Yes, you are right with what you had guessed! A cup of coffee, that is floating in between is nothing but our love story that stuck in between our Expectation & Reality !

It all started with a Tamil Shaadi Matrimony !

Till then I never had any hopes on arrange marriages or even so called love at first sight.....But surprisingly, it did happen on one random night!!

It was just like another usual day after office and household chores, resting on sofa, I was just scrolling the profiles at Matrimony just for the sake of so-called Indian parents, typical marriage pressure.

And there I did see his profile for the second time (yes, I did see him earlier a couple of weeks ago, but I declined his request randomly) But this time, something different hit my eyes & I stopped scrolling a moment & opened his profile.

And seeing him in a traditional attire with my favorite Blue shirt & White dhoti folded across knees, yes just like a typical South Indian traditional attire. I didn't know why I liked him this time, maybe he looked attractive to my eyes in that attire, a neat and smart guy with a mild smile. I liked him and I felt like giving him a try.

This time I swiped right!! Yes, I accepted his request. And there it all started!

After accepting, a couple of minutes later I got a Hi from him, I did even.... Our conversation started, but didn't last even a couple of minutes too...Why because??

I'm a Tamil girl who is settled in Bangalore and wanted to stay back in Bangalore for couple of reasons whereas, he was from Chennai.

The moment our Hi's met, my second msg was

Where are you from? And do you have any plans of settling in Bangalore?

Yes, I was too conscious about the location because it meant a lot to me for a couple of reasons.

But to my disappointment came the reply from him...

I'm from Chennai and have no such idea of moving.

Something inside me felt a bit disappointed and right there I replied telling,

Me: Sorry, I'm looking for someone from or going to be in Bangalore. I'm sorry, Bye.

He: No problem, Take care Bye

But somewhere I felt, he was down...I don't know why, but I felt it.

But then I didn't talk back.... just kept my phone aside and started starring at the TV again with no second thoughts and night passed away..............................

Next Day:

Next day started as usual, back to office......But somewhere I had this thought running in my mind.

Isn't it blunt to avoid someone right away in a second msg, I felt bad for ending it that short...I thought it was weird for me to talk to a person that way. Why because I'm a HR and my work was all time trying to keep people comfortable and happy around me. I never cut short any conversation that soon, so it hit me a bit hard, why did I didn't even explain to him a proper reason for rejecting him. I felt it is unfair to say a Bye right there in 2 mins. (Yes, I overthink!)

Though I was occupied whole day, this thought kept running on my mind like a background music all over... And dawn came, so was I, came home totally exhausted. But my mind was still afresh thinking the same. Then I decided to text him again... I took my phone and dropped him a msg on Matrimony app and rushed to take a quick bath!

Hey, can we talk over call?

And then I came taking a good shower and started having my dinner... Meanwhile I remembered what I had messaged him, with a rush I opened the app to see his reply. For my surprise, there wasn't one reply.... Yes, not one but many replies!!

Yes, sure! We can talk.

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes, call me

Yes

Please call me at xxxxxxxxxx

I was surprised seeing these many Yes and thought like,

Seems like he is too eager to talk with me but whereas I'm going to call him only to say a Hi and have a good conversation and end up telling my reasons for not choosing him for the sake of location, instead I didn't have any feelings towards him till then.

His excitement confused me, and I felt a bit confused. Should I really call him now or better not to. Because I thought not to hurt him again saying No on call too.

But then, he had already shared his number too so couldn't avoid it. I made up my mind to call him and keep it soon.

But then came another msg from him

Hey, sorry it was Network Issue here, so I sent so many yes thinking it didn't deliver it you

I laughed recalling my overthinking and replied then...

Please give me 10 mins, I'm having my dinner. Call you back in sometime

My eyes kept staring at his so many Yeses and started smiling... I guess he must have done the same thing.

I called him finally somewhere between 9:15 – 9:30 PM

She: Hey Hi

He: Helloo

She: How are you?

He: All good... how about you?

She: Yes, good

It all started with a formal Hi Hello......... But my mind was curious to know, was that so many Yeses are out of network issue or excitement to talk

I asked and he said...

It was my excitement to talk but this network didn't deliver my msg and I was restless to wait hence kept sending again and again. I didn't expect you to msg me and ask me for a call today. I'm surprised!!

By then I started smiling already

Then our conversation continued just like a typical HR's interview starting with a self intro... Hahaha, yes by habit I did ask.... (about him, his family, his education, career, his habits and by default past love stories)

And after answering all my questions, he giggled telling

Seriously, I felt like an Interview. Just like giving Self Introduction in Interviews

I know, I behaved a little bluntly out of habit and started laughing. Then I started my so called again, Self-Introduction, right from my studies, schooling, college, career, family and my expectations.

