I came across this on the New York Times page earlier today, and the face and the name made me think. This face looks familiar. Is this that guy I met in Philly in summer 1999? No, can't be. (Video: 10 Minutes With Rajiv Shah) I watched the nine video clips. That confirmed it. No, I have not met the guy, although he does remind me of someone I met over a decade ago. That put the matter to rest.
After a nap, the name kept coming back at me. So I told myself, why don't you just google up the guy? That will put matters to rest. I googled up his name. And that did put matters to rest. I have met the guy. Rajiv Shah is the Rajiv Shah I met back in 1999. I was in Philly doing my summer stint with Chaitime.com that was trying to be the premier South Asian online community. I found myself at his apartment for a gathering of I believe it was called IAPAC, Indian American Political Awareness Committee. I might have mangled the name right now. He was leading the organization. So I met him once. I got to meet his fiance, Shivam. We connected because she was Bihari. I am half Bihari, Laloo Ka Aadmi. My gripe had been you literally don't meet Biharis in the US. You meet Gujaratis, Marathas, Tamils, but no Biharis. The other day I was at a SASI - South Asia Solidarity Initiative - event here in New York, and I met three Biharis. When it was my turn to speak I said I have been in America over 13 years now, and I have met a total of five Biharis, three of them I met today. SASI is lead by my friend Prachi. Prachi passes the landgrab test.
(At that SASI event only a few days back, I show up and I meet this guy who is from Sri Lanka. "Oh, you from Sri Lanka?" I said. I started talking to him about this Sri Lankan I met several years back. Ends up I was talking to Ahilan about Ahilan. "I sported a beard back then," he said.)
So I met Shivam, and I met her again randomly at a mall in Philly. We talked on the sidewalk for a few minutes. Then I went to another Rajiv Shah event, this was not at his place. I was talking to a white guy friend of his. We must have been talking a lot because Rajiv then walked over and expressed a slight jealousy that I was getting along so well with his friend. I guess they were pretty close. I did not know. I forget the guy's name. Actually I never learned.
Chaitime went down after two years. The nuclear winter set in. And this morning I meet Rajiv Shah again on the pages of the New York Times. The Wikipedia entry on him says he is "the highest-ranking Indian American in any presidential administration." Now we need someone to become Secretary and then for Bobby to become president, and the circle will be complete. I'd think Rajiv has as good a shot as any Indian to become Secretary of this or that or the other. (Independent For Bloomberg)
So I looked up Shivam on Facebook, and there she is in her family portrait. Facebook says we have a mutual friend in Akin Salawu. Akin I got to know doing Obama 08 in NYC.
I sent a friend request. But Shivam's Facebook page lists Seattle as her hometown. Something tells me she does not log into Facebook all that often. And Shivam has not done the Facebook land grab thing yet. That also makes me wonder. (Facebook Landgrab: A Friday Midnight Call)
At the time Rajiv was at Wharton and Shivam was at Harvard Medical School. That is where my sister Babita's husband is at right now. Babita was in town a few days back. It was so good to see her after months. (Landgrab test. Fail.)
Is Rajiv Shah on Facebook? You gotta ask.
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