A Girl in Minneapolis

A Russian Girl and an Indian Boy Met in US
semi-fictitious story of their tender vividness

Part 1
I was getting ready in the morning for the training workshop, which was in its second week. Starting today, participants would change as next module was starting now on. It was mostly mid aged salespeople who attended the training last week. I was expecting them to be replaced with relatively young faces due to very nature of training, which was getting hands-on from today.

Igor continued the workshop this week but his other Russian friends had left. He occupied same seat as he did throughout the training so far; and so did rest of the continuing participants including me.

It was about 9 AM when a tall, young, well-groomed up girl occupied the corner seat in first row next to Igor. I noticed her and so would have others as she was little late in arriving. I was hoping that she would look around and make eye contact with us to get an idea of participants - but actually she didn’t!

There was a round of introduction in which I tried catching her name, but it was the name tag placed in front of her that made it clear to me. ‘Natasha’ mostly chatted with Igor in Russian. She kept herself occupied in too many things. She was flipping between her laptop, iPad and the training terminal, paying equal attention to the session. I realized that she was smartly filtering out unimportant part of the session time to chat online with her friends. All this while, she was quite comfortable with Igor and seemed to show no interest in other participants.

Girls do not sometimes open up in these situations unless someone approaches them. It's the girl eyes which can reveal many things for you. But she didn't allow any reading of her, presumably she didn't have time for all of it.

"Natasha - A Girl in her own world", I thought and concluded day one with her.

Part 2 

Our training center was like a revolving place. It kept shifting from one room to another every day. Though apparently we maintained the same sitting order. It would be Natasha in the first row right corner and I would sit second row in the middle. This diagonal sitting arrangements ensured she was in my sight always. To my left was Uday and to my right was Radhika. It was almost our routine to gossip about sightseeing places early in the morning and then get on with the training. And since Natasha joined us, observing her silently was also getting into my routine. 

If not eyes, a lot can still be observed just by watching someone.  

Natasha mostly wore long sleeve sheath dress. Her long light-red curly hair, making loose ringlets, gave her a tropical look. There was something innocently beautiful about the way she behaved. She would speak only a little with fellow mates, finish her assignments ahead of others and bring surprise element in discussion with her point of view.

With these observations, began our maiden conversation triggered by following incident.

Natasha was busy working on her assignment when I noticed her iPad sliding from the desk. Being fully attentive in the training, she didn’t realize it happening. Just when the iPad was about to fall, I pointed it out to her – ”Hey Natasha, you gotta secure your iPad, it's falling off!” She reacted promptly, securing it. Then looked back at me for a brief moment and replied with a smile - ‘Ahh! No big deal even if it falls off... it's too old anyway’. This reaction of her made me feel as if she was ready for this situation in anticipation. She quickly got back to studies, leaving me amused. Her response was subtle enough to keep me guessing!

Some people are Nice. Not in how they look, not in what they say - Just in what they are. That's how I was getting to feel about Natasha.

Part 3

Minneapolis was freezing with heavy snow, gusty wind and frosty weather. Planning the day was mostly weather dependent and my day would start by looking out from Hotel window, figuring out how would be the day like. For the breakfast - I, Uday and Radhika, three participants from the same company, would join-in at hotel restaurant. The dinner too was in hotel itself unless the weather condition allowed us to go out. Our stay was in Hotel Residence Inn Downtown.

It was ten minute of walk from Hotel to training center. Every morning, we would walk through skyway with a cup of coffee, passing through the Macy's Store, greeting people on the way, including a beggar man drumming melody beats who seemed to have started recognizing us. Then walking past to the other block, all the way through skyways, watching downtown streets in snowfall. Truly, a walk to remember! There were intermediate fun moments when we would miss those mystifying diversions that we should have been taking to reach the destination.

So with similar routine we were wrapping up the day on that evening, having dinner and watching weather news in TV of our hotel restaurant. Weather was snowy & breezy with forecast of getting worse. Dining area was adjoining hotel reception so we were watching the activity around entrance door. People were rushing back to hotel as snowfall was getting heavier. There was one person though, who seemed to be stepping out of Hotel. So, it caught my attention.

