Me and My Darling - 6

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2004-2009

These five years of my life went by pretty fast. Coming to the U.S was an entirely novel experience for me. Again a new world, a new set of people. Some unknown fears in the layers of the mind. The zeal to learn everything like a new student at a school. Life was dragging at its feet. As such, I was not the kind who would sit at home for a minute. I felt I was jailed in the four walls of the apartment.

As I didn't know car driving, the dependency made it even worse. Entertaining the little rascal was a big challenge. Having been pampered by grannies, uncles, aunts, cousins, and neighbors he too was a loner like me.

Slowly I started to make friends with the other Indian woman in the Apartment complex. I found a small job at a front office that paid me just enough for my son's daycare and bus pass. Life got busy again. Though I was occupied and was making friends on the go, there was this missing feeling about my darling, all the time.

Facebook was started in the year I landed on this magical land, but I had no clue about it. I had free access to the internet. However, I wasn't keen on having an active Orkut account and wanted to maintain a low profile.

Will my darling let me lay low like that? The hunt began again. I would search for her on Orkut whenever I got time.

The same search result every time. Profile Not Found. Meanwhile, my thoughts would drift away. She must also have got married by now. Maybe she changed her last name. Did I miss seeing her face in the profiles that I already saw? Did she have a profile picture? Did she have an Orkut account at all? My thoughts multiplied by the dozens into hundreds. Yet, I didn't lose hope. Wouldn't there be a day when I won't find her through Orkut? Because that was the only weapon for me then.

This way the days turned into weeks into months into years..many changes in my life too. Our precious Ammu was born. Mom came to the U.S for the first time. Mom, Rushi, Me and the infant went to visit my sister at Chicago. My hunt didn't stop with the places I visited. It continued as usual but with diminishing hope. This time..OH MY GOD!!!! There she is! With her same old Close up Smile profile picture. If at all there was an instrument that would measure my happiness, it would have reached the highest point.

As I was getting ready to send her message, my beautiful sister interrupts and says, WAIT! Don't send the message from your ID. Let's keep the suspense for her. I wasn't in a position to wait for a second longer. Hmm..But I liked the idea, what to do now? We both agreed to send her a message from my sister's ID. Are you Kalyani from Khammam? If yes, please respond.

I must have crashed the Orkut servers by refreshing every single minute, after sending her the message. Unfortunately, there was no reply from my darling. There was a pang of pain, again. Thoughts are always there to bother you in such troubled times, aren't they? First of all, is she using her Orkut ID? If at all she is, then why isn't she replying? Maybe she doesn't know my sister's name? I started pestering my sister to send her the message again and again.

So, this time we changed the message slightly and send it like this: If you are Kalyani from Khammam, please send your number..Great surprise awaits you. And the count down started...

To be continued...