Found

Found I found my dearest friend from college after 18 yrs. She is tamilian born and brought up in Bihar. Her grandparents were from small town near my native place. Her extended family lived in city where I grew up. She came to my city to pursue her bachelors. We became very good friends. She is a warm, kindly and friendly gal. We never ever knew or imagined that we will be out of each other’s life for this many years but it happened.

We were two good friends like good old times.  She was also my NCC batch mate. I could relate to her completely except one thing.  She is a good-looking girl who never cared about how she looked or what she dressed. Though I never cared about how I looked, but paid much attention to my dressing. I had lot of fan following in the college but I never gave any importance to my appearance then or now.

After our finals she came and stayed in my house for couple of days before leaving for Ranchi. I vividly remember those days. I felt sad to see her go and not be part of my daily life.   When I see the photos we took on the day she left for Ranchi, I could sense my empty feeling. I cried so much because I somehow knew then (I suppose) that we will out of each other's life for many years to come. We both exchanged a couple of post mails (pre cell phone – email era). The last time I heard from her was when her sister got married. Due to personal circumstance I was not able to travel at that time . I continued my graduate course in my native and met my husband. He became my best friend – I should say replaced my best friend’s absence and the rest became history.

 I went to Chennai the following year to continue graduate course and got settled down with a job right after college. My marriage happened and destiny brought me to this distant land of US of A. I searched for her frantically in every possible social networking sites and college social networking sites. I would Google her maiden name religiously every single week but with vain. Her parent’s sibling(s) lived in my native city but I only remember their first names. They both worked as lecturer(s) in the physics department in a local college. In the month of September I found  that college website. The physics dept listed  the resume of the professors with address/phone numbers.  I found this around 12.30pm one night and began making cold calls to couple of professors. Luck would have it, I found a professor who knew her uncle. I came know that both her uncles have retired. He promised to find her uncle’s phone number. We exchanged our emails addresses.

He struck to his promise. Three days after the first contact he forwarded one of her uncle’s phone number. I read this email around 1.00pm after a long day of chores. I made marathon phone calls to couple of her relatives finally got her phone number. I called her around 3.30 pm (India time). Her husband answered the phone. When I said my name I could hear/feel  his enthusiasm.  I knew instantly my friend was also thinking about me all these years. Her husband told me that she talked a lot about me the previous week. When I heard her soft voice I was in heaven. At last, I heard my friend’s voice after almost two decades. That was one of the best moments of my life. This really strengthened my faith in god.

We talked for a long time. It so happened that her big birthday was due few days after my first phone call.  I was happy to take  part in her birthday celebration. She is still the simple person both within and out.  She is very smart and intelligent person. She comes from a family which has two of the noble laureate in physics. I thought that she would be working in US or abroad. Surprisingly she has chosen a life I wanted to live. She has married a high-ranking army official and became SAHM taking care of her two lovely kids. She was pleasantly surprised to know that a simple religious Hindu girl had so much of courage to marry a Christian guy. Oh well!  She was not alone. All my college friends were pleasantly surprised after seeing my marriage invitation: ). She often said that the person going to marry me is a lucky guy. I never bothered to ask her why. May be now is the time ; ).

September 2009 is a memorable month for me.  I am fortunate to meet my long-lost  friend after 18 years. I am eagerly waiting for my next India trip to meet her /family in person.