She was a lady - dressed in raven black overcoat and snow boots, slinging a modern camera over her shoulder. From distance, she looked familiar to my eyes; so I followed watching her as she walked past the door. A closer look from the window made me realize that there she was; Natasha!

According to the law of attraction - When someone is in your mind, they tend to appear in every part of your life.

I was truly surprised, quite pleasantly though, to see her at this place. Her all-black attire was contrastingly noticeable in the white snowy background. I kept peering at her as she passed across the street, walking in a rhythmic confident steps with radiant waving hair, until she slowly disappeared in the white alley. In the depth of this snowy winter, I learnt that only the extreme winters of Moscow could have made her invincible to these chilly conditions out here.

And Voila! - I learnt one more thing; that she must be staying in the same Hotel.

Part 4

Meantime, our training session was getting engaging. Participants were now up to speed so it was more discussion oriented. We would talk to each other quite often. Trainers facilitated it even more in order to make the learning effective. Because of my prior exposure on what was being taught, I would tend to discuss topics in detail. In the most typical sessions - I would work on assignments, compare results with others, ask follow up questions and discuss on it. Today’s trainer was Todd and the session was going great. It was during one of these instances, something very interesting happened!

After a direct discussion with Todd, I was switching my focus back to desk. While I was doing so, I realized Natasha staring at me. She had turned around to look at me in a focused expression. I got locked into a momentary eye contact with her. She quickly then shied away and turned to her normal position. It was a very brief eye contact but looked fairly expressive; seeking something in me. I pretended that I noticed nothing, although I did so to the most possible granular level.

With the same continued thought after the class, I was sitting in front of my laptop in hotel room that night checking office emails and responding to it as work had just started back in India. I then saw an email popping up in my mailbox, Subject Line - “Get Familiar with Russia”; From - Natasha! It was a funny YouTube video link showing somewhere in Russia people crossing river with the help of excavators. It was a one-on-one email so I was cheerfully amazed. Next morning on the breakfast table discussion with Radhika and Uday I got it verified that it was just me who got that email. Thinking mind of me was starting to make sense of these pieces together.

More training sessions followed, and I realized that in similar situations, we had frequent eye contacts. She shied away every time. But the one today when Jeff, today’s trainer, was on my terminal helping me out with an assignment, Natasha turned around again and got locked into yet another eye contact with me. She shied away one more time but not before realizing that I made a notice of it this time round.

And in next few mins, this happens - I see another email from Natasha, which was a reply on top of her earlier email that was converting into a chain of email conversation. She wrote - “Every time Jeff says something and I turn back to listen to him - I see you”. I was amused; she was apparently explaining why she had been looking at me.  

“C’mon, It’s gotta be more than that!” - I murmured to myself.

Part 5

By each day, participants were becoming a comfortable group now. Natasha was also more open now from the day she had joined us. Between Me and Natasha, it was the fallout of that eye-lock incident bringing more vividness. Today she came a bit early and was having chit-chat about her DSLR camera that she carried today. She was an avid photographer which clearly reflected in exchange of words. She showed us her collection pics - from her recent trip of Niagara Falls to her place in Moscow. We also saw in pictures, her candy red Alfa Romeo sports car, which she owned back in Moscow. Clearly, she was talking enthusiastically on the topic of photography; so I spurred following conversation with her:

“Hey Natasha, Why don’t you click few pics of mine. Please be my photographer for a day!”

“Sure! When & Where?” - She responded in absolute affirmation putting extra attention on me.

“Well, around downtown at the dusk” - I replied reluctantly as I did not expect such a positive reply from her.

“How do we contact after session then” - She followed up

“We stay in the same hotel, so you can call me on hotel number 703 in the evening” - I replied. She wasn’t aware till this time that we stay in the same hotel.

“That’s awesome! I’m in 1406. Let’s catch up then” - She was pleasantly surprised to know that we are staying in the same Hotel.

