For the last few months, I have been trying something new in my weekly travel routine. I check in my suitcase. All I have over my shoulder when I loiter around in the airport or board the plane is a very small shoulder bag. Which has my iPad, a few printed pages, a yellow pad and of course two of my fountain pens 🙂 Given that I have eschewed sitting in a office for over 12 years and use iPad as my only computing device for office ever since they invented iPad (no laptop or desktop), I often have the luxury of watching how people with trappings behave. For example, the rush to board a plane! These days, I am usually the last person to board. Once, I almost lost my seat since I did not board with the rest of the first class passengers. I will tell you that story sometime.

Today’s story was about somebody I met when I went to check in my suitcase. As I walked into the DCA Delta counters, I noticed that there was nobody at the automated check in counters except one Delta agent standing around to help anybody who needed help. I had some time before my next call started (and LOTS of time before my flight left). So, purposely, I went to the unit right next to her and started chatting her up as I punched in my details at the kiosk unit.

“How long have you been with Delta?” I asked this lovely lady.
“Three years”.
“Wow! That is pretty recent. What were you doing before this?”
“I was an Oracle DBA”, she said.
“SAY WHAT??? What do you mean you were a Oracle DBA? And what are you doing here?”

And that is how the story unfolded. I was so engrossed that my unit timed itself out – so, I had to log back in again. You cannot blame me. I was stunned to realize that I was with a grandmom of five – who worked for Fannie Mae as an Oracle DBA for 13 years!! And during the downturn, as the government cut down costs, she lost her job. For the last five years, she has been unsuccessfully looking for a database job she would like. In the meanwhile, to support herself, she is working as an hourly employee at Delta helping people check in at the kiosk counters!!

I asked her if she would mind talking to me during her work time for a few minutes. She accepted. So, I got my luggage tag, handed it over to the TSA guys and came back looking for her. She was still there. I asked her about the difficulty of going from her six-figure job to an hourly wage employee. She told me it certainly has been very difficult but I detected no bitterness in her voice. I asked her what did she do during her off hours, expecting to hear a grandmom talk about her grandkids. “Oh! I keep searching for a career that I can flourish in”, she said!!

I got to learn about how she started her career in a 4GL environment and taught herself Oracle RDBMS and worked her way up to be a DBA. She talked about how she upgraded her skills to 11g a few years back.

Finally, I asked her if she would mind taking a picture with me. And that is how, I met Thomasine T at DCA airport. Her dad’s name was Thomas. They were expecting a son. When it turned out to be her, her parents just named her Thomasine. She also goes by the name Tammy.

If any of you travel to DCA, say Hi to Thomasine if you see her near the Delta counter. If any of you need a smart grandmom who can do a thing or two in Oracle, certainly contact her. It would be great to see if together if we can make a difference to the life of a hardworking grandmom.

At the core of my heart, I believe that the world belongs not to the ones who are born to better wherewithal. Not even to the ones who are born with superior intelligence. But to the ones who are willing to work very hard and not give up.

I have to believe in that. That is my only hope of personally making something out of myself when I grow up. And grandmoms like Thomasine …

As I started walking to the TSA Pre Check line, I asked myself if I had the mental fortitude to take a hit like Thomasine has and not give up fighting…. I suddenly remembered a Bengali song..

“Chirodin kaharo soman nahi jay
Aajkey je raajadhiraaj, kaal se bhikka chay”

(It is never going to be the same everyday for anybody in this world
One who is the emperor today will be begging for alms some day)

Last week, right about now, I was in Atlanta airport (just like I am now). I was waiting to board my flight to St. Petersburg. I was also wondering what intersection point might be awaiting me. Looked up the map of St. Pete to check out the neighboring cities and ran a quick search thru my Contacts list. There was a possibility to meet this gentleman that I had not met in a long long time. I knew he had retired, therefore, I was not even sure if his phone numbers would work. The email id was of HSBC – surely that would not work.

