Surprise of a Lifetime!

When does life take us by surprise? How often do we need to pinch ourselves to realise that whatever we are witnessing is for real? I had a similar surreal experience last Sunday (Sept. 9th) and it was all planned and executed by one of my closest friends (call him S). And inspite of the several clues (marked <>) being left all along, I was unable to spot what was coming my way...

The Sunday before this, S was visiting my city and asked me (and some other friends) to meet him for lunch. I was all for it since we had not met for many months. With everything planned, I played the last minute devil and wanted to ditch the meeting owing to some family occasion. However, to my surprise he rescheduled the whole meeting to my convenience. (<1>) Now this was sure different from what I expected since he keeps visiting my city on-and-off for work and we could have met some other time.

So, like a good boy S called me in the afternoon fixing the time and place. I asked him for directions, to which (<2> curiously enough) -- I heard some girly giggling in the background and he handed the phone to one of them who told me the way to the place.

I reached the place on time and waited for others to turn up. S came along (20 mins late as usual!). We had just started talking (M is me):

S: ... <usual stuff>
M: ... <usual stuff>

S: (After finishing his telephonic conversation with A -- another friend who was supposed to reach there) A is at XYZ place and should be here in 15 mins.
M: Fine. Aur suna... kya chal raha hai?
S: Let me go and check where A is...
M: [Thinking -- Why does he need to go out and check about A? He just talked to him. He has a phone. RF waves can travel through the glass of this restaurant and S knows that!] (<3>)

S walks out of the place. Goes and joins a bunch of girls outside (<4>). I have no clue what is going on. They maybe some cousins and/or cousins' friends or someone asking for directions... etc. In any case, I keep sitting while S talks to them... impatiently waiting.

(Inspite of all these clues, there was no way I could have guessed the sequence of events that unfolded next...)

In come all of them along with S. Okay, I think they are relatives and must be cousins. One of the girls walks up to me. I am not sure what to do and how to react. Then I see S come as well. I think he wants to introduce some cousin of his to me (<5>).

And then, I hear the most unexpected words from the most unexpected person -- S.


S: Meet my fiancee N
M:What???
S: Meet N -- my fiancee
M:What??? -- Is this a joke? S! Are you really serious?
(Among all this, one of the other girls is clicking pictures)
S: No. I am serious.
(I freeze -- half standing, half-sitting. Unbelievable! And Ouch! I am not dreaming!)
M: When did this happen? Let me broadcast this news.

I pick up my phone and call up U who tells me that he knows all about this for more than 10 days! And then I realise that I am the only one who had no inkling... and there were specific instructions (to the entire gang) not to let me know. I am dumbfounded! S -- of all people! And I am the only one who has no hint about it! Wow! I have mixed feelings -- elation for the enormity of the occasion... anger at having been kept in the dark... but sheer delight at the news...

We spent the next 1.5 hours talking (A and G joined us soon) -- I was freaked out and had no clue what had happened... things were still sinking into me...

While driving back home, I was reflecting on the events of the past 2 hours and I suddenly felt a hollow inside me... as if something had hit me... I felt an emotional impulse... as if a part of me had outgrown me...

I reached home and began to calm down... that night and the days that followed, I had a rush of memories about the years I had spent with S...
~ moments where we laughed together...
~ occasions where we worked like mad...
~ places when we argued and produced lots of heat...
~ times when our discussions illuminated us...
~ days when we had misunderstandings and fought...
~ the SUM times...
~ days, months and years which had just gone by...

This post is not about S and me... I can write a book on that... but about events and occasions which sweep you with them... events which touch your core... events which you will look back upon many summers from now and smile...

Dear S and N, Wishing you all the happiness and strength ahead... God Bless You...

"The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us."
--Ashley Montagu (Anthropologist, 1905-1999)