Mumbai Calling...

After jas went to the US, our relationship mostly revolved around yahoo messenger and the friendly smileys. The distance was too much for me to just go and meet her. So we decided that we need to plan out our future. We decided US would be our destination and so I started my efforts to go to the US. Many options were there but we had to be careful before we take a decision. While going through this, I got an opportunity to work for another unit for a year after which they promised to send me to the US. So we felt this was a better option at the moment and agreed.

And so after 4 years of working in the same unit, this was my second major change. Any guesses what was my first?? Ha ha....you cant guess but I'll tell you. My first major change was to change my look. I had a thick mush and spects and I guess I really looked like a nerd. I donno what urged me to but...I just was feeling it is time for some 'change' in life.

I got my US visa in November, 2008 and in December jaswandi said she is planning to visit India. So we thought why not we make our parents meet and make it official. Till now it was just talking through mails, phone, chat....but we wanted our parents to meet and formally say that we are indeed going to get married with all their blessings.

Jas was there to plan out the whole thing, I just had to bring my family to bombay :). So I went to Kerala and from there me, mom, dad and my uncle boarded the train to Mumbai. This was going to be my first visit to Mumbai so I was a little excited as it is the most famous city in Inida with a lot of history.

The journey was never ending. It was a 24-hour journey, but it felt like ages. Me and jas were constantly on the phone updating where we are at each station. The excitement was growning as we were about to meet in person after more than a year. Finally the train rolled to a stop at Kalyan station and I was fighting my way out of the crowded train. As soon as I reached the door.....there she was...I couldn't take my eyes off her. :) Jas was wearing a red dress and I could see only her just like the 'woman in red' scene of 'The Matrix'. We hugged and introduced our parents to each other. Vaibhav, Jas's bro was also there to receive us.

We felt so nice to be together again. Seeing after 1.5 years, we just cudn't speak much in the car. We just held hands as if all that we had to say was....I Missed You.

Evening jas came to where we stayed and we both went to meet her friends. It felt nice to meet them and get introduced and teased as a fiance. We spent some time with them chatting about our story and others stories and stories about jas when she was in college. Later we went back home to have dinner.

Dinner was fun. Jas was asked by her mom to serve to my parents and me. It was fun watching her awkwardly serving not knowing what to do. Ha ha...I think she was very conscious. Anyways it was her first time in a 'Ladki dekhnewala scene' :). She did good.

Next day we went to jas's home for lunch. Her uncle and family and granny were there. It was nice meeting them. We had brought some gifts for jas and her family. My parents gave jas a sari and a ring. The ring meant - 'You are reserved for me' :). Jas's dad gave me a nice shirt too. Then we took snaps and finally we decided that we would have the wedding in August.


After that me and jas sneaked out and went to CCD. Now finally we get some time together. It was nice to hold her hand again and see that now there is a ring that says she is mine. :) We were happy that things were going according to plan. And soon we would be married. Evening we had a get together arranged by jas's family for their relatives and friends.

We didn't know how it would be. Didn't know what to expect. We were in a new place, met new people, getting in touch with different language, culture, tradition....it was all something new. The car came and we reached the hall. As soon as I walked in, all eyes were on me....but my eyes were on jas. She was looking so beautiful in a sari, that I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Slowly guests started coming, me and my family were introduced to everyone and it was fun. We really felt nice meeting everyone. Everyone were very friendly and affable, so we felt very comfortable and not out of place. We had dinner and took lots of fotos.

So that was how our parents met and made it Official. We are getting married :)....I think this is just amazing that we have trusted each other and have faith in each other that we can take this relationship to the next level in only 3-4 meetings. All credit goes to yahoo msnger and airtel :) ... also I got used to breaking my own records of my highest phone bills.

Finally we said goodbye the next day, promising each other that we will stick to our plan and get married in August. Heres a video summary of what happened in Mumbai and how it all became Official!!

Our story

Well so it goes this way....sandeep was my module leader in infosys. Now most of you know how exactly enthusiastic I was to join infy (pls note the sarcasm).......well so I had made it a point to just not work and my project manager throws a mock project at me and asks me to complete in a week. Now inspite of everything, I did try but still, none of my other team mates were available to help and it was not possible to do the whole thing and so i didnt. Sandeep has always been working from bangalore and I was in chennai, now he comes online one fine day and starts off with, "I dont think you are taking your work seriously, this is not your college or training, you are in a real project, its time you started working and blah blah blah"..........and I got sooooo pissed off. I found him very rude and arrogant and I saved the chat and was going to complaint against him to my manager.....for some reason I didnt, but I used to avoid him, I kept going offline whenever he came online. Then one day he got an award for something and I was in quite a good mood that day, so I thought chalo wish karte hain, so I just messaged him congratulations and just generel small talk. from that day I started chatting with him and thought, chal itna bhi bura nahi hain....this was around march 2006.