So, a plan was tentatively agreed!

There was another evening plan set already between some of our mates to go shopping. Behaving a bit astray, I went ahead with our colleagues thinking to return early and catch up with Natasha.

I was in the Mall of America, in a window-shopping mode, trying to wrap things in hurry. With whimsical thoughts of meeting Natasha, I managed to expedite the group inertia and returned a bit early. But not before it was dark enough to meet her realistically. In this little left time at Minneapolis, I was now starting to think it as a missed moment. I also wondered whether she was earnestly anticipating me and if at all she tried contacting me back in Hotel.

Actually she did - I transpired it next day during our training session conversations.

Part 6

So came the last day! We all reached in time today at Training Center. Morning greetings were exchanged. And with it, were silent emotional undercurrents of missing this place. The class today had revolved back to the room from where it had started on day one, which made the moment even more nostalgic. To make the day ceremonial, we planned for a team lunch outside. We booked a multi-cuisine restaurant in nearby downtown area and planned to go there walking. Our Group of twelve participants, sub-grouped into smaller numbers, headed to the restaurant through the skyway. I and Natasha made one sub-group.

Trying to make most of it, Natasha & I walked at relaxed pace. I would point out some good views from skyway and she would capture it in her camera instantly. At the one such view, I decided to pose for pic and then Natasha started a series of clicks on me - some in random and some in poses. For some clicks, she would correct my poses and tell me not to directly look in camera for pics to come natural. We kept halting, clicking, chatting and enjoying the moment. These photographs were going to become one of those rare moments, gone forever, impossible to reproduce - I would discover it only in Future!

Minneapolis Downtown skyway is vast. It covers sixty nine full city blocks spread over eleven miles, making it complex and confusing. It is very likely to get lost if one is not attentive. And so it happened to us - in those frolic moments, on the way to the restaurant, engrossed in confabulation, we lost our way!

At one of the diversions, we looked around to check other folks only to find no one in the sight. It seemed those guys sensed something between us and in fact helped us in getting lost. A time check made us realize that we were already half an hour into lunch break. So we decided to retreat back to Training Center. But then we had lost return directions too!

Natasha took charge and pulled her iPad which had an offline street map in it. She said it will do magic and help find our way. She followed the street map and I followed her. It was another ten minutes of walk after which she stopped at one of the crossings, looked at me and said that map is not helping us either and that we are lost completely; And we both laughed !

We then decided to forget everything, remove time from the equation and to have lunch. We spotted McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant on the other side of the street and went inside. An old friendly lady, hosted and served us the lunch. She confused Natasha with a German because of her accent. Natasha told me that everyone gets confused because of her German sounding accent and that she was fluent in it.  The lady and Natasha then spoke in German to help us locate the direction to Training Center.

So we made it back to the Training center. Class had already started. Natasha entered the class first, sort of blushing as for others it clearly looked like a ‘Date’ between us. I intentionally entered few minutes late so as not to look like a ‘Couple’.

Part 7
Evening at 7.30 PM, dressed in my ebony blazer over carolina blue sweat tee and in a pair of denim jeans, I was walking back from metro station to hotel carrying shopping that I did from Midtown Target Center. I was pondering about the concluding session that we had few hours ago at Training Center in a semi-ceremonial moment. We got training certificates and group photograph clicked before the send-off.  Such moments at times become emotionally choking for the very fact that meeting mates again may not happen at all in future - especially when we stay countries apart.

“Should it have been little different parting moment with Natasha”, I kept ruminating on, “Could it still be different!”

Triggered by this thought, or by some astrological manipulations, or by a sheer co-incidence, as I reached hotel and pushed the door to enter- I bumped into Natasha!!

With creeping ecstasy, I exchanged greetings and then we moved aside for a brief chat in the lobby.

“Hey, I finally got the Bose Soundlink stuff that I had been looking for...” I said in a tone of excitement. She knew about this wish list of mine as I had made a mention of it in our earlier conversations.

