Even before I read the book ‘The Secret’ this was a concept
I truly believed in because more often than not I keep seeing it happening in
everyday life. When I finally read ‘The
Secret’, it was recognition of a truth rather than discovery of a new concept.
I have come face to face with law of attraction every day but even more often
in my travels, in ways that have completely bowled me over.
Incident 1: My friend and I were on a backpacking trip in
Tawang, the lazy next day morning in our hotel, standing just outside our room,
my friend suggested we move into a home stay, as the city shuts down very early
(by 5PM) and we might be spending a lot of time in the room. Of course we didn’t
cross half of India to sit inside a hotel room and watch TV. While what my
friend suggested made perfect sense, I wasn’t interested in spending the little
time available to look out for a new room. While I was just looking around I
saw a beautiful house located lone in a small hillock next to our Hotel, I
turned around and told her ‘ If it’s a place like this, we can go’. She looked
over my shoulder and said, ‘Nice place, but they don’t seem to have any board
on it saying it’s a home stay or guest house’. I turned and looked at her and
said “So What?’ She gave me ‘This gal must be mad’ kind of look.
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| Rinchin uncle in an Army Kitchen |
So that day, after breakfast and a walk around the town,
Taxi stand, Tawang Monastery, Museum and war memorial later, our good old taxi
wala had invited us into his home and on a moment of madness we agreed. We
checked out of the hotel, stopped for lunch and then we proceeded to his home.
There on our way again we saw a house just like the one we saw in the morning
situated alone in a small hillock, surrounded by their own beautiful home
garden. Surprise Surprise!!! That was our taxi uncle’s house and that’s the
home stay we moved into, and that too for free. The memories of the
conversation in the morning looked surreal. There was never a dull moment in
our short stay there and the couple became our favorite Buddhist Monpa Hosts.
Incident 2: While planning the same trip I was on the
lookout for a stay options in Guwahati in couchsurfing.org. I was willing to
try my first couch surfing experience as a guest and was looking for women
hosts in the area. I came across the profile of Irani Sakia, who is a wildlife
photographer and an adventurer and seemed to be a very popular host. We had a
couple of conversations in CS messaging, and she was unable to confirm her
availability during our tentative plan dates for Guwahati. I found another host
Annjuu Singh who also happened to be a common friend of another traveler I had
met through my brother. But Irani’s profile was so amazing, that I expressed my
wish to meet her for a cup of Coffee if possible.
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| One of the coffee Breaks with Escorting Guwahati Friends |
On our way back to Demaji, from Mechuka one of the bikers
and a fellow traveler from Tamilnadu met with an accident in his bike. A family
we met in Mechuka and were on their way back stopped to help him into our
rescue vehicle and ensured we found our way around to the local hospital. The
Assamese family was also kind enough to offer to escort us from Demaji to
Guwahati for safety reasons. So we stopped by on the way for a tea break and were
chit chatting with the family. They were actually two families who were family
friends and became a very good friend of us. So we were introducing ourselves
and guess what I found. One of the Women I met over coffee was Irani Sakia. I
had casually mentioned in my email I’d be happy to meet her over coffee and
there we were having chai together.
I almost freaked out…What…Irani Sakia… My face detection
software hardly works, so no wonder I cannot recognize anyone from a pic.
Incident 3: Every time I travel for a few weeks, my first
signs of missing home starts when I start yearning to have curd rice and my
friend, Viji was hoping to have nice South Indian Filter coffee. But we haven’t met one tamil person in the
whole time, and of course this seemed like a distant reality that we had to
wait to get to Chennai to quench our thirst. But luck was in our favor again,
we met Bala da through Pratibu da, who was part of the Assamese family that
escorted us to Guwahati. Bala da, was tamil family that had settled in Assam
for over 30 years.
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| With Bala da |
As luck would have it Bala da’s mom played a wonderful host
for us and we had a superb filter coffee and a perfect South Indian Dinner
(including my favorite curd rice) in Assam.
But it truly was a ‘Be Careful what you wish for’ moment.
Thankfully I wished for wonderful things in my life that brought so many
wonderful people into my life and ya I sometimes freak myself out. More such
moments to follow.
