Jab We Met

Neighbors envy, owner’s pride...I was so called more than lucky to get a chance to work for few months from the Sin City as a part of my project. But sin and flamboyant part of the city just fascinated me (...need to say, I'm mama's good boy) but could never suffice the void that I felt deep in heart being away from family and friends. Ultimately I found myself spending most of the time on net or TV. The Iranian house-owner was a live savior in disguise when he cracked his Dish TV receiver to get some Indian channel, not to mention the good old mallu channel - Asianet :-). Asianet had just launched their music channel Asianet plus and soon I could find myself watching A+ most of the time.

Out of the numerous programs, one that never got out of my main memory was Mist, mainly because of its nostalgic style and the bubbly anchor. It was not just that, the anchor kept reminding me of some familiar face, someone I know. It took few days to figure it out, and yes it was someone I had met once or twice, she was my best friend's room mate. To confuse you further, lets call my best friend EF and this mysterious girl EL. Crazy!!....Come onnn...just for the sake of it....

One fine day, I accidentally got her yahoo ID from one of my friends and added her to the friends list. Fortunately she was also online at that time and we were gleefully chatting in no time. Though not as lucky as me, she was located somewhere around the 5 hour (by road) vicinity of Sin City which put us in the same time zone. The first chat lasted for 5 hours coincidently, and we found a strange synergy and resonance in our thoughts and deeds. Our names, ideas, thoughts, dreams, the way we perceived the world, the way we were brought up, our parents, our experiences...man there were many bingos to list down. We talked about almost everything under the sun, from childhood times to college times, from personal secrets to international gossips, went back to Mahabaratas and Ramayanas to discuss and debate over our perceptions. So far so good and it didn’t take time for us to be the best buddies.

Things took a different route when she planned to make a Vegas trip...to see me or the Vegas; I leave it for your discretion. Keep your perverted mind chained, it was just a normal visit with two of her other friends and how better can it be if you get to see Vegas, with a free stay and expert guide to take you around. Those three days were my best days after coming to Vegas and it still remains.

It’s different to be close to a person through chat and mails and to be in person. Though we were 'known for years' friends through chat, we felt like complete strangers when met in person. It's like we unknowingly build an image from pieces of info we have and later when we meet them in person, we try to match them to the picture we have. Anyway it did take some time to rebuild the images and to match it to the real one. It's true that we didn't have flower showers from the heaven, or romantic background songs, but we did notice the missed heart beats when we were together. I was not naive and could understand the laws of attraction and didn't try to conceal it behind the 'special friend', 'special relation', 'extended friendship' nomenclatures. But definitely was not smart enough to differentiate whether it was yet another infatuation or something I really want in my life.

I always have my own reservations on infatuation...after all feelings become infatuation when things doesn't fall into place. What if things fall in place? Well, then it becomes a successful relation. So isn't infatuation a failed relationship? I am not sure, so to be on safer side it’s always better to give some space and time to your relations. But again time is a commitment, the more time you take, the more time you are in the relation and it means more commitment! Ok, now its time to take the advice from wise. Who else would be in a better position to comment than my parents? The paper was presented and there were debates, reconsiderations, rethinking, re-confirmations and finally the green signal.

It’s more than 1 year since we met and I am happily married to miss EL for 7 months now. I don't like to use to term married because, I haven't felt it so till now and nor does she. For me I shifted with a new room mate who is so caring and lovable that we share a special relation, the relation which gives me the freedom to be myself and which inspires me to re-invent the magic everyday in my life......the magic that happened Jab we Met.