You’re Here to Meet a Woman

When I first arrived in Tiruvannamalai, I spent the first three weeks just wandering around, not taking much too seriously. One afternoon, I ended up walking through a few clothing shops with a woman I’d met earlier that day. She was an interesting character, sharp, funny, and with a real knack for pushing shopkeepers’ buttons. She was on a mission for white clothes, but the way she haggled and questioned everything drove the owners mad. They kept looking at me as if to say, Come on, help us out here. But she wasn’t my partner, I had nothing to do with it. I just shrugged and laughed.

Eventually, I got tired of trailing behind her and sat down outside one of the shops. When she didn’t come out for a while, I popped back in to see what was going on. She was still going at it with the shopkeeper, who looked like he was hoping I’d step in and save the day. I did, sort of. She finally stopped, said she was heading home to freshen up, and told me she’d message me later. I said sure.

After she left, I started chatting with the shop owner. Turned out he was an interesting guy. He asked me what brought me to Tiru. I laughed and told him the truth — I didn’t know. It had been three weeks and I still hadn’t figured it out. He told me he read palms as a hobby. Then he asked for my date of birth. I told him — 24/7/1992.

He stared at me for a moment and said, “Women.”

“What?” I asked.

“You’re here to meet a woman,” he said. “Women will desire you deeply. God has blessed you.”

I was taken aback.

Then he said, “But don’t stay longer than three months. Four at the most.”

That part didn’t sit right with me.

He warned me that this wasn’t a normal place. That people who stayed too long often lost their minds, literally. I told him I was solid. I wasn’t here chasing some vague spiritual buzz.

I was grounded. Spiritually aware. He studied me for a moment, then nodded. “Yes,” he said. “It’s not in your nature.”

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was trying to push me away as if he’d seen something and was trying to prevent it. And I wondered: had he seen the transformation that was coming for me and tried to steer me off course?

Because if I had left by April like he suggested, I never would’ve gone through what I did.

I never would’ve changed the way I did.

But I stayed. And intuitively, I felt unshakable — rock solid in myself. No one, and nothing, was going to move me.