How I met her Mother

It was during my 10th standard, and tuitions were almost compulsory. It didn't matter even if one was great at studies; one had to attend tuitions. There were three batches: Early Morning, Morning, and Evening batch. The Evening batch wasn't my choice, and I couldn't join the Morning batch – most students of this batch were from my own school. I just wanted to avoid the same group of friends. So, I chose the Early Morning class.

Waking up at 5 was effortless then as compared to now. The classes were engaging and not boring, thanks to the teacher who made every difficult problem look easy. I would always occupy the last place towards the wall. It was a wide room with no benches, so we sat on the floor like at home. The room could easily accommodate 100 students (10x10). Another girl used to occupy the same place in the last row. For some days, we just exchanged smiles. On other days, we discussed doubts and solved problems.

One day, she wore a pink jacket similar to the one I had. I observed the design of the zip puller; it had the same floral design which even my jacket had. I didn't talk about the jacket with her as our conversations were brief and limited to subjects.

Some days passed, and we became close enough to call each other friends. One day, during class, she gently pressed the crown of my wristwatch and said, "Hey, I have the same watch! The light comes on when you press the button."

I responded, "It's a gift from my uncle who stays in the USA." I added, "I have a similar jacket that you usually wear." She smiled, and I found out that the pink jacket was a gift from her aunt who stayed in the USA. We dint discuss about this and continued with the class.

A few months passed, and we became friends. We found out that our houses were just a 15-minute walk from each other. So, we planned a combined study session at her home. I visited her home 3-4 times, and we had a great time. I learned lots of study tricks and understood subjects better!

One thing to note is that even after visiting her home 2-3 times, I hadn't seen any of her other family members except her brother, who gave us snacks to eat between our studies. Her study room was separate on the left, and her actual home was on the right. I everytime waited for her in the study room. So, I never got a chance to enter the main house door. It always had a closed curtain.

My father had gotten bunches of fresh green chickpeas from our farm, my mother asked me to give some to my friend. I went to her house, called her name and waited at the main door expecting nothing unusual to happen. When she opened the curtains and welcomed me, I caught a glimpse of her mother sitting in the hall, and we exchanged smiles. Behind my smile, I was a bit surprised and shocked with lots of questions: Is she the same person? Am I guessing correctly?

I immediately handed over the green chickpeas to her, still standing outside the main door and asked, "Are you from Hyderabad?"

She said, "No."

And added , "My aunt resides in Hyderabad"

I said, "Okay, okay,"

She asked me to come inside but I said some other time and rushed back home to pour my doubts and questions at my mother.

The findings after talking to my mom was that the USA aunt who bought her pink jacket and watch and the USA uncle who bought me the same watch and jacket are now husband and wife.

If I hadn't served water to the guest at my uncle's house who came to finalize the "Rishta", I would never have known that we were relatives.

I have misplaced the watch but still have the pink jacket. Everytime I use the jacket, the neurons in my brain touch this memory lane.