SS, my first proper crush, appeared in a dream last night.
In the dream, I was travelling to Bombay and we ended up standing next to each other at the baggage belts1. We both faintly recognised each other, started talking, and then remembered fully. She didn’t like me much, for good reason, by the time we lost touch last time. So she was surprised to still be talking to me after she remembered who I was. I met her husband and her kids too. I think there were 2 or 3 kids, all nearly S’ age2. That was all there was… just a brief, friendly meeting at the airport. Yet, it was really, really nice to have met her after more than two decades3. I’ve been quite happy since :)
I tried looking her up on Google, but she doesn’t seem to have a public searchable profile. So, there’s no chance of actually reaching out to her and saying hello.
P.S.: She still had the same smile that had me smitten all that time ago. But then, the person I met was the 17yo SS, not the 40yo one :)
P.S.2: She was the first, and rare since, person I really admired. Perhaps I was young and impressionable, but her focus (on what she wanted to study/do) and determination (researching and doing it) left me mightily impressed. She was also the beginning of a trend—of me falling for strong women rather than pretty ones.
- Weirdly, immigration was after baggage collection! We walked to immigration together after collecting the bags, where I went into the OCI queue, revealing another diversion in our paths. ↩
- If I recall correctly, she was already married by the time I finished my MBA. Going by the usual Indian standard of having kids quickly after marriage, her eldest kid should be over 13 years old. S is turning 11 in a few months, so the estimate may not be too wrong. ↩
- It stuck me hard when I remembered that it’s been over two decades since we last met—not just her, but all those people, friends, teachers, and others who were such a central part of that decade. I haven’t seen almost any of them for over two decades. This bit wasn’t so happy. ↩