“Great, and I’m joining Prasad and couple of other guys for Dinner in Bombay Bistro.” She replied smiling. It was the same dinner plan with our Indian friends that I had decided to skip out on and went for shopping instead.

“Wow! So you gonna try Indian cuisine tonight” - I replied enthusiastically as I was unaware of she joining for dinner tonight.

“Yea, Come, you join us too!”

“Well, I had subway on my way back”

“C’mon, we’ll have something light and a glass of beer” - She replied with a cute face.

“Alright!” - It sounded like a plan.

I went to room to drop the shopped items while Natasha waited at the reception. I did a quick grooming check in the mirror, pulled up my scarf and draped it around the neck in classic knot style and joined Natasha back. As we started our walk to the restaurant, she noticed my scarf and grinned realizing I groomed up for her. When we entered together inside the Bombay Bistro, mates looked at us with a bit of expected surprise. Our entry this time round was like a ‘Couple’, which was clearly our intent!

Bombay Bistro is a fine-dine Indian restaurant in Minneapolis. We all enjoyed the food. Although for Natasha, it was bit spicy but she ended up enjoying it over a glass of beer and a good laughter time. There is a legal drinking age requirement in US and one can’t buy or consume it unless you are 21 in Minnesota. I overheard Natasha’s reply when she whispered her age to the waiter while asked for age identification. She was in late twenties.

Post Dinner, we two went out for a stroll. We walked in a kind of saunter as if nothing else in the world mattered. In our casual chats, her pleasing voice and the substance flowed down in my heart. Our subconscious mind and moving steps lead us to the historical Stone Arch bridge of Minneapolis. Array of dim light-post in symmetrical spectrum along the bridge made the moment perfect for the situation. “Can you hold the camera my Prince!” - She would say oftenly in loving tone while replacing the camera lenses to take pictures of illuminating skyscrapers.

As we walked back to the hotel, slight drizzle made the moment romantic. At midnight, we decided to fulfill our downtown photo-shoot adventure. On the streets of Nicollet Mall, while Natasha clicked pictures of me, I looked at her pretending looking in the camera. When she would come close to show me the pictures, I would rather look at her. At 1:00 in the night, we were sitting at Hotel lobby in no mood to say goodbye. We grabbed a cup of coffee and Natasha opened her laptop and showed me the collection of pictures from Hawaii and Europe. At 2:00, with Natasha’s flight scheduled at 5:30, she finally had to leave. A conscious mind then made us realize that my arm was intimately round her shoulders on the comfy sofa that we sat on. We got up, did her leftover packing together while the cab arrived. There was one last goodbye then as she left for the Airport.

Part 8

So the Minneapolis story ended there. I was back in Mumbai and she was back to Moscow. We were now 3,000 miles apart. 

When people part, they take a bit of each other along with them. Something similar happened to us - though interestingly, we seemed to have taken quite a bit of each other. It was almost impossible for emotions not to take center-stage while thinking of time that just flown by. In order not to let this feeling recess, in an endeavor to make ‘The End’ little different, and in pursuit of something beyond, I knocked Natasha’s virtual door through the social network. A little step, initiated through one channel, then percolated to all possible modes of communication.

With a healthy bond, we remained connected and started rediscovering each other.

Natasha, originally from Belarus, had moved to Russia few years ago to settle in Moscow. A bright, independent, professional girl - the scale of which would make her peers envy. The place she had chosen to stay was Moscow City’s heart, which furthered her glamour quotient. She was a responsible girl who was managing her sister Maria’s career in Music and was helping her with admissions in a conservatory in Italy.

Having balanced personality and perceptive nature - she would talk coherently from political affairs of Russia to a range of hilarious topics. Her choice of movies reflected her depth in deeper thinking. And in fun times, she would be equally jovial. I still remember how we once humorously and stealthy tracked target of hundred likes on my profile pic, taken by her of me in Minneapolis.

