It all started with a random search and a random friend request sent through a social networking site called Orkut. This was the first social networking site this world ever encountered. At that time it was a craze to be on that site and hanging out with known and unknown friends. That was a boring Sunday for me, I recently broke up mutually with my first love in a strange and pathetic circumstances and was terribly upset for that. After so many years I can still remember how much upset I was then. So in that strange lonely situation that site was opened in front of me and I came across a profile of a simple decent Bengali girl standing in a white dress holding a winter cloth in her hand. Her name was Antara Banerjee. At that special moment what happened to me I don't know, I clicked the friend request button in her profile. Few days later she accepted my request and we were online social networking site friend like that.
I still remember we hardly interacted 2/3 times within first few months. Then gradually the interactions started to be frequent and we came to know each other better. Frequent online chats converted into daily gossips. That turned into sms chat and finally into hour long phone calls. Within six months we became best friend in each others life. She used to stay in Nagpur in India and my home town was in Kolkata. At that time in India the sms and phone call charges were very less with some typical packs provided by telecom service providers. So our conversations and interactions became a part of our daily life. Sometimes we discussed about my past relation and gradually she became a keen listener of my first love story. My ex became 'di' (elder sister) to her and day by day she turned into a sole listener of my sorrows, my past love story's strange circumstances, ups and downs, separations and everything. She used to provide me the mental and friendly support at that time. And in that process gradually she started growing a feeling towards me. I also felt a strange connection with that lady and again she became that special person in my life. That means second time I was in love again.
But life is not so smooth for few people and I was one of them. Within one year she was inseparable part of my life and we were in a long distance relationship. But strangely we never met. Again complications started after two years of our relationship. Antara was from an upper class family in Nagpur and I was a software professional in a MNC in Kolkata from a middle class family. Also there were few health related issues in my family. Her father was not willing to send her outside Nagpur and according to her father and relatives I was not in there standards and status. So like other common love stories it was also a failure and her father fixed her marriage with some well established builder family in Nagpur. But Antara tried a lot to be together. But like others she failed and I was helpless. Gradually we decided to move away from each others life and started implementing that. Few months later,on that same year in 2012, on the day of my birthday she was in my home town Kolkata with her family for her marriage shopping and called me up to wish me. Still I can recall that moment, coincidentally on that same day I got the offer letter from the biggest IT company in the world. In a tone of making fun but with tears in my eyes I told her to let her father know that someday I will be in his standard and will compete with their status. And she wish me luck and told me that in this lifetime someday we will meet somewhere in this planet for sure. That was the last conversation we had. And in spite of we both present in Kolkata we were not able to meet each other on that day.
Things started changing drastically after these two incidents in my life and mainly after this failure. I was more determined at that time in making money and concentrating in my professional growth. There's a proverb in Arab, which says "Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time." so I never tried for the third time to search my love in my life and after three years I moved out of India. After few years staying in Australia I moved to Canada and started living permanently there. Another few years later I quit my job and formed an IT consultancy firm there with my fellow team mates and few clients of my previous company. From then, Me, Samaresh Banerjee is well known as Sam Banerjee to all, more commonly Mr. Sam, other than my Passport details.
But few things in life will never change, and history repeats itself. And somehow I believe that few things said from the core of the heart will definitely happen someday. I am the vice president of my IT firm and besides that I am associated with a management school here. We recruit fresh intelligent minds in our company passing out from this institute. Like every year two years back the normal placement drive performed and few fresh minds included in the company. Among them one of the name was Sharmistha Ganguly. Being an Indian by heart and moreover a Bengali I was a bit curious about this young lady. So I called her up one day in my office cabin and had a chat about her family and her life. During this process I came to know that her father's name is Dibakar Ganguly, One of the leading builder and owner of a hotel chain industry in north India. That means that sweet young lady sitting in front of me was Antara's daughter. She could have been my sweet daughter if my destiny showed some different picture long time back.
Day by day I started growing a fatherly affection towards her. She used to work in my office building under my professional territory. In spite of big designational differences, gradually we became friends. I was her Sam kaku(uncle in english) and she was Mithu(her pet name) to me. There was a Bengali boy named Pratik Roy in her institute, they joined together in my company and they were good friends. I knew that boy personally because of his family background and also for his pleasant and down to earth nature. He belongs to a middle class NRI family in Canada. His father died in his childhood and their departmental store in the country side was the only source of income for his family. Almost a year later I came to know they decided to be together. But as I said, history was going to repeat itself again.
Antara's husband Dibakar was not at all happy with this relation and he decided to fix Sharmistha's marriage with some business tycoon's son in India. As if I was witnessing my early life in front of my eyes. Just the characters have changed. So I decided to oppose this. Already huge issues and complications were started regarding this marriage. So one day I called up Sharmistha's father in Canada. In India they knew me as Mr. Sam, VP of their daughter's company. We sat together many times and convince her father for this marriage. I took all the responsibilities of their happiness in life and finally won the battle. He agreed to this marriage.
Life is not so cruel to everyone. We must believe in our destiny and follow our dreams having courage in our heart. It`s true that sometimes things don't remain in our control. But whatever may be the situation don't lose hope. It`s 2040 winter in Canada, I am sitting in Vancouvar international airport. My flight is delayed due to heavy snowfall in this part of the world. I am writing this story of my life in my office laptop and waiting to meet my lost love. Within a day I will be in India to be present in my sweet young lady Mithu's wedding and there I'll meet my 2nd lost love Antara for the first time in my lifetime. 28 years back she told me that we will meet some day. But like this I never imagined. Let`s see what is waiting for me in India. Life is really strange for me.
