Warning:This is a long post.. don't curse me if you feel bored by reading this :-) . 27th Jan 2008 …Sunday…Bangalore (Bengalur.. to bring some Indianness to it..), my sister and her family were flying back to US after a 2 month visit to India . Those two months were really wonderful ,playing with my nephew, answering his silly questions and enjoying his every little act. Hmmm… itz really hard to give a sendoff .After wishing adieu to them I hurried to Koramangala to catch a bus to Hyderabad . Thanks to Vamsi who reserved the ticket. As usual the bus was punctually late. (Sorry vamsi.. I used ur dialogue :-) ) .
The final boarding point was Kalaspalyam. As a change from my regular journeys, two beautiful girls got on to the bus. One was married ( don’t ask me, “how you know that”?) and the other appeared to be a college student. Though they were strangers till then, they started talking like they know each other for a long time. The only reason was, both of them were Bengali. The married girl works for SBI as manager, and her husband for HDFC. Shez traveling to Hyderabad to attend a meeting. How do I know all these things….. coz my seat was just behind theirs :-) . That doesn’t mean that I was hearing their conversation… It is like.. they were shouting so loud that their conversation was directly downloaded into my ear and saved in my brain :-).
One more techie (works for HCL) was sitting by my side. He started conversation with me and we were sharing our ideas on the IT field. Of course, he was much more experienced than me. As I was a bit bored, I started listening to music. After some time I noticed that the married gal (Do I need to call her a lady ?.. naa.. shez veeeeeeeery young.) was feeling sick and was about to vomit . The other gal ran to the conductor, brought a cover and helped her. Then she made her feel a bit relaxed and comforted her.
I was back into my music until the bus halted at a hotel for dinner. I saw the two girls in the hotel. Generally I never talk much and with gals… hmm I don’t even dare to open my mouth L. But that day, I don’t know y I felt like asking the sick girl about howz she feeling. I asked her and she replied, “I’m feeling better, Thank you.”. We were back into the bus.
Till then I haven’t talked with the other gal. As far as I know there are two ways in starting a conversation with a co passenger. One, by asking if they like music and the other, if they like reading novels . Fortunately, I saw the gal reading the novel, “The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari” by Robin Sharma. As I was aware of Robin Sharma’s other works, it became easy for me to start the conversation. Believe me, within half an hour, she was talking to me as if we were friends for life. The conversation that started at around 10:30pm lasted upto 3AM and obviously I was just a listener for most of the time :-) . She was talking about her family, her interests. She was shouting ,laughing,enjoying every little moment. I felt as if she was the most happiest person in the world. For a moment I thought she must be a 21 year old child. She told me about Food Technology (the degree shez pursuing), her class room moments, about how she hangout with her friends. Shez quite a character and very open minded. Itz really hard to find such characters these days. It was one of the most memorable journeys in my life(Of course, the best one will always be the journey I made the other way..from Hyd to Bglr with my lucky :-) ).
I donno when we fell asleep. We reached Hyderabad at around 6:30AM. Her boarding point was prior to mine. We wished goodbye to each other and she got down the bus. I wish I could meet her again. But how :-( .What if, in the middle of our journey she missed her mobile and I dialed her number to trace it. Yes, the same thing happened :-) . Two days later I called her again and shez doing well.
Does the title “Jab I Met” is anyway related to this blog.? Yes it is. Itz the apt title (stock dialogue of our tollywood directors :-)) for this blog. If the director of “Jab We Met” has seen this gal, I’m sure he should have taken the inspiration to mould Kareena’s character in that movie. FYI, in no way I suite the character of Shahid Kapoor. Thatz y I used the title “Jab I Met” :-) .
By the way her name is Chandralekha. Friends call her Riya.
