Serendipity

I bumped into her occasionally at school.Though we did not interact,we still knew each other by sight.For some reason,I got this very haughty, arrogant and bitchy vibe from her.Both of us stood out in a crowd so it was hard for either of us to ignore the other person's presence.We even ended up taking a class together.Again no direct interaction but from what we saw of each other in class,it was easy to conclude that she was bright and intelligent and our thought process was very similar.

I then discovered that she was related to this friend of mine.A friend with whom I grew up as a kid and then lost touch for almost 15 years.I got reacquainted with this friend and found out among other things that she was my friend's sister-in-law.Talk about serendipity!So the next time I saw her in the cafeteria,I went upto her and spoke to her for the first time.I mentioned to her about our common acquaintance and we could not stop gushing about how small the world is.So from then on, whenever we saw each other we exchanged pleasantries and some banal talk.I graduated and got busy with my work.We emailed each other once in a while and talked about meeting up for lunch someday but neither of us give it a serious thought though.

One day,out of the blue,she called and asked if I wanted to go to lunch with her.I had nothing much to do at work and a long lunch break sounded tempting enough to accept her invitation. And it turned out to be one of the best lunch breaks ever!We bonded so effortlessly and learned that we have many similarities including the fact that both of us assumed that the other was an arrogant bi**h and had an attitude!We had so much fun talking about so many different topics that by the end of it all,we were cursing ourselves for having delayed the lunch-meet for so long.It is not too often that one hits it off so well with someone and that too, within no time.The so-called vibe that I got from her turned out to be so far from the truth.Here was this girl,devoid of any pretense,who speaks mind about everything,who is intelligent,an amazingly good conversationalist,a genuinely warm person and who loves to shop just as much as I do and has an excellent taste in clothes.She was so different from all the Indian girls I met at school. It felt really good to finally meet someone that I could bond with. We decided we would meet up for lunch once every week as our work places were close by which we did too.

And then came the news.The news that her husband landed this really good job and that they were moving to a different state altogether.And since her husband had to report to work in 10 days,they were moving out in a week's time.It was so unexpected.And weird.And unacceptable. We were beginning to bond and beginning to feel that the good-friend drought is finally over and thats when this cruel practical joke was played on us.I mean its not everyday that you meet a Gujrathi girl coming from a very conservative Gujrathi family and married into an even more conservative one,swearing by anything holy that she is an out and out South Indian because she was born and raised in Chennai. I so feel like a drama queen right now for not quite agreeing with the current scheme of things.But thats how adult life is like I suppose.You just accept it and move on.