Chance Encounters

Chance Encounters, Life is full of them. The friend whom you haven't seen in years, runs into you on the subway, which you very rarely take; You pass by a used book stand which is on a route which you had to take because of a construction work on your usual route and find a very rare book which you always wanted to read; winning a lottery on a ticket which you had to buy because the news stand guy did not have enough change or as Mr. Bogart put it "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine". Not all of them are good as the examples above. But when they are, they make the day better, sky brighter and life worth living. Here are two chance encounters that I want to share, which are similar that of Mr. Bogart's.

(A) The year is 2003, the date Jan 4th, the location a Train (AP Express) from Hyderabad to New Delhi. Even though the tickets for our(8 of us) trip back to college for the Spring semester were booked more than a month in advance, we were surprisingly wait-listed until the morning of the journey. When I reached the train station, I was surprised to find that there were hell a lot of students(like 10-15 times more) on the platform, than the usual . Then I got the answer for the mysterious puzzle of not being able to get a confirmed ticket though booked well in advance. It is that a different college students (apparently too many of them) are also taking the same train on that day.

Anyhoo, we finally get to our seats(which are not all together by the way), we see that there are some seats in our cubicle(a section of 6 seats) taken by the students of other college that I mentioned and surprisingly all girls, Woohoo (give me a break I was 18). After a while of awkwardness, we all got introduced to each other. Among them was this cute girl who surprise surprise started a conversation with me, WITH ME. Asked me if she knew me from some where. I was like, I would know if we had met before (because she has this sweet smile on her face that no one could forget). And so it began, the most memorable train ride that I ever took. We ended up exchanging emails (well it was 2003 and we dint have cell phones yet). We kept in touch, became good friends. I started to like her and wanted to be more than friends, but unfortunately she dint feel the same.

(B) The year 2008, the date Nov 10th, the location Starbucks @ AstorPlace, NYC. I have been having some money problems and had to take up a tutoring job in addition to my job on campus. So I get a assignment to tutor Statistics to a Nursing student at NYU. That afternoon I had an assignment midtown which ran a little late, so I texted the student saying I am going to be late by 10 mins. She replied back saying it was ok. When I reached the Starbucks(which is my favorite Starbucks location in NYC), I couldn't find her right away. So I called her and finally saw her sitting at a table all obediently and cute as always, with the curly hair and a smile on her face. I introduced myself and sat down across the table. She said "I never had a tutor before, how does this work?" I said, whatever she wants to do is fine by me and I asked her "Do you want to learn the subject or just get a good grade?"(I always think of asking my students that question, but that was only time I ever asked anyone that question). She said "Wouldn't you get a good grade if you learn the subject?". Right then and there, I liked her for the way she thinks. I liked the interest that she has shown during that session. We had 7 more sessions after that and the more I knew about her, the more I liked her. I also got to know that, lucky me, she has(had then) a bf. She had almost all the qualities that I wanted a girl to have and also (though she doesn't know yet) we seem to be very much compatible in a lot of ways like two halves of a medallion. Though I haven't seen her since Dec 16th 2008, we still keep in touch and also she is single now(knock on wood). So being an Eternal Optimist, I am my keeping fingers crossed.

Though the first of my Chance Encounters did not end the way I would have liked, I am sure and confident that the second one will(hey, a guy can dream can't he?).