And now, I begin the introduction of another me.

His name is Aravindan. He’s approx. 42 years old, dark skinned, about 5’ 6’’ tall, wears black boots on socks and smokes. Well, he doesn’t always smoke, but – twice a day since his 20s sound absolutely unhealthy to me. And he knows. He gets shivers talking about the filth that fills up in your lungs as you smoke, and cancers scare him. The warning images at the back of a cigarette pack worries him, but then its three thirty O’clock again and I find him leaving with the rest to smoke.

He gets cranky if he misses his nicotine dose, and I unfortunately feel too very out of place to ask him to stop. I’m sure that people he had met long before he met me, who mean far significantly that I do to him, had asked him to do so – and he hadn’t quit. I settle of underline warnings and sarcasm but I never really address it flat out. He gets worked up over things and honestly, it really isn’t my place.

He has a lot of scars on his hands. Each to their own adventure. One time he met with an accident so bad that his vehicle was condemned. Aravindan was hospitalized for three or four months, and ever since, he couldn’t bend left hand’s pinky. He sits on his chair sometimes, trying to make it bend. He yelps if he tries to force it to bend downwards, because then, obviously – it hurts. He has a rather peculiar nose, I noticed. It’s rather big, has its own scar too; but I don’t know the story behind that one.

Well, point is, we are very similar. Or at least, we understand each other’s pace. We can mind-read each other by a glance, and to a fair extend, anticipate each other’s reactions.

When I was first introduced to him, he smelled like cigarettes so much, I used to call him the smoke man. He just has to pass me by at my workstation, and it literally becomes difficult to breathe. Well, where we worked previously, we didn’t have good ventilation – and I was not at all comfortable with cigarette smoke. Maybe now we have better ventilation, or I’ve gotten used to it. Anyway, it doesn’t bother me as much as it did at the beginning.

See, I have this affinity to information. And Aravindan was a library. He’s a walking, talking, responding library. He had so much to teach me, and I was nothing by eager.

And I remember once, when I had just started working, our boss came around and asked the rest of the team how well I was doing, and how I’m gelling in, and etc. Everyone had something to say (which to my pleasure were all good things) and Aravindan said “She’s like my daughter.” I felt sad, everyone felt sad, even our boss felt sad! He replied saying: well that’s quite a sentimental thing to say.

Later I found out that Aravindan is not married. But it didn’t bother me, really. But then recently I asked him if he would consider adopting a child, and he flat out said no. He justified his answer though, stating facts about the psychological standpoint of the adopted child, and how the chances were more on to things not working out well. (We were sidetracked though; because I asked how he could say that some people doesn’t deserve to be born (which was one of the things he mentioned when we were discussing this topic) and I managed to persuade him that human species is not a necessity on earth; and agreed to join forces if we would come across a solid plan to destroy all of us – which is super awesome, personally). So I conclude him as a conflicted person. He doesn’t want to have kids but he wants to have kids too. Well, ultimately all of us are conflicted people, but we always have one side bigger than the other. But he’s just right in the middle – right on the pivot point. His existence is just so too interesting.

And then, I made him take the 16 personality test.

And guess ing what.

INTP. 2.5% of the bloody population. I never thought I’d meet one in my lifetime! And here he was! Older and wiser! An older me.

Of course now, it doesn’t mean that we are the same – but, we relate to each other in a different level. In a platform I had never conversed with another person. One eyebrow raise and I know what part of which has gone wrong. Like ing magic! So it’s not just him that’s interesting – it’s also this level of non-verbal communication we have.  And it’s amazing how we can decode each other. We can take one simple sentence and break it down to their origins.
Or how else would I know that he wouldn’t drink from a glass unless it’s full?

Interacting with him just blows my mind.

So, in total, we’ve known each other for four months now. At least once a week, we sit and have a ridiculously out-of-the world conversation. I’m mostly on the listening side, because you could just listen to him the whole ing day. Some of it is just utter bull too, about meditating and ghosts and exorcists and Hindu teachings (his favorite: all-is-one), but it’s still all exciting and revolutionary.

You’d find me randomly taking a seat next to him and saying “Aravindan, tell me a story.”

Plus, he’s amazing at his work. He’s a whiz. He’s the problem solver. He’s a star. Also annoying because his tag line is: there’s a right way to do things and there’s an easy way – which kind of contradicts my lazy . And recently he started calling me an Ice-cube. Because here, to “ICE” something is to slip away from doing it. Since I spend quite a number of hours drifting around in office and listening to his stories, he was saying I’m “ICE”-ing.

But, then, today, he randomly walks up behind me, and asks:

“Hey, you want to start an academy together? You can do the lecturing and I’ll manage everything.”

And I was like.

Over the ing moon.

Just so happy! LIKE. SO HAPPY I CANT.

Well, idk if we’d execute that, still many years left until I’d graduate – so we aren’t going to make any plans until then, but the idea of working with him just makes me go all flowery. I mean, I wouldn’t have dared!
I spent a lot of time thinking how I’d keep in touch with him once I leave my workplace actually!

Who would have thought?

I mean, I don’t know if I’d really start an academy or not, but at least now I can ask him to join me later if I do ever start something! Like, how exciting is that?!

Man, I’ve really spent a lot of my time not having a clue of what the hell I’m going to do with my life.
It’s not like I’ve figured it out yet either, but it finally – finally after like ing 21 years of living this life – I’ve found something I could honestly look forward to!

For now, one thing is for sure.
 

He’s someone I’ve gained as true friend and companion.
And I’m just so incredibly happy.
The happiest I’ve been for a long, long time.