On the way back from Thane with my two ex colleagues last week as I had written, I was encouraging one of them SD, also an alumnus from my Business School, to take active part in our local alumni activities as he had recently moved to Pune and had not yet started to participate. During the conversation, I mentioned a name AB, active in alumni activities and quite famous in alumni circles as being a successful entrepreneur. It turned out that SD and AB were in the same hostel block at the institute and played for block team in foot ball and knew each other well.
Lo and behold, while these things were being discussed, the other friend DK in the car turned around and asked, “Did you mention AB?” On being answered in the affirmative, he says that AB was his nephew! It also turned out that DK had lost contact with AB for decades due to the former’s transferable career.
I called AB on the phone later and he was flabbergasted! He simply said, “It’s a small world!” I now await the right opportunity to put SD and AB in touch with each other as well as DK and AB.
Last week, another friend PC from Delhi, posted on Facebook that he had written a book that had just been released in the market. I bought the book from Amazon and to give some publicity to the book shared the fact on Facebook. Later on, another friend from Pune who also is a friend of PC, commented on the post that she did not know that I knew PC! I explained to her how PC’s son and Ranjan were classmates in school in Delhi way back in the early 80s and had reestablished contact thanks to the social media. Naturally, since the parents also had met at that time, PC and I reestablished contact too recently. And her response? “It’s a small world!”
When in college I had a ddbate class. My chief “rival” was a fellowfrom New York. We were always pited against each other in class exercises. I usually prevailed and on the last day of class I aqpologized to the class for some of my tacticsand assured them much of what I said was completely countwer to my personal beliefs as the Professor often put me on te side of an issue he knew I would in reality be opposed. After my apology the ensed and said he knewthe exercises were a waste of time and we parted ways on very poor terms. Several years later Lynn and I lived in Connecticut – one of my duties was dlivery and installation of data terminals. On a delivery to Manhattan one morningI was in front of my hotel waiting for my car to apear so I could put the terminals backin and make the delivery. I heard some loud laughter and heard “I do not effin believe it” – Iturned and thre was the fellow from my debate class. He had moved back to New York and was on his way to work walking from the subway station. I asked him if he was still angry with me and he laughed and said the professor had to,d him how he put me in the position to talk counter to my real beliefs but that my technique of talking over people, progressively louder, was my own tactic. e had a good laugh, I had my car delayed and we had a very pleasant breakfast and conversation. Yep – it is a small world.
shackman recently posted..Politics LBC
Your story is remarkable indeed. Time heals all hurt I suppose! Yesterday another instance in my life to buttress that fact of it being a small world. I shall blog about it soon.
Indeed it is Ramana. I come across this so many times! I live this story of yours! ?
CO
WWW
Wisewebwoman recently posted..Perfectionism
Another reader called me up and has asked me to write about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation which is another phenomenon that never fails to amaze me. I am working on a blog post on it.
makes it all an even richer adventure rummy.
yes. a truly small world for sure.
tammy j recently posted..moving on old bean
Tammy, another reader called me up and has asked me to write about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation which is another phenomenon that never fails to amaze me. I am working on a blog post on it.
It is indeed, but I don’t have any stories as good as yours!
Cheerful Monk recently posted..January Weather
That is because you are so self contained. I am constrained to interact a lot with friends and family and such instances happen quite frequently.
I like how you are able to go with the flow and enjoy the moment. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂
Linda recently posted..Mid-Week Jewels
True Linda. I just allow things to happen and enjoy the experiences. There is so little time left to do so!
It’s a small world in Northern Ireland too. With a population of only 1.7 million, everyone seems to know everyone else. You have to be careful bad-mouthing anyone, because whoever you’re talking to might very well turn out to have known the person you’re criticising for years!
nick recently posted..Good enough
There Nick, you might like to share some experiences of badmouthing that came back to bite you! What a blog post that will make! Anyway, moral of the story, don’t badmouth people!
I am in a small populace as well – but my encounters, and I was thinking about one in particular this morning from 2006.
I regularly caught a bus when I first went to uni and some of the passengers became a “hello” – there were 2 people, obviously husband/wife who regularly got off at the same stop. They did a quick goodbye peck-kiss and both went in opposite directions. Both were foreign sounding, the man sounded like American, the wife an Asian and they spoke an Asian language…
I didn’t know where either worked until later on.
Some months later, I caught a bus home mid-arvo (not one of my regular morning days) and the man was on said bus, he took out a lot of papers and was marking…he could have been at any of the Uni/colleges in my area. We said “hello” and he said “going home to mark these in peace and quiet”…
Well the next semester, I changed my timetable so I didn’t see them much – one arvo I was up at my new dept and I was walking along the corridor, some doors were open, I peered in as you do and THERE was my mystery man!
Turned out he was the professor specializing in Japanese, an American and the wife worked another Uni close by as a specialist also in Japanese!
I don’t know who got the biggest shock – I had decided to take Asian studies, but with no language component – I never expected to be any of Lawrence’s classes but my very last class at Uni turned out to be one of his literature classes, (taught in English)…
Wow! What a story!
It really is. I have run into acquaintances or discovered mutual friends in the most surprising of circumstances.
I am not surprised at all. With modern social media on overdrive, even more startling things are happening.