So now, we have a good idea about each other! Yes, our self intro extended for literally an hour to two, talking in detail about us and family.

His name was Ajay – His pictures gave me a fair idea about his physique - tall, wheatish, bit bulky yet smart, long eyebrows (which I loved) but our conversation gave me even more insights about him.A kind speech, cheerful smile, excited voice, good soft communication and awesome listener to my ever ending stories. (That you would understand later). Born & brought up in Chennai, Family of 3 – Mom, Dad & Him. Only Son to the lovely parents so the lucky one too.

Myself, Anu – Born in Tamil Nādu, brought up in Bangalore and someone who fears Chennai for some reasons. And would never want to settle there. One could describe me as an all-time talkative, cheerful yet disciplined, responsible & committed, who values people and loves to keep them comfortable to be around. And we are four of us in a family – Mom, Dad, and younger brother.

And to my surprise, that night no one was at home since there was some work and parents had to go to native and my brother stays in a residential school, so I was all alone, and conversation continued limitlessly.

Remember the girl inside me who wanted to just give an intro and end up explaining things neatly and keep the call soon in few minutes, was already lost in call more than three hour by now. Because somewhere we felt a lot of excitement in talking with each other.

Literally how two school friends would talk when they meet after many years on one random instance.

It never felt like talking to a stranger, that we found in Matrimony....

Our conversation went by, we have dived deep in topics like family - about each other's parents, cousins, close friends, past love stories, our jobs, our routine.... And trust me, the conversation extended on endless topics....

And for all your surprise, you know what the time was, by now it was 3:00 AM. Yes, we did start our conversation somewhere around 9:30 PM.

We did know that this wouldn't end up in marriage as far as, any one of us sacrifices our expectations to make it work. Either Ajay must move to Bangalore or myself to Chennai and we know, it's something which is not possible. We understood all this very well, right within 2hours of our conversation on family. But then we didn't know why we were still talking and talking and spending the entire night getting to know each other.

May be unknowingly we started liking each other already and deep inside both of us wanted it to work into marriage.

Do you remember the girl saying, "I don't believe in Love at First Sight? Yes, it was me who never believed such, but by now I had fallen for someone whom I hadn't even seen yet and hardly within a 5:30Hrs of a conversation.

I still remember it was heavy rain that night all over Tamil Nādu & Bangalore, there was he with his coffee with rain and I was here with my coffee, starring at the rain outside through window at 4 AM asking ourselves if there is something we could do to make this work.

But neither of us found a solution to this, there was lot of mental barriers for any idea that came across our minds and finally we came to a point where we understood practically it was not easy for each of us to get out of our individual situations & circumstances and move out finding the Love that attracted us!

After lots and lots of random ideas & its connected barriers and difficulties.

Both of us reached a point where only silence spoke!! Neither our words nor our thoughts!!

The special thing about the whole conversation was, me and Ajay were totally different, we hardly found one or two similarities, it was all our differences that lead to the conversation for so long hours till 6.30 AM morning.

We started admiring each other's different views on life, knowing our differences made us talk even more like what he would do in that place and what would I do in that instance and this kind of conversations kept going.... Endlessly

It was not only about us we shared, about our parents not just the intro but what they like, how they behave and care, how are our friends are and how connected we are to our best friends, we started explaining about them, then spoke about our day-to-day job role and what are the difficulties we face and how did we love our past and how did it end.

And finally, how are we, here exploring for the so called "Arrange Marriage" with no hope of finding LOVE again.

But we did find LOVE again.... Love Alone!! Not Life Together!!

Everyone might think, what is it that we spoke all night and what was the reason we couldn't take it ahead. Few things can't be put in words. Why because, maybe the reasons Ajay or I had for not moving might be very important to us, something we cannot compromise or handle with, but it might be simple for the other person who reads it, may be someone could have better ideas to make it work.

Everyone has their own expectations connected with it's own importance. One cannot accept or deny other's situations and circumstances. It is only the person who lives in that instance will know, where he had stuck between and why it is, that difficult to leave it right there and go behind his Love of his Life.

Sometimes though Love finds us in an unexpected way, just the way we wished it to be, still it's hard to accept, when we are just normal human beings bonded by circumstances, emotions and finally our helplessness to make it work.

Ending it here with the hope of, Love finding its path as per Destiny!!