Of strangers and strange coincidences

This story starts right after my Antakshari audition blog post. One of the other contestants (Hmmm... in honour of blog ethics, let's call him Mr. Stranger?) was also interviewed by CNA along with me. I had heard him sing, and he was really good. But I had not seen his face, and I only knew him as a stranger, as "the guy whom Annu Kapoor gave his aashirwaad".

Well, thanks to Norah Jones, I missed watching myself on CNA, and had given up hope that I would ever see the clip. Well, looks like life has its own secret ways of surprising us. Apparently, Mr. Stranger had googled Antakshari audition results and found my blog, and left me a note. He had recorded the CNA clip, and offered to send me a CD. I received the CD, watched our respective interviews, and was of course, thrilled beyond words.

Soon, I got busy with work, the weekend non-F1 KL retreat, and planning for the trip home. I forgot all about it, and postponed my promise of treating Mr. Stranger to chai to return the favour.

And today, I was out with two of my friends, and over dinner, I was telling them about how I had got the clip, thanks to Mr. Stranger, whom I've never met. Then we went to Mustafa and there, the unbelievable happened! I had just climbed the steps to enter the chocolate section, when I saw this guy with a look of surprised recognition on his face. It was Mr. Stranger! Even though I'd seen him in the clip, I would never have recognised him, and would have probably walked past him, like I walked past all the other hundreds of people there. Luckily he recognised me first.

For a minute, I just stood there, gaping. What kinda coincidence was it, that out of all days, on a Monday night, I bump into him in a huge place like Mustafa! Just like that. I was just so utterly suprised to see him there that sense and words took leave of me and I ended up introducing him to my friends as "the CD guy". If I had a rolled up newspaper in my hand then, I would have thwacked myself on the head and said, "the CD guy? that's all you got? the CD guy??? Couldn't you have said something more respectful like, 'fellow contestant' or 'guy I met at antakshari' or 'guy who was nice enough to send me the CD'?" (Wonder if he took offence...)

And now I am sitting here, feeling so amazed and amused about the whole thing that I feel that a blog post is in order.

Gives me the feeling that someone up there is having a cool time, amusing himself by careful placement of coincidences in our lives.

Here's to life, and the coincidences that make it more amazing than it already is.

And by the way, Mr. Stranger, I still owe you that chai.