Serendipity

This word is one of those long 5 syllable words your cram for GRE to get to the US. It means Chance. Well here is my story about chance.

Scene 1: Four months ago I went to Bangalore. There we planned on a hike to a place called Shivagange. The “we” here includes amongst others, Naveen, my brother-in-law and his wife’s colleague’s teenage daughter Mala. This was the same hike Naveen and I had attempted earlier last December. The hike was wonderful and it could make a post of its own. More on that later.

Scene 2: I went to Bangalore last weekend since Naveen and his wife had a baby girl and they had planned a ceremony at the temple. They felt that I should be present at this auspicious moment. But before going to their house I made a detour to my friend’s house in Malleswaram near Sampige Theater after getting off Bangalore Mail. He lives in this new high rise condominium complex called Mantri Apartments. BTW, condominium complexes are called apartments and the individual unit called a flat. Anyway, Swamy was due to leave for the US and I wanted to catch up with him before that since his return to India was after my return back to the US.

Scene 3: I was quite tired and wanted to rest, but Swamy dragged me to his good friend in the same complex. I dragged my feet and complained that I was not in the mood to be polite and make social conversations. He assured me that Raghu, his friend was a nice guy whom he had known from his Austin, Texas days. He was right, Raghu and his wife very hospitable and made me feel right at home. We talked about pretty much nothing of consequence, but time seemed to pass by without effort. When it was time for me to go, they invited me to some party they were having that evening. Swamy also added his emotional blackmail. I regretfully left their house.

Scene 4: I met Siri, my new niece; very cute baby exhibiting no stranger anxiety at all. She even came to me. When I first came to the house she was asleep in this nice old fashioned crib. I asked about it and Naveen mentioned that it was Raji’s colleague’s grandfather’s crib; almost an antique.

Scene 5: Raji, Naveen's wife came back from her parent’s house and after some small talk. BTW could someone tell me how is my wife's brother's wife related to me. Is there a named relationship even in Indian languages? Getting back to the topic, I mentioned that I was with a friend in Malleswaram in this new complex behind this theater. She immediately said that she also knew someone, her friend’s brother, who lived at Mantri Apartments. She added that Raghu was an expat from US. My ears perked up. I immediately gave details I knew of Raghu; engineer, wife, 2 sons; CEO of a startup etc. Yes Raji's answer was yes to all. Turns out, Raghu was her colleague’s younger brother.

So I called Raghu and promptly told him that the child I went to see was actually sleeping in his grandfather’s crib and additionally I had gone hiking with his niece few months ago!!

Now that is a small world.