In may '06 we had a team building session in mysore. so our team which was spread across bangalore and chennai, all of us went to mysore for 3 days. Now there was this friend of mine in my training batch who was directly working under sandeep and he was quite praising him, so I thought milte hain atleast courtsey sake. We were in the same guest house, so though a little late in the nite, my frend was like, naa he is cool..lets meet him now. So we call him up and tell him we are coming to his room and I went there along with my friends. And this Sandeep, didnt even get up from his bed to greet me. Imagine, me walking into some guys room all nicely dressed up especially to meet him, and he doesnt even show little enthusiasm, I was like, what rubbish, how dare he. And he had a MOUSTACHE!!!!. I was totally disinterested and had a very very bad impression about him. Next day also we went on a trek and he hardly spoke with me. (Now he tells me he had a bad impression about me too, as in when we were on a trek, I danced on that hill top with another team mate and he thought I was like a total gayeli case, landing in anybody's room late in the nite, dancing anytime anywhere........now he has just got used to the dancing anytime anywhere part :D)

Anyway, back from mysore, we continued chatting and kind of became friends. I started liking chatting with him at work. Then in sep '06 I had to leave for my gre to bbay and I had taken a 1 week leave. And the day before I left, he goes like, hmmm..........do u mind if you would give me your cell no, i would like to keep in touch during the week. And there started the sms phase. This was in oct sometime, I had typed him a sms (by this time our sms rate had almost gone to something like 2 in an hr) and instead of replying, he called and he spoke some crap for almost an hr and hung up. Though the phone call was wierd, we progressed from sms to talking on the phone.

In October I had gone to bangalore to take my toefl and that time had been to bangalore office to meet my manager to persuade him to give me a transfer. That time i met sandeep face to face again and asked him whether he would join me for lunch, i thought now we were frends and all so just casually poonchha......and he said NO....can you believe that,,,huhhh........... Our phone calls really increased in time, almost thrice a week for an hour each and then i got my admits in jan and I finally moved to Pune in feb '07. Sometimes I used to get this feeling that there was something not like normal friends between us, the way I used to tak to him was not how I used to be with other guys, but then it really didnt make sense, as in I hardly knew him and I was anyway moving out to a different country........

In may '07 I had planned a trip to goa and so had he at the same time (i know none of my friends believe it was a coincidence, but it was.....we didnt deliberately plan it together).....he asked me out....first I said no, he had done so much nakhra before, now it was my turn, but eventually I ditched my friends for one whole day and went with him.

And that date was magical. I had a great time with him. I thought he was very interesting to talk to and a very sweet guy as such. The way I spoke to him, blushed when he said something, held him back when he said he was leaving...I just could not comprehend. I mean, I was thinking, what the hell is wrong with me, why am I behaving this way.

Back to Pune I missed him a lot. Our friendship grew stronger.....And then we had a big fight one day over the fone. He suddenly thought that we were getting beyond casual friendship and me leaving would just hurt the both of us. Ofcourse what he was saying made complete sense, but I didnt want to let go of him. I knew this was too far fetched and we hardly knew each other, but still the thought of not talking to him, meeting him; troubled me a lot. Yes i knew I had a future to think about, but for the future how could I give up on the present, the beautiful moments I was having. Nor could I screw up my future for him. I was ready to take a risk and try out how things would work, thats what I told him. But Sandeep was not ready for a casual relationship, he told me if he said yes, that would be forever.

That needed meeting one more time and he came down to pune to see what we really had. It was crazy, just three meetings and committing to each other.....that was scary. But Pune were like the perfect three days...candle nite dinner, dance, fit for a yash chopra movie. And we knew, what we had was too special to give up on, we would continue with our individual career plans and at the same time try to work things together.
And then I moved to US and the distance only grew bonds stronger. I really dont know when I took the decision to get committed. We spoke to our parents, and things were formally approved in Dec '08.

The time I met him in Oct '07 was as meeting a senior colleague, the second meeting in May '08 was as friends, the third meeting in Jun '08 I was his girlfriend and in the fourth meeting Dec '09 I had a ring on my finger :)

And now....we are getting married in less than two months. If you ask the way I am feeling, well now am slowly turning from "woww am getting married" to "oh my god am getting married"