Serendipity

“Dad, keep moving, you can check that out on our way back, the store is not going to go anywhere. We have a flight to catch”, said Deepak pulling his dad, who is in admiration of the Swarovski display he is holding.

“Who knows, there may be a tornado waiting to knock down this place”, said dad.

“There he goes, ominous words just before we begin our journey. You just remain a kid, never grow up. Never find anything good to say?”, said mom acting a little annoyed. “come on, you think God will change his plans because of what I said. You grow up first”.

“Mom, dad, you need to hurry”, said Deepak holding his parents hands, trying to stop their childish fights. “This way”, he said, but then he stopped suddenly almost making his parents lose their balance.

“Now look who wants to watch TV”, said dad, “don’t we have a flight to catch?”

“Dad, please stop kidding around”, said Deepak a little annoyed. “I am not watching TV, looks like our departure gate changed and we were busy window shopping, now we need to go all the way to the other side of the terminal”

“If only you were not wasting time, we could have been at the gate by now”, said mom.

“Now everyone blame me. Is it my fault that the gate is changed? Next what? Blame it on me if we miss the flight?” said dad.

“Hey Ram, no one can set this old man straight”, said mom with  contempt.

“Old man? Who are you calling old man. Leave me 5 minutes here and see how many young girls I flatter”.

“Oh! Here comes the George Clooney of India”.

“Then, what? It’s you next to me that’s spoiling my image”

Mom was about to say something but Deepak started walking and they followed him. They walked for 10 minutes in silence and then mom said to dad “Why don’t you wear this sweater? It feels a bit chilly here”.

“No way that’s too old fashioned”

“Now you want a designer for your sweater? What are you? A young fashion model?”

“Nothing less, I can give all the top models a run for their money”.

At this both Deepak and mom exploded laughing. Dad joined them as well.

They walked for few minutes and reached their departure gate, only to find out that the gate has been closed.

Mom said sadly “Hey Ram, what an omnious start for our journey”

“Now stop fretting over everything under the sun. Not a big deal if we miss our flight. We can always go on the next one”, said dad.

“You both calm down. Let me check with the agents if they can put us on the next flight”, said Deepak trying not to show any sign of distress.

He then went to the gate agents and got everything sorted out. The next flight to Malaysia is in about 6 hours and they have confirmed seats assigned to them.

He took his parents for window shopping in the swarovski store that his dad liked, had some food and were just waiting at the gate for their flight to arrive, all the while listening to his mom murmur about how she really hopes this whole trip doesn’t turn out to be jinxed. This time he constantly followed the flight and gate statuses.

It was finally time for them to board, they followed the the directions and were inside the flight looking for their seats. They were traveling business class as Deepak thought economy would be too congested and not comfortable for them. He was hoping that this trip would create wonderful memories for them to cherish their entire life. He wanted it to be a very special family trip. He had planned everything over for days. He felt a little despaired with the note it has begun and how his mom took it all. He tried to lift his spirits and feel excited about the trip. He hoped it would permeate.  He knew his mom very well. Her family was her world and she just had the sense of trepidation when it came to her family. Although she may come across as a person cribbing about everything, he knew very well that she thought that talking about them somehow kept the bad omen away from her family and she felt protected.

They all walked towards their seats. Mom and dad sat next to each other while Deepak was on the other side of the aisle. They placed their luggage in storage bin and get settled comfortably.

Deepak loved traveling. He liked everything about it starting from the quite time he can get for himself during the journey to exploring a new place and learning about their culture. He started to feel the excitement and opened Khaled Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. He enjoyed reading and liked anything captivating and thought provoking, fiction or non fiction. He strongly believed in gender eqaulity and women empowerment and tried to influence people around him on the same. This book was in his to read list, ever since he came to know that this was about the atrocities faced by the Afghani women and how taliban misteated them. He started reading the book.

***************************************

The alarm was ringing, Naina still in bed and eyes closed started groping for her cellphone. She suddendly realized how important the day was for her and jumped out of bed almost instantly with excitement. She thought how funny and childish that must have looked and started laughing to herself. She turned the alarm off and ran towards the bathroom.

