"Ede Davangere sir", said my fellow passenger after giving a not so pleasant jerk, to wake me from the slumber I was in. Given the way I was sleeping, I won't blame him for that. It was only a while back that I had spoken to her, to inform that I was at a 20 minutes distance from the city. But still then, here I was, sleepy at my best, when the train reached the station. Hurriedly I got down from the train, like those chaiwalas do, just before the train left. I had thought of this one particular moment over hundred times in the past. The moment when I will finally make it to Davangere to meet her, with her consent (well, not to mention, there were those other hundreds of times when I had thought of meeting her out of blue). I believed it would be like a dream. It was indeed dreamy, only but literally. Huh, How I wish my life was like those of Yash Raj movies' heroes. After few more seconds of dreamy(sleepy) eyes on to the platform, it did dawn on me that I was indeed in Davangere. Finally.
Of the first few things that had come to my mind after getting to know my selection for IIM Lucknow, one of the prominent one was to meet her once before I left for Lucknow. For she was one of the most important rather most influential person in my life. I knew one thing for sure that it was in all ways my last chance to ask her to make herself free for a day. I felt things would chance full circle in next few years that her life would no longer be the same for me. So after lot of introspection, I had finally told her that I really meant it when I said that I wanted to meet her. May be for one last time. (In many ways this one was going to be our first meet too).
My first feeling after coming to terms was "Thanks Anu, Thanks you for letting this happen". For she had told him that it was only on Anu's insistence that she did decide to meet me in first place. So yeah Thanks to Anu, here I was, finally about to meet my best and the dearest friend. I call her Princess Siddiqua.
It was 27th May 2012.
