Caught off guard

Today, something made me remember him.

My master's course includes certain workshops now and then. They are optional, so the attendance is really really low. Most students, especially those who work full time and attend night classes, do not take the trouble to travel all the way to the west for these workshops. In fact, the university actually provides free dinner after these workshops to entice more students to attend them. But all in vain.

So it was no surprise therefore, when a couple of months ago, a total of 3 students from my class attended a workshop meant for 25.

When I entered the lab, he was the only one sitting there. Thankful to see one familiar face, I went and sat next to him. He looked thankful to have spotted me too.

"Hi!" I said.

"Hi! You're from my Research Methodology class!"

"Yeah!"

"Errr... we never spoke before..." He extended his hand.

Before I could take it, there was an announcement from the instructor, "Errr... let's wait a few more minutes, maybe some more people are on the way. There's dinner outside... " She said, but you could see that hope had died in her eyes. Both of us felt sorry for her but we couldn't help laughing at the pathetic attendance.

Usually, my classmates and I don't have time to interact in class as most of them rush into the classroom late because they got delayed at work. So this was the first time I actually had an opportunity to talk to a classmate as we waited for 'those who would never turn up'.

We got to talking, and talked about everything, about how some of the professors were so cruel, about how the full-timers had such an easy life, about how little sleep the part-timers got, and how scared both of us were about the three projects that were due that week.

Our most vulnerable side was open to each other.

And somehow, we connected. You know -- it's that moment when you know you connect with someone, when you feel that you could be great friends? Well, we had that. We gave each other the "I like you. We could be great friends." look. It was nice and comforting to have found someone in class whom I could sit down and talk to, compared to the zillions of nerds (and not to mention, pregnant women by the dozen, who freak me out with all the birth talk).

We kept making jokes throughout the workshop, and soon it was time for dinner. We continued our conversation and both of us agreed that it was actually the food that was driving people away from the workshops. We found each other's jokes funny. We laughed at a lot of things.

Then suddenly it struck both of us -- we did not know each other's names!

"Sorry I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Sayesha."

"Me too! Hi, I'm JS." And he gave me his business card. I furtively dug out mine and gave it to him.

And suddenly the whole world froze as we looked at each other's business cards at the exact moment.

Deja vu. And both of us felt it.

And at the same instant, both of us realised that we had done the exact same thing months ago.

"You are Sayesha?? Sayesha from X publishing company??"

"You are JS?? JS from Y tourist attraction place??"

It was a true Salaam|Namaste type Nick-Hambar moment.

And I realised why his face looked SO familiar. I had seen him before. And not in my classroom.

Here's our story.

Many many months ago, Sayesha, the editor of a children's magazine at company X and JS, the PR manager of company Y were working on a collaboration Z. His company was to provide free tickets to their tourist attraction place for the young readers of the magazine. In return, we would provide ad space in the magazine. Disagreements over the number of free tickets led to the decision that they would increase the number of tickets in return for us doing a free write-up for them.

I had finished the entire write-up when he dropped the bomb. They wanted an extension, as they could not meet my deadlines. I had wanted to advertise the free tickets in the issue that was going to be out during the school holidays, cos it was the perfect timing. They wanted it later, which would have been smack in the middle of school exams, when such an offer would absolutely go to waste (besides getting us flak from angry parents). He thought I was being a bad-ass unreasonable editor who was too hung up about deadlines. I thought he was being a bad-ass unreasonable PR manager who had no respect for magazine deadlines and kids' exams. And thus, we parted ways, crushing each other's business cards.

And collaboration Z fell through. And we were both so pissed off, we decided to call the whole thing off.

Zoom to the present. Here were the same guy and the girl who had stormed away from each other once upon a time, sitting there, making jokes, laughing, and connecting, and becoming friends.

What a contrast. Each of us now liked the same person he/she had thoroughly disliked the last time they'd met!

Just because this time, it was a different setting and we had both let our guards down.

Weird, huh?

And I could not help but wonder. It's amazing how our feelings for someone can change so drastically when they let their guard down.