A show that was not meant to be, a meet up that didn’t happen and rains that took over the entire city like a vindictive ex lover.

I could actually make this the shortest blog ever written. End it like the above paragraph. I really could. But.. Ah yes that word ‘but’ means I need to complete this story for this could be a beginning or is it? Let me not be cryptic anymore.

A Friday Evening and the promise of a fulfilling one. A stand up show by one of the funny men in the comedy circuit and I was ready to come out of my self imposed isolation from the city and have a few laughs with a friend.

I also had a commitment to take care of a dear one and like women always do, trying to be a Superwoman doing everything ,I thought I could manage with my multi tasking skills. It does not always work though.

Then nature shows up and how, monsoon announced itself with a thunder, dark clouds and heavy rain which was now seeming like a deluge by evening. Yet, I optimistically went ahead with the plan because how bad could it be?

Once I got into the cab I was stuck between here and nowhere with water clogging, rains for two and half hours. My friend who was already reaching the venue told me to relax and chant a mantra telling me that there will be a path, it will open up. I shushed the skeptical part of me aside and sincerely chanted the mantra, hoping for something good to happen.

At one point I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t go back home and I couldn’t reach my destination either so I got down where the cab was jammed for two hours, waded through water clogging roads and searched for a shelter, a respite and there it was half a kilometre away, one big mall and at that moment I felt really grateful seeing that concrete structure.

I walked my way all wet and tried to make sense of all this. The irony of it, my friend reached the venue and saw there was a movie happening instead of a stand up and when she checked the tickets, the  show was actually for tomorrow! When she told me this in shock and embarrassment I shrugged, it is what it is. Now that I was stuck here what could one do.

A little flustered,I had to sit somewhere and absorb all this. And right then when I was sitting in a cafe, weary, tired and sipping coffee, she walked in.

A damsel softly asked me if she could use the plug point to charge her phone and to sit opposite my table, I smiled and said I don’t own the space, you can sit if you want to 😊

And like that we started talking. She didn’t look like she was from here and she was not, a fellow nomad from another country, I could see softness as well as a wanderlust in her eyes. So much to see, so much to explore and slowly making her way through different worlds forming her own path.

We chatted, we laughed and we spoke about our entire lives, a complete heart to heart conversation just like that. Deeply personal that would take us years to reveal to someone very close. How is this possible that two strangers, two women just meet and end up talking about their lives, their journey, their source, their destination, their loves and their passions?

Now when I look at it, it was surreal, dream like, almost like another parallel dimension. While my friend who went back home having her own adventure was concerned about me stuck with nowhere to go, my dear ones at home wondering if I would ever get back home that night, here we were, two complete strangers pouring our hearts to each other, finding the funny part in our current situation.

We spoke almost everything under the sun, family, India, Indian men, the city, love,relationships, journey, food, quirks in people, the countries we lived in and travelled to and more.

Two hours went by and it was time to figure out a way to get to our different destinations. She very kindly told me to even hang out at her place till I could figure out a way to get home. Such kindness, graciousness and trust comes rarely.

As I bid goodbye to her I realised how similar we were in our journey of life, kindred spirits and we were destined to meet, maybe this is what the evening was meant to be, an offering from the divine. We exchanged our contacts worried about the safety of each other reaching home.

Finally I got a cab thanks to my friend who went back home from the show venue and kept trying for one and kept messaging me. It was her care and kindness that am thankful for too. The mantra she gave me opened up in different ways.

When the cab was moving slowly with the friendly gentleman cab driver and we started our own conversation, through the jam  towards home in pouring rain, I realised nothing is a coincidence, it never is.

I was meant to get out, I was meant to not shun the world as I usually do, I had to get stuck, get out and walk to that coffee shop and meet a kindred spirit.

And as I reached home past midnight, I got a ping from the awesome gal I met a few hours ago, echoing my thoughts saying it is a blessing indeed and we were meant to be stuck at a place together.

I felt the concern in my friend too who stayed up till I reached home safely past midnight.

It taught me today to not isolate and insulate myself so much from the world, to not look at the world with no hope but to give it a little bit leverage, to give it some benefit of doubt that there are like minded people out there with a lot of softness, one needed to just see it differently.

And did I tell you that her name means Divine offering? 😊