Instant Karma

There's something about meeting new people... something fascinating.. something exciting, something that holds new possibilities. Of course all of this is true of only the 'nice' people you meet.. not the creeps. Yet a lot of them are those you know you are unlikely to ever meet in your life again... one time wonders. And they enrich those few moments that they're present in your life. And it happens all the time.. those train journeys, that person in front of you in the queue. And only a few make it as far as name exchanging... some others remain that veil of memory that touched you at some point of time.

I especially love traveling to new places... They offer umpteen opportunities to meet new people of all kinds.. And considering I was going to a conference where I didn't know a single soul meant that opportunities would present themselves. And they did. Granted it started a little slowly, thanks to all the French talk... but then came lunch and I was seated with 9 strangers. Some soul-searching, a lot of salad later, I had 3 interesting people that I'd met.. But dinner was my favourite time today. It beat all the experiences hands-down. I wandered to the Toulouse centre all by myself in the hopes of finding some nice little restaurant where I could make up for the measly lunch or the total lack of it. And so I found La Piazza Papa, an Italian trattoria amidst the bold french cafés. Having seated myself comfortably in a corner glass-paned 2 seater table, I was pondering over the menu when the chuckling chatter of the nearby table caught my ear and when I looked up, my eye. Two couples at the next table were as eager to strike conversation as anyone I've known and so my rudimentary French flowed. The waitress pushed our tables together seeing as we got along as well as we did. It was as much fun as I could've hoped for in an evening I'd looked forward to spending with Vikram Seth (the book in my bag). In the end, we ended up having a broken conversation where they told me all they could about Toulouse... what I shouldn't miss seeing and importantly a gelato they said I shouldn't miss. Here's the kicker.. they took me there and I am glad I went, for it was honestly divine. For every passing conversation in trains, there come opportunities like these, which end up being one for the blogs. And traveling down memory lane is the best trip ever, isn't it? So shouldn't we be making the most memories possible? That's a simple one to answer. Yes, we should. Signing off from Toulouse...