She had been waiting for this day for a long time. She is going to go on her first international business trip. Coming from a poor peasants family this in itself was a big achievement for her. She had high aspirations for herself ever since she was a child. This was just one step forward towards the realization of her dreams. A small but nevertheless important step. She planned to go to temple and from there go to her work, finish some last minute details to her project presentation, come back home and then would start off for the airport. She was done with her packing the day before. She liked to meticulously plan everything in her life, may it be daily routine or special events like this.

Naina’s parents lived in village while she stayed in an apartment all by herself in the city. Although her parents were not highly educated, they were very liberal and forward thinking. They gave her freedom and independece and trusted her judgements.

She got dressed, called her parents on her special day, took their blessings and started her day as planned. The day was going fine as planned. She was home by afternoon, freshened up and started off for the airport. She was traveling business class and was very excited about the trip. She checked in her bags, got the boarding pass and headed off for her gate.

Naina was inside the flight and was guided by the airhostess which aisle to enter from. She was looking at the seat numbers and finally came to her seat. She got a window seat. The guy she was going to seat next to was reading a book.

“Excuse me”, Naina said. When the guy looked at her Naina said, “I need to go there”, pointing to her seat. “I am sorry” he said stading up and giving her way to get in.

Naina settled in her seat. Looking outside from the window she couldn’t stop smiliing.

The person next to her, noticed her and said, “you seem to be very happy. Hi, I am Deepak”.

“I am Naina”, she said, “nothing to it, it’s just that I am a little excited traveling to Malaysia. My first international business trip”

Deepak was very impressed. He was very respectful of career oriented women and this girl seemed to be so young and ambitious. She must have been an asset to her company that she is traveling business class he thought. She was not exceptionally beatiful, but she exuded an aura of positivity and charm, that draws you towards her.

Deepak’s dad suddenly started panicking and asking “what is this? Where am I?”, he started crying and shouting, “take me home!”

Deepak’s dad suffered from memory lapses, he occassionally forgets everything around him and gets very confused understanding the present. The doctors said that this could be caused because of his military background, but couldn’t explain as to what triggered it.

Deepak held his dad’s hand and started explaining him, that they were going on a trip to Malaysia and everything was going to be alright. That would calm him down for about a minute, but again he would start over again. This lasted for about half an hour. Finally Deepak’s dad calmed down and he seemed to be doing okay. Deepak came back to his seat. Naina was watching him all along. She saw how patiently Deepak was answering the same questiones by his dad again and again. She was really impressed as to how well he was taking care of his parents. It struck a cord in her. She always admired understanding, accomodating, responsible nice hearted men who are emotionally connected.

“Is he doing okay?”, Naina asked.

“He is fine, it happens sometimes, we are used to it”, Deepak said.

“Heading for a vacation?”, Naina asked.

“Yeah”, Deepak smiled  and said “our first international vacation as well. I guess it’s an important trip for you. I wish you all the success”.

Naina told him about her work, she told him how it was a struggle at every step given her  financial background. She told him she wished to take her parents on vacation as well sometime soon.

Deepak felt enticed, howmuch ever he tried to draw away his attention from her, he couldn’t just resist. He never felt such strong attraction towards anyone before.

They talked all through the flight, when they heard the announcement about landing in few minutes, they exchanged their phone numbers. They both knew, this was just the beginning of a long lasting relationship they are going to share and how God pulled the strings to make them sit next to each other. They started laughing at this thought and looked into each others eyes

***3 years later***

“Mom, that is a little bothersome, can we just skip it?”

“Sorry dear, it is what it is, can’t do that.”

Naina rolled her eyes, looked herself in the mirror and smiled. This is the happiest day of her life, she still remembers every detail of the day she met Deepak as if it happened yesterday.

It was time for her to go, she took a deep breath and walked along with her uncles to the stage.

There she saw, the man of her life, staring at her in awe, smiling as happily as she is. Even if God asks for a wish at this moment, she couldn’t ask for anything more. This is all she wished for, stay by Deepak for life, through thick and thin. She didn’t care how her life is going to be as long as she has him by her side.