Jab we met M

We travelled by Rajdhani to Mumbai on the 11th. I used to do this all the time when I was in India, and it was good to relive the experience. The train in general seemed more run-down, the bathroom's as expected, but the sleeper seats were good and the floor's quite clean. The food and service were nice too.

Now, Jab we met.... I'll refer to her as M. She was sitting by herself, next to the window in the coach, and we (me and my parents) joined her. We were then joined by this elderly couple, the Ramaswamy's from Bhopal. They are a retired couple, originally from Karnataka, but settled in Bhopal. He has worked all his life in MP Electricity board. Initially there was not much eye-contact with M, but somehow the ice was broken by some chatter about train stops. She chimed in with her 2c's. I then started chatting with her. Our conversations went along quite well. She's a Mumbaikar to the core, grew up in Ghatkopar, travels by local to work in Parel, complained about high vegetable prices, and seemed really grounded. She gave me a hard time for not eating chaat and sev-puri from the road-side vendor's (I think I will now). I told her I liked parathas, and she told me she had some from her sister's home with her, and I could try them come dinner-time. Nice! We did have some 1:1 talk time on the platform at Valsad, darn it, the stop was for less than 5 minutes. Come night-time, she took charge of arranging the bedding for the Ramaswamy's and helped me with the same for my parents.

Something I havent done in a while, before the train arrived at Mumbai Central, I asked her for her email and phone number. She wrote down her email, and entered mine in her phone (she was amused at the rdrdrd, and I told her its origins with the 2-yr old Reiyan running around the kitchen island chanting rdrdrdrd..).

Frankly, I was attracted to her from the outset, and this grew over the evening, I think she is someone I would like to know more about. The catch now is that I dont know her status. I am pretty sure she is single, but am not sure if she is already interested in someone else. I sure hope not.

I tell Dr. FEM about her that evening in the cab from Shivaji Park. "tabadtope, bhale kaam me deri nahin. Ghar jaa kar email bhej do". I did just that. And today (10/16), I returned home to Delhi from Shirdi, and she has replied. On to the next step now, wish me luck folks!

As an aside, there was a young Punjabi couple on the side berths. They referred to me as "Bhaiyyaji". In the middle of the night, I was struggling to get down from the top berth, and then I heard a helpful voice "Bhaiyyaji, yahan pakad lo". Mrs. Ramaswamy also gave unsolicited advice to the Punjabi lady on her crochet skills, which was very nicely received. Another incident with them...my father likes to wear his dark glasses even after night-fall, I think he gets used to it, so he doesnt care to remove them. The Punjabi dude asked me very seriously "Uncleji ke aankhon mein infection hain?"

Update: Ok, here's an update. We had a long phone conversation where we tried to learn more about each other's lives. She asked me about my marital status, and I gave her some details about my past marriage. I could feel the enthusiasm level sink, but since I wanted to be completely open with her from the outset, I had no choice. After that, we spoke more about how she is going about finding her match. She indicated her preference for a guy from her own community. Maybe that was her way of telling me no. Anyway, the conversation closed out with lets-keep-in-touch, but I knew it hadnt gone as well as I had hoped it would. End of story...no happy endings here. I wish her well in her search for her life partner.