We met for the first time at her college culturals, Mitafest. It was 22nd Feb 2002. We had been in touch over emails for a few months before that. My cousin - Rakesh - was her classmate in college and it was through him, in a 'convoluted way', that we came to know each other. She didn't know this, of course. She invited me to come to the culturals, so that we could meet in person. I was quite reluctant as I didn't think I knew her well enough for a face to face meeting but I decided to go. Now that I had reached the place, I thought our first meet could do with some spice (what I then thought was a good idea). I thought it would be fun to have her look for me (yeah right, show off!!!!).
I hear this dedication from the Jukebox with the message going like "To someone out there, this is Bijesh. I'm wearing a black t-shirt with an Om written on it". My friends and I got all excited at the message. Thanks to them who'd added up excitement over the time saying things like 'He's from St.Joseph's yaar, must be a hunk', 'He writes so well and like rock music too, he must be cool', 'That dedication was such a cool thing to do'. All this obviously got me very excited. Then started the search for the guy in black tee, with 4-5 of us looking around for one with the matching profile. Imagine, almost every third guy was wearing a black tee and us, staring at their fronts to spot the Om sign. Finally it was my friend Ravi who found the man for us.
Ravi comes to me and comments, "So you are the guy in the black tee everyone's looking for... I remembered that you had something painted on your tee-shirt." He added. I had been hanging out with my cousin's friends all morning and this guy remembered. Then he drags me away to meet her. She had already been pointed out to me earlier yet I felt quite uneasy about meeting her face-to-face and that too while she stood around with a number of her friends. Introductions were made and we were talking when I told her that Rakesh, who was right next to us, was my cousin. I can still remember the surprise on her face and the way she laughed while being utterly confused. I must admit that it was not a date-type thing for me, not even remotely so. :) With her big gang of friends, however, we didn't get much time to speak. After that meeting, I didn't really expect to keep in touch with her because that is how I usually am with people. Get acquainted and then lose touch.
It was surprises all along for me. Like he being Rakesh's cousin to the how he said that he'd got my email id randomly from some yahoo chat group. And it was well after 3 or 4 yrs, I got to know that it was Rakesh who'd passed my mail id to him. So yes, we can call him the cupid (with glasses). Coming back to our first meeting, he turned out to be this simple guy next door and didn't fit anywhere into 'The dude' and 'Hunk' image, we had all thought of. To be plain honest, after the first meeting I'd little interest in knowing him more nor did I think I would meet him again.
I sent her the usual "It was nice to meet you..." email and waited for the emails to run out and for her to become another person that featured briefly in my life. Little did I know that we would continue to not just be in touch but actually pretty good friends. In a few months, I moved to B'Lore on my first job but emails flowed as always. I wouldn't know how it happened or when it happened. Pretty soon, we were thick buddies who confided almost everything to each other. We cribbed about life and we shared the happy moments too. It continued so for a long time. We met each other very few times during all this, that was when ever I came down to chennai. Otherwise, it was mostly just the phone calls and emails and messenger.
I still remember the days when I would come back from college everyday, grab a cup of tea and logon to yahoo msgr to chat with him. There were hardly any days when we didn't discuss our days with each other. The day looked incomplete if I didn't chat or talk to him, he had become my bestest friend. I could tell him anything and everything, cos he would listen patiently. It was during one such casual chat sessions I asked him out of the blue "Why don't you get married. It's been so long since I attended a wedding."
"Find me a nice mallu girl and I will marry" he replied with a smiley.
"hmmmm... The only unmarried mallu girl I know is me. If you want you can marry me" my reply came instantaneously. I couldn't have imagined that this casual statement was about to decide the man I was to spend the rest of my life with.
We both laughed it away and continued the chat forgetting the topic and my statement. But he hadn't, cos towards the end of chat when I was saying bye, he asked me, "What if I ask you the question seriously?"
I still didn't take him seriously.
"You can't be serious" I told him, knowing fully, at that time that he can't be.
"I'm not serious." he said and then with came next msg after a while "But, I'm serious about the question".
He was a master of words and played around safely with that, leaving me mystified, wondering if there was something hidden in it.
After that day, that thought sort of stuck in my mind. We were pretty close and I hadn't been this open and frank to anyone else, ever. It felt right that I should take a chance with her. I couldn't get myself to tell her outright that I was serious about it. I didn't even know if I was serious and so played around for a while. When I realised later that it made perfect sense to me, I got straight with her and told her to think about it seriously. Her exams were around the corner and I didn't want to spoil it for her - although in a way I already had. I also knew that she was not in a position to make such a huge decision. She had her studies to finish and a career to make. There was a long time left for that and things changed over time. We thought we should talk it out in person when I was to visit Chennai next. When we met, as I had expected, she said that it wasn't the time for her to decide and that we should let time take its course. I understood that and I was contended that I had taken the chance and at the least had told her how I felt. Yet something had changed between us. I did maintain a bit of distance. I never told her that I love her in all that time, not once.
Those were the times when I dreamed of the Mills-n-Boons kind of a guy. All my life I had wanted to marry a fighter pilot from the IAF (no, it was not after SRK in Veer Zaara). I asked him "Why me?" for which he replied plainly, "I don't know. It was not a conscious decision. I just know that whenever I thought about marriage, I always had your face popping up". It was a simple and straight from heart statement. It sounded so true and honest. Yet somehow, I couldn't still say a clear yes to him. He didn't match the Mills-n-Boons guy riding on a black horse and he was not a pilot too, then how he can be my dream guy, I thought. I was still the confused young gal, yet to understand the differences between dreams n real life. Years passed by, nothing changed. He'd become that special one in my life, and I was never aware of when it happened. I grew up, graduated and got a job. Then one day he proposed marriage to me. It was everything I'd dreamed of and maybe more than that.... candle-light dinner, The Eagles playing "love will keep us alive" in the background, white roses, and him down on one knee with the diamond ring. I got to live my M&B dreams. I was the princess of the fairy tales. This time I was sure of my answer.
This time around I proposed marriage (yet again) to her in a more proper manner. And she answered with a "Yes" and this time I knew the answer. Time went on, our relationship grew through the daily emails and frequent phone calls. I would go to chennai to meet her but even then it wasn't too often. Our parents had already gotten wind of things but it would take a bit more convincing to get them on board. Until then, we had to maintain a lower profile. Finally, at the beginning of this year, our parents agreed. Things moved pretty quickly after that. Exactly five years from the day we met, on the 22nd February 2007, we got engaged (officially) to each other in a private ceremony.
Then we got married. So, this's our story.... I'm a happy person as I've a story to tell my children and grandchildren. Maybe I should add the following line as in all love stories,"And they lived happily ever after..... (hopefully)"