Just as they started boarding us, I took a chance and dialed what I thought was his cell phone number. Nobody picked up and the voicemail was the default message – so could not figure out if it was his number still. Next, tried another number – which I thought was his Tampa home number. I was not even sure if he was in Tampa still. Again, went to voicemail. So, two voicemails later, I resigned to fate and snaked my way into the plane and settled down.

I was busy watching all the passengers coming into the plane when the phone rang. It was from the home number! I was half expecting it to be somebody who would say “Who is this? I had a call at my number from this number”. As luck would have it, it was indeed the gentleman I was looking for. In short order, we set up a dinner engagement for the following day.

And that is how I got to meet once again the gentleman who was a big influence in my life when I came to this country. Chito (Rosauro Santos Ocampo) was my first boss in this country. I worked in his team in Citibank in Pompano Beach. That is when I lived in Coral Springs (yes, in the same apartment building as my other friend from high school junior year, as it turned out – but you probably have read that story on my blog already).

There were a few of us – young technology folks that were transferred from Mumbai to this location. Not having gone thru college here (unlike most Indians in this country at that time), it was baptism by fire. Picking up local culture, ethos while reporting to work full time and learning new stuff altogether could be unnerving at times. Driving on the other side of the road turned out to be surprisingly less daunting. I guess those medians helped. But there were other aspects that completely blew us away. Someday I will tell you how confusing a salad dressing can be to an unsuspecting fresh off the boat Indian 🙂

Chito (and his wife Malou) and Sharmila and myself grew up to get to be very close to each other. They were always very kind in helping us get accustomed to a whole new country. They themselves came from the Philippines. The whole team then got transferred to Dallas. That is how all of us landed in Dallas. And then eventually we went our own ways. Chito went back to Florida, switched to HSBC and then retired.

I was marveling at his terrific memory that evening. He remembered each and every person in our office from those days (I am talking 1993) and enquired about them. Fortunately, I am in touch with all of them and therefore was able to get him up to speed quickly. Some of the details he remembered was very impressive.

Eventually, I asked him – “how is post retirement life treating you”?
“Very good. I work at Lowe’s”, he said!
“Consulting? I did not know Lowe had a big office here”.
“Oh! no! I work at the retail store”
And I was like “What????”

Turns out Chito always loved tools, hardware, fixing things and such. As he told me, he could be left at a hardware store in the morning and picked up in the evening – and he would happily go around the store the whole day. (I know a woman like that in my house who behaves like that in dress stores 🙂 ). Turns out he goes and works there because he loves being around tools and stuff. Additionally, because of all the walking and lifting, he is getting a terrific exercise.

His incredible sense of humor is still intact. I distinctly remember he came to office one day, walked to my cube and said he got a ticket while driving thru the side road in Dallas Fort Worth airport. I enquired about his speed when he got caught. He explained that the speed limit was 35 mph. But cops usually allowed a tolerance of 10 mph above it, he said. And he claimed he was within a 10 mph deviation. Looking at my surprised face, he gestured his finger upwards and clarified that he meant deviation from the upper tolerance limit that we was talking about!! He was clocked at 55!!

Speaking of his hand gestures, that was another thing about him. His hands and facial expressions would do as much talking as his mouth (my brother is the same way; sometimes I make my brother sit on his hands and then talk; it results in hilarious situations). So, there was this day, right next to the main office door in our Pompano Beach office, Chito was agitatedly explaining something. The details completely escape me but I remember that he made the comment “It is like he almost washed his hands off it”. And as he said that, his hands smoothly made gestures as if his hands were under a tap and then he washed his hands off literally! And that is not all! As he went off to his next line, you could see him pulling his hands to the side and absentmindedly wipe them off each other – as if they had become really wet!! I could not help but laugh aloud!!

We caught up on his late father, his family in the Philippines, his two old dogs and the physical challenges he went thru ten years back that he had to will himself thru.

He has lost weight, looked great and seemed very happy! He most certainly deserves to be.