>The Sign

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What will be, will be. But it’s recognising the sign of what is going to be that thrills me. No, it’s the showing up of the signs that is more thrilling.

Sai Baba walked into my office yesterday. Just like that. We haven’t been followers of Sai Baba – neither me nor The Guy nor our families. A month ago, an astrologer, face reader, clairvoyant rolled into one suggested I keep a picture of Shirdi Sai Baba in my office – it would be good for me, he simply said.

I rarely consult astrologers and do not believe in superstitions. I do not however, undermine the science of astrology either. Or the power of clairvoyance. So I made some attempts to find a photograph of Sai Baba for my office. Admittedly, they were feeble attempts and I didn’t bother to go out of my way to find the suitable size of photograph for myself. it was always at the back of my mind that I had to get Sai Baba’s picture. And yesterday, he walked into my office in the shape of a little statue gifted by someone who had just returned from Shirdi. I was surprised. It was almost as if someone had read my mind. It could have been a coincidence, but I like to see it as a sign. I had to get associated with Sai Baba this way or that. And it was this way!

I believe when something is meant to be, no matter how trivial, things just fall into place. It was a series of coincidences that led me to The Guy! I was (only) sixteen when I met him in the strangest manner possible. My friend and I saw The Guy at an inter-school function and thought he was rather cute. After our Board exams we did what was then quite the trend – decided to give him a prank call! All we knew about the guy was his name and the school he had gone to. On a lark, we picked up the telephone directory and assumed that since he was an alumnus of Army Public School he must be the son of an army man (which certainly wasn’t true of all the students studying there). So we looked up the telephone numbers of all army men with the same surname as his. And the first number I dialled was his!

It was the first time I was ever talking to him and I spoke for an hour and enjoyed every minute of it. When I told him during our first ever conversation that he shouldn’t join the army like his father because his wife would miss him while he was away, I had no idea I’d be his wife five years later!

My friend, who was my partner in crime, had predicted much before The Guy and I even started seeing each other that we’d end up together! I laughed at her, not knowing then how right she was. And I laughed at her also because I knew we two – The Guy and me – were like two opposites. We hardly had anything in common. So how could we end up together?

Our five years of courtship was a secret I kept from my parents. I had no idea how I would tell my parents I wanted to marry him. How would I tell them that I met this guy through a pranks call and want to now marry him? As luck would have it, I never had to. One fine day, my mother asked me if I wanted to marry The Guy! It was that simple. I couldn’t believe my ears when she asked me that – I mean, how could it be possible that I was getting married to the man I wanted to without even having to say as much. How could it be possible that the much-hyped “love marriage” would get arranged so easily without the slightest bump in the ride? All I had to say was “Yes”! And everything just fell into place, just like that!

In retrospect, the events of the first day I spoke to The Guy were signs I never recognised of things that were to come my way. And there’ve been plenty of things before and after that that lead me to believe that signs aren’t just a series of coincidences that occur in our lives, they’re just waiting for us to discover them!

Do you have a sign story?