Natasha was fast and furious in true sense. She would drive up her Alfa Romeo at crazy speeds from Moscow to Minsk on weekends. On other days, she would find reasons to keep her occupied. And when she was found relaxing on some evenings, her charming friends would take her along for miles long walk in the name of health & fitness. Through her eyes, I saw Moscow in Pictures. She would send me pictures describing them wherever she would go. I went on to use some of her classic pictures for a photography contest. In the process, we also got to know little known facts between the countries; such as there exists a Bangalore-Square in Minsk and a Minsk-Square in Bangalore. Both cities were made twin towns four decades ago to foster a friendly relationship.

She loved traveling and wanted to see India at-least once. She wanted a trustful companion who can help her visit India and its culture. Clearly, she was starting to find that in me. Places such as Goa, Jaipur, Delhi, and Mumbai were cities of interest to her. She had got herself mentally prepared to come over. Indian summers being scorching, I deferred the plan to winter so as to have her stay pleasant.

Distance means so little when someone is so closer in thoughts. It is like memories spanned in years and seconds we live in present.

Part 9

Meantime, Traveling for both of us continued - separately and independently!

Natasha went to Italy to visit her sister during vacation. Thoughts were shaping up. To give it a materialistic touch, we made attempts to present souvenir for each other. From Italy, she sent a postcard for me. It hopped multiple destinations to land into custody of India Post for final delivery. That's when it went untraceable and was returned back to the sender. In a slightly staggered time, I too made an attempt to gift her an Ichimatsu doll that I bought during my Tokyo Trip. It was denied of shipment to Moscow by local agencies because of raw material it contained inside. I kept ideating souvenir options for her; it was to be The Great Indian Silk Scarf. I remember Natasha mentioning me once that her favorite Indian silk scarf had got damaged recently and she was looking to get a new one. So I shipped her printed multicolored silk Indian scarves that would suit her the most. She was quite excited to have received it and was eagerly waiting for right occasion to try them. But I never thought this wait would end up becoming an eternal wait!

As much as you want to plan things in life, it has ways of surprising you. A wait - at times become the destination, and sometimes even your destiny. Such is life, which took a dramatic twist for Natasha!

On a usual weekday, I got an unusual message from Natasha that she was rushing to Belarus to attend a social responsibility that she can’t skip. In a brief discussion, she told me that it was about her childhood friend who passed away leaving behind twelve orphaned adopted children. In-fact, I got to know later that her friend had committed suicide.

Natasha's friend was an energetic girl with sunny disposition committed to ameliorate the plight of orphaned children. Why she killed herself was unclear, though it was speculated in media that it could have been either due to increasing responsibilities or due to rising frustration over the state inspectors who conducted periodic checks of orphaned children. It was quoted that she was forced to cancel many vacation trips and work appointments due to last minute unplanned inspection announcements.

Life brings sorrows and joys alike. It’s how we deal with them is the true test of our mettle. Heartbroken Natasha rose to the occasion and pledged to support these orphaned children, so much so that she took sabbatical from all other duties of life. We rise by lifting others; in a true spirit of humanity Natasha demonstrated ultimate example of mankind for the ones who are gone by and the ones needing support.

There was complete change in Natasha’s priority since then. Even after resuming office, she continued with the welfare activities. From juggling social work to family responsibilities to her demanding job - she had to take care of all by herself.

While Natasha was graduating into phenomenon called life, I took offstage and observed her from distance and let this wait be overtaken by destiny!

Part 10

I have learnt that people come into our lives for a reason. And that life is a big road with many signs on our way. How we decipher these signs decide the fate of our journey. Few things take days, few might take years, but what’s meant to be always finds its way. Having said that - it's also true that life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.

It has been quite a while now since I have spoken to Natasha. Its midnight and I’m in Hustle and Bustle of High-Street Hiranandani Powai experiencing the transition into the New Year. While I look back on what went by, I also look ahead. Tomorrow is going to be the first blank page of my new book and I’m planning to write a good one.

At 2:30 AM, which is Midnight in Moscow, I receive a surprise message from Natasha. It's a New Year wish along with her selfie, followed by a continuing text.

New Year has begun and we are wishing each other a Happy and Fulfilling New Year!