Serendipity?

I have always believed that Mr. Fate plays funny games. And once again he proved me right. For more than two years we worked at the same office, traveled by the same train to our hometown for holidays, every time I would wish for us to travel together, but not one time had that happened. And today after having spent many years of not seeing her, she walks in and sits right in front of me. My brain did a good search of my memories and brought in front of me few of the her best images that it could find. She looked the same to me. Her big dreamy eyes which had hypnotized me on several occasions, the mild and fresh fragrance of her perfume which would make me turn towards her even mid-conversation, the music of her anklets which my ears yearned to hear - a flood of these memories rushed to my brain.

It took me few seconds to get back to the present and realize that she was still sitting opposite to me. By the expression on her face I felt that I had made her uncomfortable by staring into "nothing-ness". I gave her a big smile and she replied with a short "courtesy" smile.

"Hi Piyu. How are you doing?", I asked, expecting a reply something like "who on earth are you? and how do you know my name?"

After an initial look of surprise her reaction changed. "We worked at the same place. Didn't we?", she asked. I gave her a nod and was about to introduce myself when she stopped me "No, no, do not tell me your name. I remember you well, your name starts with 'N'... Wait, wait give me a second, hmmmm Na... Na... ni... Nayan? Narayan? No got it. 'Naman'. Right?"

I was surprised that she remembered me working in the same office, her remembering my name shocked me. My smile told her that my name was really Naman, and she had recognized me right.

"Piyu, it has been such a long time!! You have not changed a bit."

"Yes it has been a long time, 10 years? or may be more. I have changed a lot, I have aged, and the 10-year-younger-me definitely looked better."

"You look as great now too. But I was really surprised that you remembered me."

"Oh come on Naman, you had helped everyone in my project although you were not involved in it. All of us admired you. We learnt a lot from you. I could not recognize you initially, looks like you have put-on some weight. You look much healthy and fit now. But your face has not changed."

I did not have any reply so I changed the topic. "So are you still working at the same place?"

"No I quit few months after you did. I am working at a museum now."

"Oh great, you always liked arts, history, temples and other historic monuments, didn't you? I remember reading about them in your blogs."

"You used to read my blog? I thought no one knew about those articles."

"No I used to like your articles. I have visited may places after reading about them in your blog. There was something in your articles which made me visit those places and enjoy the creativity of our ancestors" I said although I knew that I visited those places only because she had been there and liked them.

"Thank you, it is always good to meet a fan. I send out these articles to few magazines. You can read them even now, if you are interested that is." She sounded like a kid waiting for her teacher to ask for her homework and then appreciate the good work. And I sure did not want to disappoint her. She gave me couple of magazines from her bag. She had definitely improved a lot. Her blogs were nothing compared to these articles. She wrote in great details about the architecture of a temple she had visited recently. She was very happy to know that I liked it and was even more happy when I told her that my next trip would be this place.

"What about you? What are you upto these days? I have had no news about you from the day you quit the company."

"I traveled a lot. I worked in many countries. Came back about a year ago, and now I am here for good."

"So where do you work now?"

"It is funny that you ask this question now. Do see that farm over there?" I asked her pointing outside the farm our train was crossing. "I work there."

She looked offended. "Are you making fun of me?" she asked

"No I am serious. That s my coconut farm. I work in my coconut farm. That is what I do for a living now."

"Oh wow that is great. How does it feel to work in your own farm? Sounds fun to me."

"It is not as fun as it sounds. There is lot of work involved. And lot of stress too. But I like it"

"Yes I know that. Everything depends on rain....."

Ten hours passed like ten minutes. My station was about to come. I have always liked traveling, but after such a long journey I would generally start missing the comforts of my home, but this time I felt like.... something different. 10 years ago if I had a list of things to do during my lifetime, this might have been one of them. And today when I got off the train I was happy that the "kid" within me could strike down one of his to-do lists.