It's a small world after all...

When you are living in a country literally halfway around the world from your home, you really don't expect to run into someone that you know. Well, I did, and I am still amazed. I met Dr. Paul Lasko at the European Drosophila Conference just over a year ago in Hungary, he is an American researcher with a lab at McGill University in Montreal, Canada who is friends with my former boss at Northwestern, Bob. As it turns out, some people at McGill University think that it is important to establish strong collaborations with Indian institutes (like the NCBS) and as such sent a delegation of researchers to India to meet with investigators and discuss the potential for exchange. Paul just happened to be one of the scientists that came to the NCBS to visit, and we had a chance to catch up yesterday afternoon. This has not been the first chance encounter, as a person who was working in my lab at Northwestern is a close friend with a person who was working in the lab that I am currently in at the NCBS. Additionally, a friend and colleague of mine (a grad student in the lab) has a brother who works for Motorola in Schaumburg! It just goes to show that the world is not as big as we may envision when just about any destination is just a flight away. I am going to keep my eyes peeled for anyone else that I may know that is wandering around Bangalore, you just never know!