Somewhere in the heart of a Rainbow.

I was visiting a friend in 2009. When he introduced me to a group of his  friends, I was amused. It was a group that would have seemed very comfortable with each other to anyone walking past, but there were a few dynamics I just didn't understand.

There was my friend standing next to his, then, girlfriend. Then there were girls who lived in the same building as her or were at the same campus. The gal pals. Then there were the other guys. The boys. None of these people seemed like the kind of friends I pictured with MY friend. To me, the auras were all wrong. As if in the matrix, I saw various ties criss-crossing in the group, some strong and some kind of polite.

I realised I'd been standing and smiling a while, thinking these thoughts, without saying a single word. I must have appeared strange to everyone. But then I realised it had been only a few seconds because my friend hadn't even finished introducing them by name. I said hello, and sat down at the green picnic table. For convenience and anonymity, I'll give each person a letter as a nickname.
 I noticed that my friend's(A) girlfriend(B) seemed to be the Alpha in that relationship. That one of the girls(C) observed B very carefully, yet in a dissatisfied way. Some sort of hostility that I couldn't place. One of the guys(D) was looking at (C)'s cleavage from the corner of his eye, trying not to be obvious.
 And then there was one girl who seemed deep in thought (E). She had a lovely smile and she waved, but seemed lost in thought. It's as if I could see the wheels turning in her head, but each wheel was a different hue all together. It felt like watching rainbows doing cartwheels.

While I casually chatted with A,B,C and D, I kept trying to figure out where those colors in E's mind came from. It took me a few minutes to realise that those colors were not in her mind. They were on her clothes. But I was seeing her in MY mind in brilliant hues. She looked on the outside what my brain felt like on the inside! It was a magical feeling!

But it was time to go, so A said goodbye to his friends and we left. At A's room, we recalled childhood memories and pranks we'd played on each other, and then he told me about his friends. His description of B,C,&D were very generic. But when it came to E, he gave me no details, but simply said "You'd really like her". But it turned out that E didn't live near A. So I didn't really see much of her till we went on a little roadtrip. On the trip, A was busy clinging to his girlfriend. C and E seemed to be deep in conversation with another friend F who had joined us on the trip. So I found myself talking to D. Since I am a chatterbox, it seemed to be a good idea sitting in the navigator's seat and keep chatting with D while he drove. The road trip was fun, but that story us for another time.
We returned to A's room late that night and I flew back to my city the next day. But the very next chance I got to visit A, I flew straight back. I'd been meaning to talk to E to understand her better, and this time, A was bidding goodbye to B. A was preoccupied and abandoned me with D, with instructions to drop something off at the building in which C & F lived. I asked D about E and was told that E designed really beautiful jewelry, bags and accessories. That fit straight into my image of E. There was an exhibition of art at the university, and D and E had their work on display in different sections, so I spent sometime with D and then with E. Finally.
E wore dark kohl on her eyes, just like me. She wore colorful jewelry and clothes, just like I usually did (I had packed light for the summer), she had a wide mischievous grin, just like me. We were kindred spirits. In that moment, i christened her 'Rainbow Girl'. We talked a lot and then it was time for me to go back to my city yet again. After that trip, I never got to meet E in person. When I got back to Bangalore, A was already back, and we met on and off. But I kept in touch with C and Rainbow Girl. C had gone back to her country, and even though the time difference was only about 30 minutes, I found myself unable to keep in touch with C. When I see her on Skype or Facebook, we chat easily, but we're drifting apart I think. It's not a sad thing, but it's just how life moves on.

Rainbow Girl, on the other hand, is very much a part of my life and routine. I met her fiancee on Skype, wished them lifelong love, and teased them about their wedding pictures. But since Rainbow Girl and I are kindred spirits, she's on my mind everyday. Even my house is full of brilliant hues. Every brilliant hue of art, every brightly embroidered kurta, bag, shoe or bangle I see reminds me of her. To me, rainbows don't mean LGBTQIA. To me, rainbows mean Rainbow Girl.

We've both been through a lot, stood by each other in tough times, and brought out the bright colors in each others' soul for the last eight years, and we'll always keep doing so.

Rainbow Girl, my Darling, one day we'll meet, and it'll be like we never lived in different parts of the world!