Small World, Part IV

Seven sections of the Great Wall are profiled in Lonely Planet and more than 55 million foreign tourists visit China annually. So what are the chances of running into my friend and classmate from business school, Shailendra, on the Great Wall?! We had met up with him and his wife in Mumbai and knew he would be in Beijing for some meetings but hadn’t connected since we reached China. As we were laughing about the coincidence and catching up, he received a call unexpectedly from another classmate, Dylan, who lives in L.A.!

Small World, Part III

Walked into a business school classmate and friend from NYC, Nushin, at Kibo Hut on Mount Kilimanjaro. We had just descended from the summit and she was resting in preparation for her ascent the next morning. Hopefully how busted I must have looked didn’t dissuade her from the nightmarish climb awaiting her ;-)

Small World, Part II

Saw a guy wearing a Chicago Botanic Gardens hat on our bus from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania. Turned out he lives in Northbrook, IL – my hometown. And twice a week he goes to the Botanic Gardens, where my Dad volunteers his time every week. They’ve probably seen each other. A 20-passenger border-crossing bus and we found another passenger from Northbrook, IL. Small world.

Small World, Part I

Our first small world incident. Our friend Anil connected us to his Clinton Foundation colleagues Elya and Catherine in Dakar. When we arrived at their flat we were greeted by their friend/neighbor Martin. Martin and I looked at each other with faint recognition. Turns out we were college classmates and had a great evening catching up over a few beers.