Thank you - A 175,000 Times!!!

Its hip-hip hurray-hurray time. My blog has witnessed 175,000hits. And I am beaming here like a proud parent.

Also, here I am wondering what this baby blog had did to me; what change it brought to me. Well… It fathered the writer in me. It shooed away the boredom. It made me observe the World around me. It made me read (books) and watch (movies).

But this weekend, my blog startled me by bringing a change in two other people’s life. How?

On that Saturday morning, I had just stepped into my home after an overnight’s journey from Trivandrum, Kerala. My parents came rushing to the door with a wide smile in their face. Suddenly my mobile started blinking signaling that an e-mail message has come. It was from a lady; let’s call her Jay. The mail claimed that she is a dear friend of my father’s younger sister. I call her athei; so let’s all call her athei.  

The mail said that Jay and my athei had attended the same college. She had given details about our house in Bangalore and our families. She had also mentioned that they lost contact 18 years before.

I read and re-read the mail. It seemed to be authentic enough. But I was scared to share the contact number straight away. I asked my ammaji if she remembered the names of my athei’s friends. She gave Jay’s name among few others. I asked my appaji if he knows anyone in the name of Jay. He thought for a while and nodded.

I was confident by now. But the movie buff in me and crooked mind made me wonder if Jay was some villain who was trying to seek revenge against my athei. Jaise filmo mein hota hain. Jaise saans-bahu serials mein hotha hain.

With fear coupled with excitement, I called athei. She was surprised to see my call early in the morning. She said that she thought I had cleared some examinations. Oh! Not again. Not now.

I said that I called her just like that. We had a brief chit-chat and I casually asked about her college friends. She didn’t interrogate at all. Instead she started giving the names of her friends; it included Jay’s name too. She also shared a few stories and further narrated how close-knit they were.

My friends always tease me that I give a little too much of information than needed. I don’t deny either. All they need to do is ask one question. I will go on yapping and elaborating. Some details would be related to the question posed and some would have no relevance. At times, the questioner would have forgotten why I am saying all that; and what question he had asked. Many also ask me if I can keep anything within. They ask why I should share everything with others. I never used to have an answer. But that morning, as I was talking to athei, I knew from where I inherited that madness.

Everything asked… said and confirmed, I logged into my laptop and replied to her mail. I shared both mine and athei’s contact number as requested by her. I opened my Facebook account and was surprised to see Jay’s friend request. I accepted it without a second thought. She was there online too and we chattered for some time.

And then, a phone call from her followed. She sounded excited. I concluded that she was as talkative as my athei herself. For some strange reason, I felt as if they talk in the same way. May be the tone or may be the words used; it may also be the accent. I don’t know.

Jay told me that she had been searching for my athei’s whereabouts for the past 4-5 years. She had googled and searched in Facebook too. And it was the day before that she found her out in Facebook. However, instantly she knew that athei is not regular in it. She left a message and started surfing through her friends list. She came across my cousin brother’s blog. But, she could not trace any e-mail ID in it; whereas mine mentioned one. Through my Facebook account she further ensured that I am related to athei and left a message in it and then sent a mail.

Later that day, my athei called me and said they talked for two long hours. And all through the day, I was felt excited beyond words. I was very happy that my blog acted as a bridge between two people whose friendship didn’t evaporate over years. In fact, it only hardened. Amazingly my athei who can be a little dramatic at time, like me, had said, “I always hope that someday I would accidentally bump on them. And I really hope that they still remember me.”

And today, as my little Locomente gets a whooping 175,000 hits, I wanted to share this small incident that happened two days before. If I have been in love with my blog, that day, I fell in love with it all over again. I further wish that my friendship and camaraderie that I share with my blog continues eternally, like the friendship between athei and Jay.

But hold on dear reader, all this would not have happened without you. Thanks a ton. If you were not there to read, I would have given up writing long before. If you were not there to comment, I would never have known my strengths and weaknesses.

Thank you all.

With tons of love coupled with promises to keep writing and evolving 

Locomente! J