A Stranger then, a Friend now

Across the road that led to my house was the office where he worked. I crossed him twice a day but we had never met.

Although we had chatted over internet for almost an year now, though with breaks of months but whenever we got back in touch, there was something that neither of us could ignore.

That day was like any of my regular days. At 6 pm, I left my office. And then on, everything was happening like it was scripted well in advance. While I sat in the cab with my earphones plugged in, a chat beeped.

"Hey girl! whats happening?"

"Hey! am awesome as ever :D heading home. Whats up with you?"

And there was no reply. Nothing unusual. People often tend to ping friends on chat for a hello and then get busy with work and forget about the popped up chat window. So, I got back to my music.

After some 30 minutes, the chat beeped again. It was him again.

"I know you are awesome!;)"

A couple of minutes later, "Can we catch up today? How long will you take to reach your stop?"

I have always had this feeling of not meeting up with strangers very soon, Although an year isn't too soon but I just did not have that 'Let's catch-up' feeling and I replied,"Had a hectic day at work & am dead! Dying to relax.."

"No issues :) Am always available...lemme know when you want to"

"Sure! Take care :) " and I ended the chat. I had reached my stop by now and as a habit, was holding my bottle of pepper spray in one hand.

I had an idea! I was not really tired and definitely not dead as I had told him on chat. I usually think and rethink before doing something, probably a not-so-side-effect of being a Strategic Planner.

I called him up.

"Hey Vikram! busy?"

"Not at all! What's up?"

"Am right here outside your office. You mind coming?"

"Whhhaattt??" was all he said and then coming back to our conversation, he continued "Just be there and am rushing through."

I couldn't help smiling with my eyes stuck to the exit of their building. Since the building housed many corporates,people kept coming out every moment.

"I shouldn't keep looking at the gate like that", and i moved a little away.

While I was walking up and down that small area, I saw a guy in blue shirt walking hurriedly through the exit.

"Vikram! right?"

"Yehh Girl! You are exactly the same like your profile picture, except that it doesn't talk! And is that pepper spray for me? Goodness! I won't harm you."

"Oh! Not really for you but you never know!" and we laughed away.

"Come on! let's go and sit somewhere. You want to eat something, right?"

"How do you know?"

"Whenever I ping you around this time, you always say you are busy with food. Little Foodie! Let's go munching".

The cafe where we sat was a nice and happening place beeming with people catching over coffee and discussing work. "So... why this sudden plan? "

"Just like that! When I got down at my stop, I felt like I wasn't that dead", I said jokingly.

"That's like an awesome girl! By the way, If you don't mind, I would like to introduce you to few people. You won't mind, will you?"

"Well, I really don't!But I wonder who those people are?"

"No terrorists and no police. So be the chilled out girl you are! I will just call them up. Although they know you are here", while getting busy with his phone.

I was amused and confused but meeting up some new people was equally exciting.

After he was done with the call, he turned back to me and said "Does it feel like we are seeing each other for the first time?"

"Not to me! You neither look nor sound like a stranger"

"Happy Friendship Day!!" There was such a loud cheer that our conversation came to a grinding halt. And there were those three guys and two girls standing right around our table. I looked at him with those questioning eyes as if wanting him to clarify that they were on the wrong table. Seeing me so puzzled, they prompted Vikram to speak up.

"Relax! we have completed an year of friendship today without blocking each other even once! And that's remarkable!" said Vikram and I happily agreed.

"Tell me something!" I interrupted. "How come you remember the date? Guys are supposed to be bad at that, right?" To this, one of the girls there laughed and clarified. "That was our idea. That's why he was asking you to come over to see him today but when you declined, we returned to our work stations with dumpling-like faces."

"Thank God! I made it." was all I said.

An hour passed by and all seven of us chatted about everything from our jobs, crushes, movies and what not. It seemed like we were friend since ever. As we walked out together to leave, Vikram offered to drive me home. On our way, I thanked him for being a generous friend and for introducing all those lovely people to me.

"Thanks for coming and being so nice to my friends!", he said while waving a good bye.

Right now, as I logged into my Facebook account, there were five pending requests. From those five lovely people I had met the same evening. What a welcome to a gang! And, this one is for all of you out there! (for whatever happened before we all met aka behind the scene)