From Me to You

In Bangalore, most of the office campuses are shared by many companies and we have a common food court, where employees of all companies in the campus dine. I saw her for the first time in the food court. She was beautiful the way South Indian girls are. Dressed in a red salwar, with a well plaited long hair and anklets adorning her feet, she looked amazing. But love at first sight? To me? Nah….. Who knows, may be she is just visiting the campus and does not even work here. I knocked the ideas out my mind and got back to my food and chat with my colleagues. But truthfully, I was still not able to get her out of my mind and the image of a few strands of hair across her beautiful face kept coming back to my head.

When I was almost convinced that she had gone and that she did not work in my campus, I saw her for the second time, once again in the food court. As I was ordering my meal, I heard a few girls talk in Tamil, my mother tongue and when I turned to see, I saw her yet again. In a saree, that day, she looked the most beautiful among women and most attractive amongst all of God's creations… I asked myself "Is she the one? What if she was married?? "

Being an engineer, quick thinking had always been easy. I dropped my bottle of coke as she was nearing me and she stopped, I bent down and found that the Metti (Toe ring worn by married Tamilians) was not on her feet. I thanked God for being so merciful and stood up and looked at her. "Sorry", I said and she replied with a smile and walked away. From that day onward, I made it a point to be near to her as often as possible in the food court. Those 30 minutes began to make my day, everyday. The more I observed her, the more I found her to be the kind of girl I had always dreamt of. For the next few months, I found me becoming hers… Falling in love afresh every time I saw her.

January 26, 2010 the campus was decorated elaborately for India's Republic Day and the management of the campus was holding a celebration for all the companies. I dressed in the Tamil traditional style, shirt and white dhoti, kept moving across the crowd with the hope of finding her. I walked all across the party hall but did not find her. Disappointed, I sat down with a few friends when someone tapped on my shoulder. I saw my friend and saw my girl with her. I was immediately up on my feet and could not stop looking at my girl. My friend introduced me to her and we shook hands. We both spoke for a bit and walked out of the hall. A little while later she said she had to meet her friends and went to the hall. I stood there with my mouth wide open and cursing myself for not having done the things I had planned to do. For the past one week, ever since the function was arranged, I had so carefully picked up my clothes and written down and memorized all the points I wanted to tell her. I promised myself that I would talk to her if I saw her and that is why I had looked for her all over the hall. And now, even though, she was there, right there, I was at a total loss of words and was letting her go. And I stood there under the single tree, as alone and lonely as the tree itself. I knew I would love her forever more and that she was a girl with whom I will fall in love everyday and that she would be the most precious possession of mine. But there I was watching her walk away. The Gods seemed to have been testing my love for her because at that moment, They came to my aid. It started raining and she was far away from the hall. The nearest shelter was under the tree, with me. She turned back and came to stand next to me under the tree. And then, I understood the purpose of the tree being there and the rain. In the next 30 minutes of rain that followed, we both had the best conversation (among the millions that we have had in the last few months), in silence through our eyes.