The day before I got a call from the Lord & Master. Yes, that means I am gallivanting the countryside yet again. Anyways, getting back to the call from the L & M, I hello-ed.

“Are you in front of your laptop??” the L & M asked.

“Nope” was my reply.

Now I am sure that must have been a surprise for him, it being the after lunch hours with the desired free time at my disposal.

“I am reading” I said, clearing the mystery.

I was too immersed in The Rozabal Line that afternoon and had given the internet the go by.

“Check your mail box when you come online. I have sent you a forward.” he said.

Oh no. I rolled my eyes. The L & M sends me forwards that he finds funny and most times I have already seen it somewhere or other ages back.

“Okay…” I said. “Not now though. I am on the last pages of my book.”

“Okay okay. But listen to this. Something interesting about the forwarded mail…”

I was restless, wanting to get back to my book, but waited nonetheless for him to continue and finish.

“There is this guy who used to work in the HR, here at my office. And he sent me a mail in which he says….”

Within no time, I had thrown my book aside, jumped off the cot and was at the table, switching on my laptop. I simply had to read the mail. Logging on to g-mail took eternity via the mobile connection.

At last, there it was, just as the L & M had said.

It is any blogger’s dream to have strangers pop up out of the blue and say that they are readers of your blogs. I remember mentioning to the junior son once, that one day, one day… some one would walk up to me and say,

“Are you Shail of Shail’s Nest?? I read your blogs, you know.”

He found what I said amusing  and laughed, not unkindly, but good-naturedly. He thought my day-dream was in the realms of fantasy.

He is probably right, since it hasn’t happened as yet.

But the next best thing has happened to me.

The mail sent to the L & M that had been forwarded to me, was from someone who had worked with the L & M in his office.

“….I am a reader of the blog ‘shailsnest.com‘ and have read about the writer mentioning about her Lord and Master in a number of posts. While browsing through the blog last week, I came across your photographs during the trek at Bannarghetta(?) park.”

The person had stumbled upon the ‘connection’  on spotting a picture of the L & M in said blog and realized that the person he knew in office and the L & M of Shail’s Nest were one and the same.

“….Just thought I should let you know that it is a beautiful blog. Great going.
I am sure you must be encouraging the writer, and of course creating few bloggable moments for her.”

You bet he is!

I don’t know if I am at liberty to reveal your name. But I will tell you this much: I am pleased as punch. I lost no time in conveying the news to the junior son too, who rather went, “OMG! Really??!!”

Thank you so much. You made my day!  🙂

Updated to add:

To be fair, the first one who popped up out of the blue had been Lavanya Suresh who had been a reader of Shail’s Nest and also familiar with other family members of mine, but never knew the ‘connection’ till it was revealed to her via Facebook. So here’s to you Lavanya, the very first Popper-Up! 😉