Friends will be friends

What's the chance of meeting a friend in a city like New York. One zillionth? Less? I met 4 (f-o-u-r -- four!) my friends from Yekat! Ok, ok. I admit I didn't meet them by chance. We had arranged it many days and many miles before that day. Anyway, it was nice seeing them: Ludmila Razumova (leftest) and Alla Onischenko (closest to me) with whom we had worked shoulder to shoulder at my college for a few years, and Alla's two daughters - Sophie (blackest) who studies now in Britain and who used to be my student and that's why is still somewhat shy when talking to me, and Miranda (pinkest and youngest) who used to be friends with my daughter and now is more American than Russian.

That was quite a reunion! Lucy teaches comparative literature and is married to a wonderfully accomplished mathematician Okhtai. It's Okh for friends which is curious because, first, it sounds and means something like ouch for a Russian ear, and, second, it's unpronounceable for most Americans because - despite the history of the English language - today they just can't pronounce the hard sound h. Okhtai is used to introducing himself as Oktai and after having worked for Google is now working on Wall Street.

Alla is a happy mother of two happy and very talented and very different daughters. Writing about her/them will probably take me days, and I guess I better do it by doses. For now, I'll just say that she's happily married to Jorgen /'yor-ghen/ who is not an accomplished mathematician but is a born-and-yet-self-made entrepreneur with a head of a mathematician. As my wife is also an accomplished mathematician, I wonder whether it's a kind of Karma for an accomplished linguist??