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The (Punjabi) Guy

I moved to Mumbai at the age of 21 for work. After settling down in the rented apartment and basic sightseeing I started mingling up with my flat mates. As I am an extrovert, making new friends was fun. Within a couple of weeks, I grew close with a couple of my flat mates. One day while cooking I cracked a joke; a new friend of mine (P) laughed and said that my jokes are exactly like one of her friends who also happens to be a Punjabi like me. I jokingly asked if she is talking about a boy. She said Yes and I said, “I think I should meet him then”. P took this conversation seriously. Coming weekend, she went out with her set of friends, came back home, and asked me if she can give my phone number to the Punjabi guy. I smiled and said I am not sure. I really do not remember why but I asked her if I can share my sametime ID instead. People who do not know, sametime was an internal portal of TCS where people could chat/share stuff; it was basically like MS teams. She said okay! This Punjabi guy, P, and I: we all used to work for TCS then.

Next morning, I got ready and went to office. The day was proceeding normally. Since I was new to the role and company, my workload was not too much. Around afternoon, I got a ping on sametime by the Punjabi guy. We started talking casually. This sametime chatting continued for 4-5 days and when I was sure that he was not a creep I shared my phone number with him. We switched to whatsapp chat box after that. We talked about everything for about a week and then decided to meet. We asked P if she was available so all 3 of us can hang but she had other plans and hence, the Punjabi guy and I decided to meet one to one.

I changed 5 times before finalizing my outfit. My roommate teasingly asked me where I was heading but I had only known her for a month and the scene with the Punjabi guy was between P and I, so I smiled and said that I was going to see my friends. I reached at the pre decided venue on time and started waiting for the Punjabi guy. After waiting for around 5 minutes, I saw a tall guy walking towards me from the other side of the road, he was wearing a shirt with chinos. Good looks was the first thing that I noticed. He came and offered his hand for a handshake. I had checked the Punjabi guy’s social media, so I recognized that its him. We shook hands and walked inside the KFC to grab a bite.

We sat, ate, and talked for a couple of hours. He seemed to be nice guy. He was soft spoken and a patient listener. I did most of the talking. Things escalated and we decided to go and watch a movie then and there. By the way, I was a big-time movie buff in my 20s. We booked tickets online, took a rick, and went to the nearby mall to watch One by Two featuring Abhay Deol. While entering the mall, I saw 3 of my flat mates coming towards us from the other side. I did not know what to do but I just did not want to be seen with this guy just yet. Also, I told my roommate that I was going out with friends but here I was with a guy on some sort of date. I just avoided any sort of eye contact with them, changed paths, and walked towards the PVR. The movie was boring but while exiting the crowded theatre, we naively held hands for the first time and hence, it is safe to say that the movie was a hit for us.

After spending some 5 hours together, he dropped me home. I changed and started chatting with other girls. No one mentioned about the mall so I thought that they must have not seen me. After a couple of hours, P walked in the flat and came straight to my room asking how was my date? I started uncontrollably blushing when other girls jumped in saying that they saw me with a tall guy in the mall. I ended up telling everyone, everything.

I started believing in destiny after meeting the Punjabi guy. The Punjabi guy and I ended up dating for 2 years. We then got married in 2016 and welcomed our son in 2019. January 2023 marks 9 years to our first chat and 01 February is what we celebrate as our meeting anniversary. Trust me, it is rightly said that “Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.”

 

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