Serendipitous happenings

In an earlier post (on a blog I have since discontinued), I had talked about chance happenings in one's life - about how suddenly you turn round the corner, tread on an unknown path and run into absolute strangers who turn out to be good friends. I was talking about a friend I made quite by chance. He was the host of a radio show I used to listen to quite regularly when I was in the US. Just prior to my return to India, I sent him a mail telling him how much I had grown to appreciate what he does. I never expected to hear from him. But I did. And we continued to write to one another. I met him finally on my recent trip to the US this March, four years after I started writing to him. In these years, we have grown from being nameless strangers to friends, sharing with one another our joys, triumphs, disappointments and sorrows.

What does one call this? Serendipity? I wonder sometimes what if I hadn't written to him; what if he hadn't responded; what if we hadn't continued communicating with one another? I know these questions do not hold any relevance now. Yet, I wonder - What prompts one to take that unusual step, go down that untrodden path?

I believe, and I have said this before, relationships happen quite by chance. You run into varied set of people in your day-to-day existence; some of them stay imprinted on the canvas of your mind, some are erased even before your acquaintance with them ends. Why does this happen one is never sure. And why do I think of all this yet again.

Last Friday I went out for dinner with a friend - and as I sat there soaking in the ambience, the company and the conversation, I was suddenly stuck by how much at ease I felt, how easily conversation flowed. I work with a wonderful set of people, and on a regular basis I interact (in some manner or other) with a whole lot more. Yet, to me relationships don't come easy. I take time to get comfortable with others, and more often than not most people I am acquainted with remain just that - acquaintances. But with this person it just felt extremely comfortable, as though this relationship was meant to be. I could almost talk of things I hadn't talked to someone in a very long time; and to some extent I didn't want the evening to end.

I had not known this person for too long - technically, yes, we have been acquainted for over a year now. But we started truly conversing only about 3 months ago. And I really can't recall when we moved beyond sharing the basic facts, getting past the polite conversation, past the talk of the weather, the government and the popular music - to something deeper. It seems to have happened so seamlessly, as if I had always known this person, as if we had always been friends. As if we were always meant to be friends.

Are relationships built as suddenly like this? Normally I would have said no, that relationships take time to reach a certain level of comfort. But having experienced such chance happenings more than once in my life I am not sure that is how it works anymore. Is this feeling mutual? Sometimes I think it is, some days one is just apprehensive, and some other days, one isn't sure anymore. But somehow, suddenly, it doesn't seems to matter anymore. In these days of instant communication, I feel people have in fact stopped communicating, relationships tend to remain at the periphery and not go any deeper. So, to me, what I have with this person or with other such friends is indeed something rather special.

And all other questions do not seem relevant at all.