A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

Cypher, The Matrix

As a Matrix aficianado, I have always been obsessed by the theory that we could be living in a neuro-linguistic simulation. After properly grasping the concept of the Matrix (when I was in the 12th grade, I think?) – I used to subconsciously search for “glitches in the matrix”.

And guess what, I have had my share of them!

I still don’t know how to explain a lot of them – but some of them have been mind boggling to say the least. I have had so many déja vus that I lost count! It’s not exactly like how they show in the movie, I most see a premonition of what’s coming up, or feel an intense feeling of having gone through this before.

I would like to narrate one of those mysterious stories to you. I am yet to find a logical explanation for this.

During my former career as a journalist, I was once traveling to Technopark, to attend an event at the Park Centre. I was commuting by bus, and on the way, I saw a private bus with the name Parakkal (name changes for privacy reasons). I was intrigued by that name, because I remembered that I had a Facebook friend by the name Riya Parakkal Varghese (name changed for privacy reasons). Somehow that name stuck in my head, and I thought of this person. We were Facebook friends, but I had never interacted with her, I doubt if I had even “liked” a post of hers even! But for the rest of my journey to Technopark, my mind meandered on to “Parakkal” and Riya.

I reached Park Centre and attended the event. It was a boring event on construction – a conference, if you will. I sat down, listened to a few presentations, jotted down enough notes for my story, and walked back. I had to catch the next bus home and I was walking briskly so that I did not get too late. I stopped on my tracks when I heard someone calling me from behind.

“Excuse me!”

I turned around and saw a girl looking at me. She was in her twenties, about the same age as I. She was wearing an ID card, she probably was a conference attendee.

“Are you Hari?” She asked me. I nodded my head in agreement and said yes.

“I don’t know if you know me, but we are friends in Facebook. I follow your posts.”

“Ah, that’s nice! I can’t seem to remember you though, but then I am bad with putting names to faces. May I know your name,” I asked.

“Oh, sorry – I am Riya. Riya Varghese. I am an architecture student.”

My head spun a little and I could feel my heart skip a bit.

“Oh,” I managed to respond. “Are you, Riya Parakkal Varghese on Facebook?”

“Ah yes,” she answered. “My parents wanted to add our family name as my middle name. Good catch,” she replied.

By now, I was flabbergasted. How on earth would I meet the person I had absolutely no connection with, and whom I thought of on a random clue within exactly 30 minutes? What are the odds?

I managed to say, “Nice to meet you” and bolted to catch that bus back home. I totally panicked and it took me an entire night’s sleep to come out of it. Nearly a year later, I mustered up some courage DMed Riya a while later and told her the story, to see if she had any answers. She just brushed it aside – she probably thought I was making it up to pull her leg (but I wasn’t!).

This incident happened 12 years ago, and I am yet to find an answer on how this happened! I always come back to this incident and try to analyze it in every way. How did I see the bus and think of Riya? How did I end up meeting her exactly? How could there be a connection between both incidents?

Serendipity? Some sort of cosmic connection? The butterfly effect? Or just a weird coincidence?

Or a glitch in the Matrix?

I am still searching…