When Hope was a Right Swipe Away!
I have always believed life to be a series of serendipitous encounters. It was one such escapade that included a bizarre combination of a right swipe, a book, an open letter, and of course, serendipity at every nook and corner. And this particular story brought me the hope I always wanted.
January 2021
I welcomed 2021 with my age-old tradition of mindless swiping without expecting a decent match, because let’s face it: there are no good profiles on dating apps anymore! Although, a stranger did catch my attention in that virtual world. Didn’t take me more than a glance to swipe right. For all I knew, I was fidgeting around Bumble as a favorite pastime. Serendipity had other plans when I realized this wasn’t any ordinary match.
How often do you want to share your favorite stories with someone when you don’t even know their last name or anything beyond that? It was different how the stranger was so easy to talk to, especially when I was not at my best. Although, if only I knew how short-lived that right swipe was going to be, I would have cherished it even more than I did. My ‘not so ordinary’ match brought with it laughter and hope when I needed it the most without me asking for it. And with that, I bid him goodbye, uncertain of whether I will ever come across that face again.
While everything around me moved on, I was somewhere still stuck with a bagful of questions about the stranger, which eventually got answered when I found his metaphor. I found a book which belonged to him at another instance when I wasn’t at my best, again: and not just any book, but a book he wrote! Turned out the stranger is a writer with thoughts seldom heard of in this world. Well, I wanted to hear them, or in this case, read them.
April 2021
As I unwrapped my package, there was unusual happiness when I read the name of the book and its author: ‘Shhh! Don’t Talk About Mental Health by Arjun Gupta’. I have always adored fiction and mythologies when it comes to spending time with books. I wasn’t sure if I’d read a psychology book ever in my life until I started reading this, and when I did, it wasn’t the easiest thing to quit. The book told me about Arjun’s life and thoughts which I never knew behind that yellow and white background. It showed me the struggles, courage, empathy, strength, and love which lie in the ‘Author Guy’ (as I like to call him) as his own.
Arjun’s book came to me like a ray of hope which kept me going while I was haywire. It was strange to see how hope can be found in anything you don’t even see coming. Though I was content to find the stranger again along with everything unknown to me, the mind kept questioning “Is it just me who feels like finding an old friend amidst the crazy, or does the Author Guy remembers me too?” The easier solution could have been to simply ask him, but that would have involved an epic dose of social awkwardness. So, I took the high road and wrote him an open letter with a blind hope that it might reach him and I will again have that hopeful stranger.
(I have a flair for the dramatic!)
October 2021
Everything between that open letter to today seems like an age-old story. The Author Guy not only remembered me but also, was as big an Enthu Cutlet as I always am! I didn’t just reconnect with a stranger I met on a dating app. I ended up finding another feather to my extended family cap in these past few months. People find their best friends in schools, colleges or sometimes parks. I found mine while swiping right!
The Author Guy manages to juggle multiple personalities well when he jumps from being my shitposter to an unpaid therapist real quick. It has always been the easiest to be my raw self around him. Adulting is still a walk on the thin ice. But it sucks slightly less with Arjun keeping me sane with his empathy and horrible sense of humor.
I wanted 2021 to be a year of hope after 290 lousy days of being confined to the pandemic. It is safe to say that my prayers were heard after I made that swipe. No, this is not a love story. This is a story of two strangers who stayed 1600 kilometers apart and were crazily knitted into the serendipity fabric.
