Many years ago, my wife Karima and I met with Jose Luis, the general manager of a golf club in Las Palmas, to discuss their water treatment issues. At lunch time, Jose recommended we try their signature steak, prepared with a local, red mojo sauce. It was absolutely delicious.
As I carved away at my steak, sprinkling lemon and chilli sauce before slowly savouring each bite, he said to Karima that I reminded him of his best friend Karim, from Kenya, whose dining mannerism was exactly the same as mine. He related to us that Karim and he were like brothers, who had attended boarding school and university together in London. Several years after graduation, Jose and his fiancée Marta, decided to move back to Spain. On the day of their departure, Karim was supposed to help transport them and their belongings to the shipping port, in a rental van. He never showed up…
Jose and Marta were convinced that something terrible had happened to Karim, because he was an extremely reliable person. Failing to show up only meant one thing – he had either been involved in a major accident or suffered a severe catastrophe of some sort. After reaching Spain, they repeatedly tried calling Karim’s home phone, but it was disconnected. There were no mobile phones in those days. All Jose’s numerous letters were returned unopened. He was convinced that Karim had passed away, and lamented the loss of his best friend for forty years.
After lunch, we took all Karim’s details from Jose, and proceeded to aggressively investigate his whereabouts through our network of friends and elderly uncles and aunts, who had lived in Kenya at the time, and perchance knew his family. We discovered through the grapevine that he was alive and had retired in Luxembourg. A month later, we met with Jose and Marta at an Indian restaurant in London. After dinner, we conveyed to Jose that we had a surprize gift for him, and handed over an envelope containing Karim’s contact details. He broke down and sobbed profusely, and then excused himself to go out and digest this major, but very welcome shock. The following week, Jose and Karim were reunited in Luxembourg, sadly at a time when Karim was dying from stage-three cancer. The two best friends had a chance to spend some brief, quality moments together, before Karim passed away peacefully…
We were all astonished by the perfect synchronicity with which everything unfolded after our initial meeting with Jose, who was a complete stranger to us at the time. His love for Karim was so powerful that it unleashed an unstoppable series of events that united the two best friends just before their final farewell…Yes, I for one do believe that love has the power to invoke and drive synchronicity…
©Amyn Dahya
