Not the bandwidth, not coffee,…not even money. More.
I once saw this slide in a presentation about what the Millennials believe in – ‘With unlimited bandwidth, and enough coffee… we can get to the moon!’
Maybe, they can.
But I know, my trip needed more than that.
From a friend (who happens to be the wife), who saw me hesitating, and said, ‘it’s one life, go!’
From a friend inviting us over, saying ‘stay with me in Philadelphia , I’ll pick up the tickets & take you all, just come!’. And then for 7-8 days, his kids vacate their rooms for us, he takes us around Philly, DC, NY, takes us to some wonderful eating joints, while juggling fires at work. All the way till he sees us off, after his wife had given us wonderful chocolate hampers! He even ensured I meet up another friend of mine, at a McDonald’s off the highway, in the middle of nowhere.
From the 2 other blokes who turned up, what a riot right through the trip – from IMT days, to swapping stories, to remembering friends like Ranjan Ray – memories to last a lifetime!
From ex-colleagues from Lenovo, who stepped out of office on a working day to meet me around the Grand Central, NY.
On the way back, my flight to Frankfurt was late, and I missed the connecting flight to Bangalore. Instead was boarded on the next flight to Delhi, with a layover of 6 hours there till the next flight to Bangalore. Guess what, one school friend insists I come over to his place in Gurgaon. Not just to freshen up, his mom & wife fed me piping hot ‘aloo paranthas’; haven’t had a tastier brunch! Another one comes from the opposite end of Delhi, just to meet me at the airport! And yet another one finds a way to pause her ‘maid troubles’ and drops in to meet me.
More than anything else, it took these large hearted friends to make this trip this memorable.
Anurag Rohatgi & Arpita Srivastava – thanks for being such wonderful hosts!
Rajnish (Osho) & Vikram – so happy we did this together!
Gopi, Nischal & Uma – so sweet of you all!
Needless to say, all of you have a home in Bangalore.
And to my wife, Lakshmi – I love you!
The last line is poetic. So the wife had the last word. 🙂 Again With a blog called ramgarh, the hero has to get his heroine and all the goodies, kill the villains with some drama, songs,…. Applause.
RP, you have a magic pen to make the mundane interesting. Read all the three parts in one go.
Hahaha, you are more filmy than myself! Thanks, Ravi!
Ooooh…what a blast da..loved the smooth narrative but could take in all the palpable excitement you felt too. True…live life..u just get one shot at it..khudos to Lakshmi and Appu to have egged you on..Some dreams do come true da..
Thanks, Lakshmi! Yes, they deserve the credit for pushing me 🙂
Heyyyy I get a mention in your blog !!!! Patha hota ki you are gonna put up a photo I would have made more of an effort n hair set wet karke aati 😂😂😂
Tab mujhe bhi pataa nahin tha!
Now I know what’s next on my bucket list !
Making it to Ramgarh ! The Blog !
Just a matter of time, dost.