Dear Enginjo...

Enginjo. That’s how she used to call herself. Engineering Jyothi, it stood for. She has always been a dear friend of mine. The respect for each other has been mutual. Whenever we spoke of each other, it was always in the order of highest esteem.

We were classmates in engineering and over the period of four years, we came to know more about one another. We used to compete over one another for our literary excellence. And although she used to make me equal to her, personally, I always felt she was way way above me. Her command over English was awesome. She had a clear-cut thought process which enabled her with a fluent dialect. Needless to say, she belonged to the cream of the class.

I got to know more of her in our college trip in the final year. We grew fond of one another, and found that we shared a lot of mutual interests and desires. We had lengthy and intellectual conversations, accompanied by even lengthier and magnificent emails, studded with high-end Anglicism!

We joined InfoSys on the same day and belonged to the same batch in Mysore. Upon completion of training, we went our ways and got geographically separated. Over the period of next four years, we had our share of fights, laughs, ups, downs, and suddenly somehow, got totally isolated. All forms of communication stopped. My only last remembrance of her was our long rendezvous in Mangalore when I chanced to visit her.

And then I got her wedding invite! Marriage was with the same person about whom she used to talk for hours together. There was only one issue. He was of a different religion. And I was most glad when I came to know about her wedding: she had overcome everything, inclusive of her most orthodox family. She had convinced one and all about what is good for her. The wedding in itself was most memorable. Happy faces all around!

And there I was in the wedding hall, just like others, looking at her, feeling insignificant, when she suddenly saw me. And recognition led to smile. And the smile covered up all the years of isolations. It was as if there was no isolation in the first place. It was a smile of relief, of success, of happiness. And it was a smile which said “Thanks for making it to the wedding!” And that made me extremely happy…

Here’s wishing Enginjo a happy married life and very best wishes…