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203-775-1906
This is just a phone number, a meaningless arrangement of 10 digits. Yet these digits tell the story of a remarkable person in vivid detail.
Hansraj Champshi Maru travelled to America from India in 1968. He completed a master's degree and a PhD in Chemical engineering in Chicago, even as he and I started a family. In 1978, we moved to Brookfield, Connecticut and lived there for thirty years. During that entire time, 203-775-1906 was our phone number. Even when we moved to Boston seven years ago with our children and grandchildren, these ten digits have remained as Hans' mobile number.
Today, he received a phone call on his cell phone, and the person left a long message. The man is a Jain recently arrived from India, now in Texas, and has received a job opportunity in CT. When he Googled the location for a Jain Center in CT, our old address, 7 Trailing Ridge Road in Brookfield and 203-775-1906 appeared. When he reviewed the location on Google Maps, the location appeared to be a private property, and the man was confused, so he called.
A tiny slice of earth, 7 Trailing Ridge Road, again offers deep significance to Hans' remarkable life. It was the house of Hans and our family for 20 out of the 30 years we lived in Connecticut. Even in today's technology era if someone searches for a Jain organization in the whole CT, he locates Hans's former house. A life of meaning brings new meaning to assortments of digits and slices of earth.
Hans is outwardly an educated, successful engineer, who directed over 100 PhDs in alternative energy research and built a path-breaking fuel cell company. He is a father and a grandfather and in many ways the patriarch of the extended Maru clan in America
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