Me and My Darling - 7

To read the previous parts,  please click here

There was a huge silence for almost two days. No response for the message we have given. I almost came to the conclusion that she was not using Orkut. But still there was a hope that one or the other day she will see this message and respond.

Right before two days of my travel back to California, I got a reply message saying "Who is this? How do you know me??"

My happiness knew no bounds; at the same time I was a bit disappointed that she didn't give her number. As she replied, I was sure I could get hold of her tomorrow if not today. We send another reply saying, we know you very well and all our family knows you. Let me know your number.

This time we got the reply immediately. May be she was also curious to know who Mrudula is? This time I went crazy with happiness. I was jumping with joy. Without a second's delay, we dialed the number on that humid summer noon. Phone kept ringing forever. No response. Dialed again.This time I could hear a hello. My sister said "this is Mrudula here. Is this Kalyani?" We heard yes from the other side. It was impossible to control my excitement. Now many questions followed from the other side. Mrudula?? I don't know anyone by this name? How do you know me? Did we meet any time? etc..etc..Now my sister and myself were unable to control the laughter. My sister replied yes to all her questions with out giving any clue about me and she said someone wants to talk to you and handed over the phone to me. I was literally holding my breath and a tried not to crack up on the phone and said Hello. She replied 'hello' in a confused tone. Then I didn't want to keep the suspense any more. I said, V.P Latha here!!! All I could hear was a shrill almost breaking my ear drums, followed by a sorry after sorry. Then as expected, a chant of scoldings. I never felt we didn't see or talk to each other for years.

After letting out all her ranting on me she asked, "who is Mrudula? I saw her pictures in Orkut. I had been breaking my head for the past two days. I must have seen her pictures at least a hundred times expecting to identify her. But in vain. I was wondering how someone knew my id? Many questions had been haunting me." We both felt as if we found the lost happiness of our lives. I told Mrudula is my sister. "Oh! is that your little sister? who used to go to school with half skirt, two plaits tied up with ribbons? Did she change so much?" My  darling couldn't believe it. 

After resolving all her doubts,  I also let out my part of scoldings for disappearing without a warning. Then I asked why she was saying sorry. It seems that she was in a parking lot of a shopping mall when received the call. The way she screamed everyone stopped for a second to stare at her. She then realized where she was and I think she almost forgot entire world for a minute and later to finish her shopping. We were talking, talking and talking.

I really can't explain the happiness I felt when I heard her reaction. It still echoes in my ears till date. I used to think to myself if I were the only one waiting to meet her. Many times I would wonder if she remembered me at all?? However, on knowing that my darling also had been thinking about me gave me a huge sigh of relief. Countless memories..we were touched by the changes in our lives. So many changes in five years? How did our lives transform so completely? She felt bad that she wasn't there for me when I needed her the most. Though we weren't able to be there in each other's happiness and sorrows, we still were there in each other's hearts.

It's not a surprise that We didn't realize two hours passed by as we kept talking. What was more surprising was, when I told her I wanted to see her badly and asked where she was living? She said she was living in Detroit  MI, which was a five hour drive to my sister's place. Five hours??? Then I told her I am in Chicago. I couldn't drive that far as Ammu was an infant, my sister has work and next day was my flight to CA. She had some commitments which would not permit her to come that day. As the desire to meet her remained that way, I boarded the flight cursing my timing for not sending the Orkut message a couple of days earlier.

To be continued...

P.S: Sorry for a lengthy post..didn't know where to stop it.. :-)