Pic Credits: Paperless postcards
Story Credits: Anonymous
Writer: Shambhavi Dubey
Request accepted! Say Hi to your friend.
Boy: Hey! Do you know me?
Girl: Not really! I added you by mistake, I guess.
Boy: Hahaha…Really!
Girl: Yes, I have a friend with the same name, so I got confused.
Boy: Wow!
And the conversation ends. But hey wait! The story begins here.
You must be wondering what is the story really about? Is it again a love story? (I understand we have heard so many and have our own as well :p) Hmm..not really! But I can say that it’s a story that will make you believe in soulmates again (considering so many people around me with broken hearts, hahaha.. kidding: p). Mind you, in this story of two people, we don’t have a dedicated chapter of love; love here is like one of the morals of the story, which isn’t explicit but it builds inherently with time and can be felt every moment as the story travels. Oh! by the way, it’s the boy here narrating it for you.
The story commences with a monotonous tale of a middle-class boy, who eagerly wanted to go to an IIT. Prepared hard but the luck got a little harder (it seems: p) and I landed up in one of the NITs. Now that is an anecdote for some other time (with some elaichi wali chai maybe, hahaha..).
Summertime 2015. I was about to get done with my second term at NIT. It was one of those usual days when you have a satiating meal, followed by a catnap. But it marks the inception of this beautiful story. Scrolling through my Facebook feed, right before when I was about to nod off, something happened! I sent a friend request to someone I didn’t know personally (hahaha…did I made it sound too mysterious:p). Apparenlty we were schoolmates (something I explored while going through her profile), but being a first bencher, who was passionate about IITs, I never got the time to check out the people around (Honestly, never thought about it. All my attention was acquired by preparations. Hope you feel the dedications I had :p )
A few days later the request got accepted and it started with a weird conversation (the one you saw above). I misunderstood myself being a first bencher, busy in preparations. Seems like I was on the second bench, as someone else didn’t know me and wasn’t very interested to talk (hahaha..:p). Weeks went, no conversation and I got involved in my daily chores.
You all would agree that a good college gives you a lot many opportunities to explore and I was no different. But hey, my college gave me a little more extra to explore; The Soulmate. I, along with one of my seniors, was working on a start-up idea. Things were catching up well, but then we needed people, who were genuinely interested to give it a shot. And here comes the girl again. Her profile aligned with the role (Thanks to my networking skills. Hahaha… :p) and she was also looking for some hands-on experience in start-ups (Serendipity!). And finally, some real conversations began.
Next two months, were dedicated to our ride of friendship, apart from the start-up. Believe me, it was one of those exciting ones. We kicked off at a slower pace, as it was a maiden ride for both of us. But soon, we started accelerating and switching gears. The level of comfort was sufficient enough to share our embarrassing moments, without any inhibitions of judgement. The discussions were unending.
Now, the bond was more than just the conversations we had. We were so close that 2 years passed by, and we didn’t realize that we should meet in person as well (haha…yes, we didn’t meet all this long and that too when we were just 300 km away!) Honestly, we had a paucity of a common time and place.
But it’s is rightly said, God always has a plan for you. In my case, Lord Jagannath planned it for me and we decided the date. It was the day of Rath Yatra, in 2017. She was in Raipur and I was there to catch up with my brother.
Tadaa! And they met each other. Finally, these two anxious souls encountered each other on an Holyday:p. I ain’t a big fan of Hindi movies but yes that day my mind had a lengthy list of romantic Hindi songs to play :p (Kidding!). We saw, hugged and laughed with each other for the first time and that was our ‘Soulmates day’.
Two individuals brought together by a common language and a little bit of fate; An instant connection and understanding happened, that has only strengthened with time, and here we are today. It has been 3 years to that Holyday (touch wood!), but the warmth and comfort we have built every day. It feels as if we are still the same online mates, chatting discussing, fighting and cherishing their lifetime with a hope to meet each other again, but this time with a profound sense of care and support for each other.
And here, this chapter of the story closes! The Soulmates are on their way to write more!
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