30 August 2013

This is too funny…

So there I was early morning at a regional airport in Florida waiting at the gate for the boarding to start on one of those tiny planes to take me to Atlanta. Eventually, the lady at the counter came on the PA system and announced pre-boarding. As always, anybody who needed a little extra time to board was invited to pre-board.
And the entire gate area got up in unison from their seats and started slowly shuffling towards the boarding door – walkers and wheel chairs in tow.
And there I was …. sitting all alone … waiting for my turn…
๐Ÿ™‚

28 August 2013

Brandon Wilson!!!

Memorable evening with Brandon Wilson! We sat in cubicles next to each other in an earlier job. He ran Finances for my business (in other words, kept me honest ๐Ÿ™‚ ). Above all, he was my friend!! I remember spending quality evenings after work discussing life – how to not forget the perspective that money is an output, not the end (the company we worked in was an immensely successful startup that went public); how to realize what we are really good at – what kind of work makes us truly happy. Certainly set a lot of direction in my life. And he had just crossed into the thirties then!!!
It was great to see how he has continued with success in his career path. But it is his humble beginnings that stand out. Mother worked in post office, dad either farmed or was in construction in a small place called Muleshoe (west Texas) (as he said “are we happy at work” was not an interesting question for them). Brandon’s first job was as a call center rep. Worked there for six years!!! It is amazing to see how he has kept himself grounded in humility, good values and long term view of the road in spite of the phenomenal success he has had career wise!!
This evening was no different from those evenings. I again learnt a lot from him!!

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25 August 2013

Walmart trip

With nothing better to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I decided to accompany Sharmila to the Walmart store where she needed to pick up something. Now, I have not been to a Walmart store in ages – so was not sure what to expect. But once there, I quickly commented to her that “Walmart must the #2 place (Niagara Falls being #1) for all the Indian diaspora to congregate on a Sunday afternoon”. ๐Ÿ™‚

With an air of authority that can come only with years of experience, she informed me that Walmart is #3. Evidently, Costco is #2 ๐Ÿ™‚

I would not be surprised if we find a couple of call centers near the back offices of Walmart (or Costco) outlets one of these days ๐Ÿ™‚

25 August 2013

Morning walk after morning run

Most favorite part of Sunday mornings – walk with Nikita on the tree covered dirt roads. Today’s topic de jure was GCF and LCM of three or four numbers. During the mile and half walk, I kept on pushing her with bigger and bigger numbers to see how much mental math she could do. Eventually, she picked up a twig and made a quick hash of it by writing down on the dirt road and solving it ๐Ÿ™‚ I called foul. She said “Whatevs” !!!

25 August 2013

First time ever!

Last night my Bengali friends in Atlanta must have seen the Bengali version of Jurassic Park – “khaaisey, daino aaisey” ๐Ÿ™‚ As a result an unprecedented seven of them showed up for the Sunday morning Bengali run. Including two ladies. First time ever!!
As we were getting started, we ran into my speedster friends – Tom and Greg. After introducing my Bengali friends to them, we talked about how they do 5K in 17 minutes and we take nearly 30. Greg had a few words of wisdom – “the difference is not in a few minutes – the difference is that unlike 3.2 million people still in bed, you decided to get up and show up”!
Thank you Malobika, Sharmila, Arup, Ashok, Samaresh and Amitesh for SHOWING UP!!!

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