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“Cosmos Conspires”. This is one of the phrases a friend used to use all too often in conversations. I always found it very intriguing. Now I see the truth in these words more than ever before. The rich tapestry of the Almighty can never be matched by any of our plots and plans. If you’re supposed to bump into someone, you will, and in ways you never imagined possible.

It was just another morning, which found me flipping through the newspaper. I chanced upon an article about a writer who had just published a book in my city. The title of her book caught my attention but what really got me interested was the name of her blog and I made a mental note of visiting it when I logged in. And when I did, I was hooked. Line and sinker! (To the way her beautiful thoughts flowed). I left a tiny comment on an article I really liked. At that point in time I wasn’t aware of any details about her. For starters I wasn’t aware of the fact that she takes out the time to respond to every possible comment. Even though they are all the same and had I been her, it would elicit a yawn and make me go “Not again!” The next day I happened to go back there and voila! What do I see! A comment from her on my comment (By that time it had dawned how famous she was, so I was naturally thrilled to bits). This went on for quite some time, with me religiously reading her write-ups and she being gracious enough to acknowledge.

An integral part of every interesting story is the element of surprise. And so it was here. We got talking and casually inquired each other where the other stayed. We discovered that not only were we based in the same city but lived a few blocks away from each other. Then one fine day (ok it was day 2 in our conversation) she asked “ Don’t you live in Flat number X-YYY?” I jumped out of my skin! I didn’t know I was that famous already! It turned out that we shared a maid as well who had spilled the beans :-D Uncanny right? If you were to come across this in a Hindi film, you’d shrug it off as a typically cute planned encounter between the protagonists in the story. A chuckle still escapes me when I think about this, but I know for a fact now that art does imitate life and how!

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have met her in person. She exudes so much warmth and goodwill that it is hard to not get infected :-) Yesterday, for the first time I felt what it is to be in awe of someone. I have never met anyone of her stature who despite being so famous, is so down to earth. Reading her blog makes me feel like I’ve known her forever and makes my blog seem so redundant since whatever has been buzzing in my head for so long has found a way in her writing. And I know for a fact that I can’t express myself as eloquently and with as much elan like she can. She has no airs about her that you’d expect someone so great to have. Today I keenly skim through the newspapers noticing the names of writers (something I didn't do earlier) and eagerly point out an article written by her to may parents. As enthusiastically as if I had written it.

She is one of those rare kinds who you’d want to know more and more about and never loose touch with. She is Ms. Preeti Shenoy