Merci beaucoup!

"Friendship begins the moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one."

~ C.S. Lewis

The anxiety of meeting someone you have known all this while over the regular exchange of emails and photographs. The pestering impatience of actually seeing someone you have seen only in their Facebook pictures. Most of all, the sheer happiness of being in the actual presence of someone whose virtual company you have cherished for almost two years now. 

That is how we met, Cee and I, last month. It was almost like a dream come true, a dream which wouldn't have taken shape if she hadn't decided to make Hyderabad, an otherwise ignored city in a tourist's itinerary, a part of her 'Incredible India' vacation. 'Lovely' would be an understatement to describe the three consecutive evenings that we got together. We laughed, we ate, we shopped, and the best part of all - and I am sure she too must have seen it - we cherished the continuous twinkling of our eyes that ricocheted from believing to unbelieving, marveling at our good fortune all the while. Paying little attention to the geeky husbands immersed in their talk of iPad, iCloud and a bunch of other Is, we bonded over our common Virgo traits peppered with talks of spices, the Taj Mahal, her childlike fondness for the masala chai, and my fixation with, well, anything French.

Being the obsessive lover of India that she is, I am sure Cee will be back soon. But until then, her wonderful souvenirs will do, that she picked up with so much care and attention, tending to my Francophilia with such important details. The intoxicating smell wafting from the Provence lavender pouch, one of the many jewels from her cornucopia of gifts, now sits pretty amid stacks of my clothes and every time I open the cupboard, it carries me to Cee's France, where the sun shines softly, where the azure skies kiss the sapphire waters of the Mediterranean Sea. And once again, I am reminded of her contagious smile and her beautiful heart. 

Mon cher Cee, merci pour ce merveilleux séjour.