Usually a long time ago implies a whole different world. Ten year ago it was a different world. I had no mobile phone on me. Calling my girlfriend meant quite a chunk of my pocket money, and looks from people waiting outside phone booths that we knew as PCOs (Do they mean public call office?)
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| RESPECT ol' PCO! |
At least in my life, the PCOs played a very important role. They came in at the just the right time they were needed and they swiftly wrapped up and left when the deed was done. When they went by, they left behind a young couple deeply madly in love, and well, with a mobile phone each in hand.
2003 January was special for me. I met a young girl who came to my college to participate in a theater festival. We hit it off and in only a couple of months, we were 'together', 'going out', and 'in a relationship'. This was before Orkut had fully emerged and Facebook did not exist. To write an email, the girl would visit a cyber cafe every week. She saved for it by choosing to go hungry over eating in college canteen, and walking over paying for transport. To meet her, the boy would skip examinations and borrow heavily to travel to her town. They sent each other books and music, and they talked for hours.
Much water has passed under the bridge since then. Tonnes of rains and thousands of days have passed by. We fought some, we lost some, and here we are, ten years later, married to each other, and as far away as possible from everything that was familiar to us.
...and it is January 2013. It called for celebration. So, here is what we did.
The soon to be papa young man and the pregnant lady borrowed a car (yes, they are still borrowing!) and they drove to the city of Sausalito. They sat in a cafe, walked alongside the ocean, looked at the buildings and asked around for a nice place to eat. They dined at Di Vino and came back happy. A few musicians caught them on their way out and played romantic songs for them.
The discussion they had on their way back went something like this:
"If I were a poor musician - a guitarist - in a traveling band and had no money, would you still marry me?"
"Oh yeah! Absolutely! I have no doubt about it. I would definitely marry you."
"Why...would you marry such a poor man?"
"Two reasons honey! One, I would be in love with you, and two, if you look at it, you would be earning more as a guitarist than you do now anyway!"
2003 January was special for me. I met a young girl who came to my college to participate in a theater festival. We hit it off and in only a couple of months, we were 'together', 'going out', and 'in a relationship'. This was before Orkut had fully emerged and Facebook did not exist. To write an email, the girl would visit a cyber cafe every week. She saved for it by choosing to go hungry over eating in college canteen, and walking over paying for transport. To meet her, the boy would skip examinations and borrow heavily to travel to her town. They sent each other books and music, and they talked for hours.
Much water has passed under the bridge since then. Tonnes of rains and thousands of days have passed by. We fought some, we lost some, and here we are, ten years later, married to each other, and as far away as possible from everything that was familiar to us.
...and it is January 2013. It called for celebration. So, here is what we did.
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| Sausalito, California |
The discussion they had on their way back went something like this:
"If I were a poor musician - a guitarist - in a traveling band and had no money, would you still marry me?"
"Oh yeah! Absolutely! I have no doubt about it. I would definitely marry you."
"Why...would you marry such a poor man?"
"Two reasons honey! One, I would be in love with you, and two, if you look at it, you would be earning more as a guitarist than you do now anyway!"
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