The first time I met Hemanth, he walked up to me and said, “Hi, this is Hemanth.”

Cool, nice to meet you.

Then someone else showed up. Hemanth turned to them and said, “Hi, this is Hemanth.”

Okay...

Then another person came by.

“Hi, this is Hemanth.”

Same smile. Same line. Every single time.

Later that night, I couldn’t resist. I texted him:

“Hi, is this Hemanth? :)”

And that cheeky little message is how our friendship—and eventually something more—got started.