23 December, 2005

World is small


Believe it or not. It happened to me. It was a Sunday and I was shopping in the Town Centre, (Malls and Plazas are called as Town Centre in UK) with my family. After a nappy change for my daughter we decided to have some snacks and were walking towards the Samosa shop. Suddenly I saw a Asian family walking towards us at a far distance. Though the entire family did not see us, I had a quick look at the guy and screamed......"Dey........" and the gentleman looked at me for a second and screamed back calling my name. I never knew what happened. Many trespassers noticed our scream and so our wives. We shook hands and were overwhelmed, surprised, hugged each other. He was no one than my school /class mate who studied together along with me. He selected Science group and later became a Doctor. I remembered seeing him 12 or 13 years before in a peak traffic in Chennai like in Movies, and remembered him saying that he was in Germany, doing higher studies in medicine and working. I have never seen him after that. We were excited so much, and took few minutes to realise that our wives may be wondering and exchanged introduction of the families. It was 11.30 in the morning and we never knew anything until 7.00 p.m. in the evening. We had gone to a small juice shop and then to my house and were chatting so long when our better halves reminded us about the time. The children were asleep. We talked so much. What a great surprise! I never thought that I would meet one of my childhood friend in a Town Centre close to my house. I knew that he was in Germany for 10 years and never knew anything about him. So everything was a great surprise. I realised that the World is small. I am sure some of you would have met someone like this surprisingly. I am planning to spend this Christmas Holidays in his beautiful house in a small countryside near Liverpool. He has specialised in Cardiology and is doing very well. I am happy to spend few days and taking my family to his house to spend few days and have fun talking about our good old days. His kids are also well acquainted with my kids and so we are going to have a great time. He lives in a countryside and I am sure that I may get some beautiful English Country side pictures. My Nikon FM2 is getting ready with me and I do not wish to part away without wishing you all a 'HAPPY CHRISTMAS' .

The picture in this post is our Town Centre with decorations for Christmas (but not of this year.. taken couple of years before).

11 comments:

ada-paavi!!!! said...

aaha sir must have been wonderful meeting your old friend,eppovumae meeting old frnds is good fun

apporam now how wud it have been if the person wasnt ur frnd?

REFLEX said...

Its always nice to meet someone after a very very long time and that too unexpected. Happy Holidays.

Jeevan said...

Yes it should be a happy suprise for u to see your Childhood friend.

Wish you a Happy X-Mas, enjoy with your Friend. what is u r friend name?

Pandhu said...

wow..
oh yes it is really wonderful meeting someone as a surprise after losing touch with the person for years.
Unexplainable feeling ah?

Hope you guys have a good time with his family.

Unknown said...

Nice incident. Hope you guys have a lot of fun catching up during the holidays.

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Wow...should have been a great surprise Balaji.!! I can imagine how you felt.!! Amazing.!

I've never had such an experience in the recent years..though I look around in Temples/public concerts etc.!!

Its a great feeling indeed.

My regards to your friend and the halves and quarters :) ( wife/kids)

Unknown said...

what a wondeful thing to happen!I'm sure you must've been thrilled!

Am back in Chennai after 12 years & bumped into an old college mate like this.We had so much of catching up to do!

Hope you have agreat time with your friend!

Happy christmas & happy new year!

Rashmi.

Visithra said...

aww thats sweet what a wonderful christmas present ;)

expertdabbler said...

thats a greast feeling!

for me this is kinda restricted as i have so far managed to stay in touch with school buddies all thru :)

but yeah i think as time goes ons, it might ust not be possible and indha madhiri surprises irukkum :D

Dubukku said...

aah very nice to bump on to an old friend. Have a great time.
Happy New year !

Balaji S Rajan said...

Vatsan - yes it was wonderful and it is wonderful to meet old friends. I knew that he was my friend. So no question of " apporam now how wud it have been....frnd?".

Reflex - Thanks and same to you.

Jeevan - Yes it was a real surprise. Hope you had a good christmas too.

Reva - Thanks. We did have a wonderful time.

WA - Thanks.

NV - Always I keep looking out as you do. This was just a coincidence. I bump upon friends everytime when I wait at Frankfurt.

Randomthoughts - Oh...it should have been great.

Visithra - Thanks.

PK - If you are in touch with them as you said, it may not be a surprise. But anything is thrilling when you meet in alien land.

Dubukks - Wish you the same too.