Timing Is Everything

I am hugely grateful to Garrett Hedlund, for his beautiful song – “Timing is Everything”, from Country Strong. Because, he told me – “When you think true love is hard to find, that’s when love comes along, just in time”. He beautifully analyses how, had things been different, he would have never met her. How “I could have been another minute late, you never would have crossed my path that day”. He sings about destiny and fate and above all, waiting for the right person and meeting her at the right time.

Time is a funny, unpredictable bugger. Let’s go a year back, sometime in the middle of February last year (2013). Things were terrible then and there were more downs than ups in my life. I was beginning to feel Time’s playing games with me. But just when I was about to give up on him and all the notions about the good things in the world, he bestowed upon me, my miracle. My time, you see, had come. My savior, at last, was here. Right now, when I look back at things, I can almost see Time smacking his lips at the brilliance of his creation.

My D day was just a usual one, in fact, it was quite a while before I realized that I had met the one I was waiting for. She was here, it was her sitting on the other side of the desk and I had no idea. Because, as John Lennon sang, “Life is what happens to You when you are busy making other plans”. So indeed, it happened to me and I had met my angel and the whole Universe was clapping and Cupid was gathering congratulations and I was busy analysing the correct process of making 0.1N Sodium Hydroxide. Never mind, I was always an idiot and thankfully, the Universe had my back this time. Nothing could go wrong now.

So we started spending our days discussing Potassium Metabisulphite and Silver Nitrate and the parts per million of Sodium Benzoate required for paste preservation. All the while, the Universe was getting impatient, probably cursing me and my inability to be normal with a beautiful girl. Thankfully, I got the cue and one fine day, we were discussing Arnab’s “Shey Je Boshe Aache” and Notting Hill and then How I Met Your Mother and Big bang Theory! I was so comfortable that I went ahead discussing Messi and Manchester Untied (to which She only smiled though, a “I-am-not-interested” smile). And the Universe was in his easy chair in his lawn, basking in his glory, listening to “Love will keep us Alive”

Are matches made in heaven? I have no idea, but I guess there is a greater magic at work here. So we were born and brought up miles away and every decision I took, and each one I didn’t, all my life, brought me closer to Her. Truth is, I waited 28 years for her, moved from Dooars to Guwahati via Bhutan. We spent 3 years living in the same city without even meeting each other. Timing is everything. My wait was over, ‘coz I knew She was the one and She was worth the wait. She was worth every stumble, every hurdle and every bit of pain I had to endure, and when I was hanging off a cliff, She just held my hand and brought me up.

Garrett Hedlund ends his song with this classic line – “because You can be hurt by love, or healed by the same, Timing is Everything”. When I pick up the guitar tonight to dedicate his song to my love, my wife, my thoughts will go out to him and I'll say cheers brother, I have been healed and Life is Good. My time, is now.