Okie.. I found the answer to this question in the funniest of places... Where?? Where??, you ask!!! No prizes for guessing.. Yahoooooooooooooo....
It was just another random day.. I woke up in the morning to a bad tummy... Queasy queasy me!!! I rubbed my eyes as I picked up my phone, and as I would have guessed, I had a couple of missed calls from Bhavik... "I can call him later", I thought.. The tummy was bothering me more than that..
Tringgggggggg Tringggggggggg.. "Now, which one is that again? The phone, the bell or the alarm??", I asked myself, in my state of groggy reality.. The phone it was...
T: Hello.. Yeah..Hey Amrita.. Tell me!!
A: Hey Tabsi.. Can you go to Tia's school today to drop her... She wants to have you around today...
T: Well, ummmmmmm, I guess I could go.. Will meet aunty and Tia directly at school!!!
*click*
The tummy wasn't ready to settle easy... So the rest of the day was spent in bed... Didn't go to Tia's school.. Bills didn't get paid either... I finally got off my arse at somewhere around 6 pm and went and showered... I scratched my bum for a long time to decide whether I was to meet Bhavik today or not.. Finally I decided to!!!
We met, we went to Cypress, we met Chinmay, we bumped into the million other lukkhas, we smoked...The usual.. Suddenly, out of the blue, Bhavik tells me, he's in the mood to drink some rum.. So we sit to drink.. At our usual spot.. We're drinking and talking.... But there comes a point when we both go relatively quiet.. We both know, we're thinking something, but in classic Tabi-Bhavik style, we dont ask each other!! We both look in different directions and drift into our thoughts..
What is it that you're doing with your life, Tabi.. I know the company is important to both of you.. But are you guys moving in the right direction... You want for both of you to be successful, don't you?? What bout Bipin!! Is he going to help you guys out?? What about the workshop?? Will that dream turn into reality?? You've been working on the idea for months now... Will it or won't it?? Where are you going to be 10 years from now?? Have you any idea??
Suddenly I felt a drop on my forearm... It had begun drizzling... We moved to a safer place... Both Bhavik and I snapped back into our normal selves.. We were talking bout our modern Ramayan script and Sholay remade our style once again... We spoke, we laughed, we hugged, we shared!!
We finally headed our own ways.. Well, it was home, in this case... And I had forgotten about the whole day.. I was just happy to be home!! I changed out of my wet clothes and sat down to get back to my favourite activity these days.. Chatting online!!! (Yeah Yeah!! I know there are like a million losers online.. I don't know what am doing there, but I am not going to deny, I like it)
My Zoo (nick for a friend) was online when I logged in... I am not used to seeing him online late in the nights.. That's when I realized that it wasn't really that late... It was afterall only 12:30 am or something like that!!! I was chatting with him, but I wasn't really hitting off a topic to keep going at.. So I decided to enter a chat room.. I clicked on Mumbai Global Chat room no.3... And I happened to find only one id that caught my attention..
I generally wouldn't go for ids that have names in it.. So like no mohit_is_here would work for me... So I clicked on this id..
t: knock knock.... anyone home??
s: hmmm...tats beter...
s: whoz dis?...n wat doya wan??
t: well, i wanna kill time wid someone who is worth the killin!!! tis is Tabitha here..
s: hey Tabitha..u sound gud enough 4 me 2 chat..but u knw wat...
t: wat?
s: m a gurl...
(Whoaaaaaaaaa... Honestly, this had never ever happened to me before online.. Me mistaking a person for a male and it turning out to be a female!!)
s: hey I knw....u wanna kill a guy..yea..
t: actually, hopin u wudnt gemme wrong or wateva girl... i aint really rejoicin ova section 377 or wateva.. am straight as can be!!! but i wudnt mind killin tym wid a girl either... coz i aint technically 'lookin' ...as long as its good talk, i wud be game!!!
s: hey tats sounds really gud
t: unless of course, i wud keep u away from the men!!
s: as long as u r worth it...wont mind!
t: where r u from girl?
s: wher doya think m frm?
t: well, mumbai am assumin ... but a lil specification wudnt hurt!!
s: Bingo !!!.. nups not at all....in d suburbs?..n urself?
t: am from Mulund to be precise... wat do u do n wat can i call ya.. n u awreddy know am Tabitha
s: ma frnds call me Madz...
t: okie dokie madz girl... i run an events co. of ma own.. wat do u do!!
(She gives me an emoticon tat screams 'shocked')
t: n the shockin part wud be?
s: m almost doing d sam stuff...
t: is tat so... ur into events too?
s: was in media..working as a producer
t: so mebbe we cud work together some time... i was in the media too..was a copy editor tho!! so some similar backgrounds we're talkin bout here!!
s: hey started as a copy writer
t: am assumin its safe to say ur older than me!!
s: 33 ... n wats ur no.?
t: 22
s: wow...even tats almost similar... double 2's n double 3's...
I now run a school of performing arts
t: woah... ur scarin me now...
s: n y's tat?
t: waddya teach!!
s: dance, music , dramatics
t: woah woman... I happen to teach dance too... n wanna open a similar performin arts school myself!! tis is way too freaky now!! when's ur bday ? lets try our luck!!
s: 18th dec
t: atleast there is no commonality there .... 29th oct... so wat forms of dance
s: everything under d sun basically
t: *ears perked up*
s: hip hop , ball room , bollywood
t: u teach urself or u got instructors?
s: now I got instructors... watchabout u?
t: i specialize in Latin Ballroom
s: wow!
t: where wud ur place be??
s: I got ma studio in borivali west... y don u com down
t: i wud love to... when ?
s: Nytime 4ya!!!!!!!
t: u temme..sundays good?
s: yup! here's ma number...
t: okie gimme a min... lemme note it down
s: sure
t: mebbe wen we meet, if ur free, we cud go chill for awhile... n actually catch up.. girl on girl!!
s: u knw wat??......I badly need 2 do somthing lik tat
s: u seem 2 b d 1st gurl....I actually lik!
t: so madz.. hav i successfully managed to keep u off the men??
s: yea.... u did gurl
Only God remembers what happened next and I was diallin her no.... Part of me was just not ready to believe that this really was a woman..
She answered.. "Hello, Tabitha is this you... Hi!! Tis is Madz here!!" Phew!!! Atleast I knew it really was a woman!!!
What transpired after that was pure luck or destiny, I don't know which of the two.. But it was one of the most beautiful conversations I have ever had!!!
She and I had similar childhoods.. Both ridden with the guilt of hiding things from our dear ones.. Both of us had been rebellious teens, notorious in our own rites... We both had loved dogs all our lives.. she has one, I hav one too... She used to blog.. I do now... She wanted to open a pet shelter of sorts.. I wanted to open a pet motel... She dances.. I do too.. She's an entrepreneur.. Am a buddin entrepreneur!!! She always wanted to adopt a daughter... I wanna adopt one too (sigh...someday) She began her career wid the media... So did I.. She jumped jobs before she found her sweetspot.. Am doing exactly that today.. The similarities were endless..
She needed a friend and I needed a mentor.. We found exactly that in each other.. I never ever realized a random rendevouz online could lead to so much joy.. She's definitely like my soul sister..
I am looking forward to meeting her on Sunday... We have also promised to discuss the possibilities of working together some day.. But like they say, never mix business with pleasure.. So it's going to be a tough one to crack.. She made my day, my night, my week to come, my life!! Looking forward to a life long relationship given the crackling start we had...
And yes.. I know now, perhaps, what am going to be doing 10 years from now.. I think the mirror answered me loud and clear!!!
