Friend in a Stranger

Recently I read a post of ROS's blog about meeting a stranger. That is when I realized I have a very similar story. Thanks ROS for the inspiration.

It was the summer and I was coming back from my India. I had to get to college so I left India before my whole family did. Flying by itself is bad, flying for 20 hours is worse, but nothing defeats flying for 20 hours alone. So that is what I was in for. So I boarded Kuwait airlines from Cochin airport. The flight to Kuwait from Cochin was maybe 4 hours, so I had my Jeffery Archer book and I was all set. I was in the Aisle seat (I like aisle seat better, as it has more room) and the window seat next to me was empty.

That is when I saw a guy dressed in suit, by suit I just don't mean the regular blazer and dress pant, but vest and tie the whole nine yards. My first thought was why someone would want to fly dressed in a suit. My flying wardrobe is always jeans, full sleeves shirts, sneakers, and a light material jacket, just incase I feel cold - in other words something very comfortable. As luck would have it he sat right next to me.

Before the plane took off we started talking and I found that he was an MBA student and was going home (some where middle east) after completing his degree. We got talking and he said that when he was done packing that is when he saw his suit. He didn’t have enough room to pack his suit so he chose to wear it (Note to self: don't pass judgment on people at the second they pass by). That short flight we shared our life stories. In Kuwait I had 4 hours lay over to go to London and he had 6 hours. We spent the other 4 hours at the airport talking. We exchanged email ids and I left for London.

This happened 3 years ago and even now we email each others regularly and received an email form him today, hence this blog.

As someone has said, "There Are No Strangers Here, Only Friends Who Have Never Met".