An untold story from e-pao chat room
- a 10th Anniversary collection -

By: Samarendra Atom *

I tied the knot on 6th March, 2006 with Kabita (name not changed). We are now proud parent of a 3 year son Thoihenba Atom. We are leading a happily married life so far, I must say. But, we are yet to give credit for our successful relationship and marriage to e-pao.net. Why and how??? Read on...

I used to visit a cyber café at Keishampat daily to file report for The Telegraph (NE) and Kabita was looking after a cyber café which is run by one of her relatives.

It was sometime in August, 2003, two people fun2shhh and Valinda met for the first time in e-pao chat room. I am not sure if other e-pao chat users might remember the above chat IDs. The meeting was as casual as others. The chat IDs - like most people do - were not our psuedo names. I was fun2shhh and Kabita was Valinda. The meeting was as casual as any others. From that day onwards, it had been a routine affair for us to meet at the e-pao chat room or talking over phone (when either of us was offline), which we have exchanged online.

Our online relationship was thus developed and both of us felt that we were a likely dating match. We decided to take our virtual relationship to the next level, which is to set up a face to face meeting.

I still remember, it was on September 19, 2003 (Biswakarma Pujah) we set up a face to face meeting at her cyber café. I went there along with one of my friends. There were two girls (one of them was surely Kabita, I knew, but could not identify as yet) and some other customers in the café. We (me and my friend) did not disclose ourselves but asked for a computer terminal instead. I logged into the chat room and informed her that I was already in her café and guessed the girl in the extreme corner was she. At the same time, I asked her to guess me in the same way. Surprisingly, our guesses were proven right!!!!.

We came out of the café and had some snacks and coffee in the nearby eating joint. Then, we both accepted each of us as dating match. This is how we developed our relationship. Our relation as Pakhang and Leishabi went on for around two and half years before we plunged into the next level of the relationship - marriage on 6th march, 2006.

To be very frank, we even planned and had online chatting 4/5 times after marriage just for fun.

To conclude, in virtual world we are communicating on a mind-to-mind level without the limitations placed upon us by our physical appearance. I believe that most virtual relationships are real - they exist between two real people communicating across a virtual medium. I also do agree that not all virtual love will last, just like not all love in the physical world lasts.

Lastly, we are really indebted to e-pao.net for giving us a platform for our meeting in e-pao chat room leading to our happily married life.