of that character building exercise called Toshiba project from i2 days – simply Wiilie-san!!)
A pleasanter person I have never met in my life!
Since my first meeting with him in 1995, he has been the example of personal humility that I have fruitlessly toiled to emulate…

Category: Intersection Points | 8 Comments

9 October 2013

Reconnecting!!!

Business trips to Dallas always means opportunities to quickly reconnect.
Ran (barely managed to keep up is a better way of putting it) 5 miles with Subrata. I had met him way back in 2001 – and they promptly left for China! (Yeah! I kind of have that effect on people 🙂 ) Our original connection was that my sister and his wife were elementary school classmates.
Next time I met him was in 2010 – Jan 1st when a bunch of us Bengalis went out for a run in Dallas to welcome the New Year.
Today, after the run, we sat down at the Starbucks to get to know each other a little more. Like me, he was born in a very small village! Unlike me, his rest of his growing up was in the same village. (That village got electricity after he moved to US).
Now get this. There is another small village nearby from there. Both our sisters are married to two guys from that other small village!! Same age group! We are trying to find out if they knew each other!! His brother-in-law’s dad was the headmaster of the school that my brother-in-law went to!!!
Go figure!!
Remember my point about intersection points!!! 🙂

Category: Intersection Points | 10 Comments

9 October 2013

The great imbalance of power!!

What a great clash of brilliant lights!
Above is Mother Nature with one single star out of its billions of stars – long set over two hours back – last dying rays looking askance at the clouds – and lighting them up in resplendent hues.
Below is the indomitable Human spirit trying to match – light for light, ray for ray – with its innovation in electricity, halogen lamps, fluorescence, reflectors….
What a great similarity. What a great contrast!!

Category: Vacations | 6 Comments

8 October 2013

That’s a team

This is the team that I am part of. We have great visions to make the world better. We certainly add value to our customers. Sometimes we even make money! But we always have FUN!!!