I have this habit of reading good articles and admiring people who have a way with words. The kind of writers who can take everyday thoughts and shape them beautifully.

Back when I was in Chennai, I stayed in Velachery. It was close to IIT Madras, and our church had students from IIT attending Sunday mass. A few of them had become friends overtime. One day, while scrolling through Facebook, I came across some friend suggestions. Most of them were IIT students, probably because of the mutual connections.

Like many of us do, I started clicking through the profiles out of curiosity. One of them was a guy (let us call him X) who used to come to my church and was studying at IIT. I was going through the posts on his wall and one particular post caught my eye. It was a thoughtful post about how someone had helped him prepare for exams and crack the GATE exam. The tone, the language, the flow, the feel, everything about that post felt different. That post led me to search for the author, and that search brought me to Sreedish.

He was also from IIT, though not from the Madras campus. The post I had stumbled upon was one of his ‘signature Saturday drunk reflections’, written with the perfect mix of humour and insight. I kept scrolling through most of his posts and found myself enjoying every single one. His writing had a certain rawness, a quiet intelligence, and a dry wit that I loved. So, I followed him on Facebook. He kept writing. I kept reading and liking his posts.

One day, he put up a post saying he was going to make his profile private and only those who liked that post would continue seeing his updates. I hit like immediately. Not just because I enjoyed his writing, but also because I discovered we shared a mutual dislike for a certain political party. That just made the connection feel a little more personal.

What happened next was unexpected.

I received a message from him asking how I had found his profile. He said he had tried every possible combination to figure it out but failed. I explained the whole story, from scrolling through IIT profiles to landing on X’s post and finding him through it. That message turned out to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

This was way back in 2016.

At the time, I had just quit my job and was taking a career break. When he heard that, he asked me to share my resume so he could forward it to some of his friends. I sent him a Word file, and he immediately pointed out a funny mistake, I had written “martial status” instead of “marital status.” He also asked for a PDF version. Since I did not have a personal laptop or system, he converted it himself and passed it on.

That kind gesture stayed with me.

Over time, we kept in touch. We did not speak often, but when we did, the conversations would go on for two hours or more. There was something unfiltered about those chats. No pretence, no judgement, just two people talking about anything under the sun. Over the years, he became someone I looked up to. Someone I trusted.

In moments of confusion, especially in personal matters, he was the one I turned to. While I would get stuck in a loop of overthinking and seeing the worst in situations, he had this quiet ability to look at the same problem and find clarity. Talking to him always made things feel lighter. His words would help me take a step back and breathe.

Today, he works at Meta in the United Kingdom. Among my close friends, he is simply known as my UK friend.

Yesterday, something strange and wonderful happened. I was lost in a stream of thoughts, and for a moment, he crossed my mind. I smiled to myself and moved on. Just a few minutes later, my phone rang.

It was him. We spoke for two hours straight. We touched on everything, from cooking, career choices, and friendships to what we both call our midlife journey. By the end of the call, we agreed that it was not a midlife crisis. It was a midlife flourish. A time of awareness, growth, and quiet transformation.

Looking back, it is beautiful how a simple scroll on Facebook gave me a friend like him. A person I have never met in real life, but who has become such an important part of mine. Friendships like these are rare. They do not shout for attention, but they stay. They grow with time and become steady anchors. So, if you have a Sreedish in your life, someone who understands you, listens with patience, speaks with honesty, and makes you feel lighter, hold on to them. Because not everyone gets to find a friend like that.

Who is your Sreedish? The one you met by chance, but stayed for all the right reasons?