Coincidence

I had been sitting on the beach for over an hour. Finally, I got so bored that I took out my laptop and connected it to the internet. I seldom visit chat rooms, but that day, I do not know what invisible force pulled me towards this India: 9 chat room, where I met Aryan. I still do not understand what had impressed me more. His name or the first sentence he had written to me.

“My love for you is greater than the sea.”

“What?” was my obvious reply.

“I am sorry. I was telling my friend about a poem I am writing and clicked your name instead.” He apologized.

“It’s ok. Tell me something, are you sitting on a beach now.”

“Yes I am. Now don’t tell me that you are sitting on a beach too. I am always impressed by coincidences.”

“I am. Which beach are you on?”

“Vishakhapatnam beach. Don’t tell me you are here too.”

“No, I am on the Marina beach in Chennai.” I replied.

“Uh, ok.”

I felt that he wanted to say something, but stopped himself. So, I took the conversation forward. “Hey, can I have a look at your poem you are writing.”

“Sure. I have just written the first stanza. Here it is –

My love for you is greater than the sea,
The distance of 1000 miles between you & me,
Cannot bring down my love for thee,
Because love transcends boundaries one can never see.”

“That is quite nice. Girlfriend?” I commented.

“No. I just like writing. Hey, in all this discussion, I forgot to ask your name.”

“Nishitha” I lied. My friends had suggested that I should always be careful about my identity online.

“And your’s?”

“Aryan” he replied.

That was how our friendship started, and grew on. We started off by mailing each other after that and then slowly started meeting online over the weekends. It was always fun speaking to Aryan. He had a dual nature, that of a child and a grown up man. In situations that required serious considerations, his thoughts were quite mature, and on the creative side, his thoughts were childish and were innovative in nature. He was one of those rare breeds with development in both sides of their brain.

3 months passed since our first meeting and we, by then, had become very good friends. A year had also passed since I had joined HCL. My parents found a match for me then. His name was Pavan and he was working in Cognizant, Chennai. After both of our parents were satisfied with the alliance, they asked us for our opinions. We said that we would meet once and finalize. Two days later, Pavan met me at the cafeteria on the ground floor of Tidel Park. In the 20 minutes I spoke to him, I found out that he was simple, sweet and cool with a crisp thought process. Sitting in the cafeteria, I was thinking more about food. I gave my go ahead to my parents and they were happy. That night, I mailed Aryan, telling him about this.

2 days later, Aryan replied back, saying that he was very happy for me. He also said that, his parents too were on the same track and maybe he would be wed (locked) soon. I felt a small ray of unhappiness touch me. I did not love Aryan, but I only had this doubt that, after marriage, we both would not be able to continue our friendship and I did not want to miss him. In the meantime, Pavan’s parents called us up, informing us about Pavan’s consent. The astrologer’s were called and the marriage was fixed on a day 3 weeks from then. It seems that, there were no dates for a long time after that, for god only knows, reasons. Everything happened in a hurry after that, shopping for dresses, ornaments, things, invitations and so on.

I got out of it only a week later. Pavan came up with the idea of making an online wedding card and we sat down on it. It was ready the next day. It was quite beautiful and I liked it very much. In the middle, the words, “Suneetha weds Pavan” shone out. The next day, I mailed the invitation to Aryan. Beneath that, I wrote, “Hi Aryan. Here is the invitation for one of the most happiest days of my life. But, with this, I also need to tell you something else. I need to tell you a truth that I have always wanted to say, but was never able to. My real name is Suneetha. I hope you will forgive me for this small mistake.”

He replied, “Hi Suneetha or Nishitha. (I prefer Nishitha). I am really sorry but I will not be able to come. It is not because you lied, but because I have my own wedding on that day. You can call it the height of coincidences. Here is the wedding invitation.” As I scrolled down with a heavy heart, I saw the names glittering in the middle. “Suneetha weds Pavan” At the end of the mail, he wrote, “P.S – Don’t feel sad. I had lied to you too.”

I would have preferred “Nishitha weds Aryan.” I was so happy.