This a serendipitous story. Probably one that fairy tales are made of. Once bitten, I was twice shy. In marriage and in love yes.

This time my parents were being extra wary, and not treading into this territory after being part of my last debacle. They had left it to me to make my choices. I had met a bunch of blokes the second time on, all by myself. But none fitted the bill. I was a single mother to a five-year-old, and was not ready to commit to a relationship wherein the guy was uncomfortable with my daughter. She was my priority and more. Yet, I knew I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life all alone. I had posted a profile on one of the matrimonial websites. But after a point of time, it just got taxing to meet various people without making any headway. I had a full-time job as a Communication Officer, a child to nurture and parents to spend time with. I decided to take a break. 

I went to Delhi to attend an Isha Yoga workshop, on Inner Engineering which was conducted by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. This was in 2005, when he used to conduct the workshops himself, and I was one of the privileged lots to be able to attend it, thanks to the motivation of a dear friend, who was a volunteer at Isha. This 3-day workshop transformed my life. The day the workshop got over, I went up to Sadhguru and asked him to sign his book that I had bought. And he wrote with his beautiful free-flowing handwriting, “May you know bliss.” and he blessed my Rudraksha beads too. Yes, I had gone through deep turmoil and struggle for a couple of years before that. Little did I know then that this workshop, along with Sadhguru’s blessing were to be my divine intervention. 

I went back home feeling uplifted, rejuvenated and with a spring in my feet. As I opened my emails after a gap a few days I found this mail sitting in my inbox. It was from this guy who had written to me after much deliberation. Yes, he had seen my profile about 2 years back on the same website. But, had chosen not to pay up and register (one needed to pay up to send emails on this website), due to the credit card scams doing the rounds then. Later when he had gone looking for my profile, he had noticed that it had been deactivated. Yes, I was fed up of all the weird blokes who wanted to communicate. Finally, in January 2005, on my parents insistence that I keep an open mind and at least activate my account, I had done so. This with much apprehension, just before I left for the workshop at Delhi. And this young man who was visiting India then had also been asked by his parents to consider the option resettling yet again. That’s when he went back to the matrimonial website, searched for my name, found it, and this time paid up and promptly written to me.

I wrote back and got a reply, instantly. Thus started our round of email communication. He seemed so different from the others. More of a friend who wrote long, interesting emails about his life, his work, his passions, his growing up years and so on so forth and I replied back with much fervor. He seemed to be so interested to know about my daughter, her antics, her choices and asked for her all the time too. He didn’t jump the gun and ask for my phone number either. That was a rare quality. He was taking it slow and so was I and I preferred it that way. After about a month of writing emails almost every day, one day he told me that he was to travel and might not have access to his mails. In those days there were no smart phones and he was off for a work offsite. He asked if I would be comfortable sharing my number. I agreed, and that’s when we started texting each other. And then one evening he called. We spoke and thus followed long distance conversations on the phone that slowly started turning into an attraction of sorts. It had been over a month we had communicated and we decided to meet. He flew down from Bangkok, where he lived then. The trip coincided with his birthday and Holi. My daughter took to him like fish to water and vice versa. Both of us got along so well too.

Since we both had been through unsuccessful marriages in the past, we chose to give it a year before we waited to tie the knot. In the interim, he visited once more, and this time for the daughter’s sixth birthday.  Our families met too.

 

 

 

 

We got married after almost exactly a year ,of knowing each other in 2006. 

Thus a per chance and serendipitous connection, turned into a life long commitment of love and companionship. A connecttion which happened two years before, the real communication took off. A connect that was probably a blessing from Sadhguru himself and the universe at large.

We have been happily married (cliché yes, but what the heck) for eleven years now. Eleven years on 12 March 2017, to be precise. We are blessed with another daughter who is already 8! The older one went to college last year. It’s been a roller-coaster ride, peppered with more highs than lows I would say. And he stands by me and I by him, rock solid. We are each others pillar of love, hope, trust, joy and support.

Life has a way of throwing up pleasant surprises your way, just when you think that things are going down hill. Life has a way of showering you with blessings and bliss. That’s when you know you have experienced serendipity in the true sense of the word. Life is a beautiful journey of synchronous and serendipitous events. We just have to savour and cherish them.

 

 

Linking up with Sanch and Corinne for Friday Reflections, the prompt being Serendipity.