Strange Friendships!!

“It’s too quiet for a Friday evening”, she thought as she opened the door to her suite. She had a smug, complacent smile on her face, and why not? Her trip had been a smashing success. Her week long meetings had been nicely wrapped up. She had been able to sell her idea and had left a lasting impression on her business partners. Her bosses in India mentioned that they were glad that she was chosen to represent them and she was glad that she had not let them down!

As she shut the door behind her, a sudden sense of loneliness took over. She had had a very busy week meeting new people, saying hurried “hellos” to her old pals, but never had she been alone! Now that she had absolutely nothing to do and the fact that the weekend stretched lazily ahead of her made her wonder what to do with all the time!

The television had been her companion in loneliness. So that’s the first thing she turned too. Surfing channels, all she heard were predictions of bad weather for the next two days. These predictions only meant that she had to be confined to the comfort of her suite with no scope for adventure.

Next, she turned to her faithful travel companion, her link to her homeland, and infact anywhere in the globe, her laptop. She spent the next couple of hours devouring all the news across the planet. Wrote to all her friends and then logged on to the messenger service hoping to find any of her old pals online. It was a Saturday morning back home and she hoped that at least a couple of her friends would be online. Unfortunately none of them were! Duh!! What hard luck!

She had heard of chat rooms before, but never visited one earlier. Well, why not try now, she thought. After all, her boredom had pushed her to the limit. She logged on to a couple of chat rooms admiring the innovation that people had exhibited in choosing their ID’s. Before long she had a dozen requests for initiating chat. Well, the planet was obviously home to a greater number of bored persons than she had ever imagined.

Of all the persons she met that day, a few made an impact and went on to become good friends.

One of them introduced himself as a mainframe programmer. She found an interesting match of interests. Both had a passion for books. Before long, they began discussing books, authors themes and plots with the ease of old pals. She found him to be very informative and vouched that she will keep in touch, with a hope that he will help her choose the right books. Happiness is always doubled when shared, but the passion for books always triples or quadruples when thoughts are shared. Interesting…! She had found friend number one! This friend is one who inspired her to read more, write more and find time to relish life’s wonderful offerings!

The next person introduced himself as an employee in a drug research company. What hooked her on to this person was another passion that she nurtured… art! He said that he did paintings and yes, that was a “Wow” factor for her. She continued to discover many aspects of this quiet personality and of course learnt quite a bit about paintings. Behind the quiet countenance was a dynamic personality, with varied interests. Yes, she had found her friend number two. Later she discovered that her young painter friend was also a scientist who had a cool doctorate under his intellectual hat!

Next person she met was a marketing executive. She found that they shared no common interests. He hated reading, did not have the eye for art. He did not enjoy cricket and the PC was his best friend. Somehow, the differences seemed appealing. Before long, he had introduced her to his family, spoken about his career, his education, his love for challenges, aims to reach the pinnacle of growth and keep his parents happy. Hmm… a person with strong family bonds, that was friend number three. A lively, cheerful person who could make even a stone laugh..!!

Friend number four was an engineering student in the most admired city of palaces. She found in him the right mix of fun and seriousness. She found the strong urge to succeed and an attitude that would warrant a second look. He was open to advice and a patient listener. They could talk about anything… from college to career, guns to gals! Strangely, he wanted to take her guidance on all important aspects in his life! Wow, she was sure impressed with his gentlemanly ways!

She was just signing off when the silence of the room was broken by the pleasant ring of the telephone. “Hey, what are you doing all alone? Join us for dinner? I’m coming to pick you up in half an hour.” That was her dear old colleague…Probably just back from work.

Loneliness had made an unceremonious exit by now. She was a busy person once again. She had less than 30 minutes to make herself presentable and hop out for another wonderful evening!!