Everyone knows life is unexpected. But I think I did something that is definitely more than unexpected. I went to a foreign country to live with a guy I had fallen in love with in the virtual world. I had never met him in person so far.

It all started with one of those question and answer websites. I did not expect to fall in love with a person in this kind of a space. Like every other girl on the internet, I too got all kinds of messages from all kinds of guys. But I would never reply to them.

‘He’ was the exception of course.

At first, I received only likes on my posts from him - on every single post that I wrote. It then progressed to comments. For once it wasn’t “Nice post. You’re hot!”

His comments were full of well thought out responses. We were actually able to have a conversation too. Even at this point, it was nothing romantic. I simply thought of him as a fan.

All that changed when I got his first message. It was a simple “Hi!” I had never imagined that things would move ahead quickly from that day onwards. We spoke to each other daily.

Initially, we just shared long, cheesy, letter type messages on the website. Eventually, we moved on to Instagram, WhatsApp and Skype.

We had our first face to face meeting much later. Even today I feel that was first most amazing moment of my life. The second most amazing moment was when we video chatted for the first time. The third most amazing moment was when I heard his voice for the first time.

I lived in the United States and he lived in India. Yet we always had time to talk to each other. We never missed a ‘Good morning' or a ‘Goodnight' message.

I was obsessed with him now. Nothing would run through my mind except him. I would bring up his name in almost every conversation that I had with every friend or family member that I had. At one point in time, I knew I just had to meet him.

I was 18. I had never worked before. I knew meeting him on my own was an impossible task. So I went to my parents. At first, they did not really appreciate the fact that I wanted to go out of the country by myself. This was the first time I would be doing so. And then I also wanted to live with a strange man that I had found online.

The idea did not quite gel with my parents.

But as time passed they saw that I was obsessed by the desire for nothing else but him.

They saw how he made me truly happy.

That's when things started moving in the right direction. I finally applied for my passport. Shortly after that, I applied for my visa and then immediately booked my ticket.

I had never been so excited and scared at the same time in my entire life. But everything felt so right.

He was moving from Mumbai to Delhi so that we could spend more time with each other without the interference of his family. Everything was falling into place and after 9 months of online communication, I said my goodbyes to all my friends and family and then boarded that plane. 24 hours and 2 planes later, I landed in Delhi. I was scared and nervous when I walked through the airport. I thought of all the bad scenarios that could happen. It was something that I had never thought of before. "What if he doesn't show up?" "What if he is not the guy I think he is?"

These were the kinds of thoughts that I was having now.

I dismissed my thoughts and proceeded through customs. I recovered my luggage and walked out of the airport into the world of unknown.

It was insane. I was in a new country. I had no money with me and I was going to live with a man I loved but whom I had never seen in person.

I looked around. I didn’t see him. I started panicking. So I walked away from the crowd of people who were waiting and called him. He was there. He told me to turn around. So I hung up the phone immediately and saw him for the first time.

I had never seen a more perfect human being.

I was overwhelmed by my awkwardness and all I wanted to do was to stare at his face like it was a painting. I couldn’t keep eye contact with him. I laughed nervously.

That is when he hugged me so tightly. He filled me with so much emotion that I knew I could never leave his arms again.

I’ve been living in India for three months now and I wouldn’t change a thing.

I feel amazingly lucky and blessed to have found a soul mate through such strange circumstances.

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