An Indian Google employee has shared the heartwarming story of how a chance encounter on a flight gave him a second family in Japan. Raj Dabre, a Senior Research Scientist at Google Research Australia, revealed the tale in an X post that is going viral online.
He opened his recollections with an intriguing sentence: “I have a Japanese mom and dad!” Dabre then went on to reveal how he met a Japanese couple on a flight that became his second family.
A chance encounter in 2019
“In 2019, I was on my flight back to India and unfortunately I was recovering from a bad bout of influenza,” said the Google Australia research scientist, who previously worked with NICT Japan. Despite feeling unwell, he boarded the flight, where he was seated next to a Japanese couple in their 70s. The couple was on their way to Thailand.
Dabre noticed that the Japanese man was struggling with the inflight entertainment system. “He wanted Japanese subtitles and asked the cabin attendant for help. Unfortunately he barely spoke English and the cabin attendant was having a hard time understanding his request,” he recalled.
Dabre told the flight attendant that he would be happy to help, and soon got the subtitles working.
“He gave me business card”
He thought that would be the end of his interaction with the Japanese couple. He was wrong. After he fixed the entertainment system, the couple started chatting with Dabre.
“He asked why I could speak Japanese so well. We got talking and spoke for more or less the whole flight,” Dabre recalled.
He later discovered that the couple lived only a 20-minute bike ride from his own home—a coincidence that surprised them both.
When it was time to deboard, the Japanese man gave Dabre his business card and asked him to get in touch.
Dabre confessed that he would have ignored the request, if not for his father, who insisted that he give the Japanese man a call. “I almost didn't call him but my dad insisted that I at least humor him. That one call gave me a Japanese dad and mom,” he wrote.
“Destiny is strange”
Since then, Dabre has visited their home countless times, stayed with them, and even had them witness his marriage in 2023. “During Covid, they were the ones who helped me stay sane,” he shared. He added that the bond has become so close that his Japanese father practically insisted that he call them mum and dad.
In 2023, when he got married in India, his Japanese ‘father’ flew down especially to witness the nuptials.
“At one point, my parents visited Japan and met my Japanese parents, a memorable event. And just as a parent would, he visited India in 2023 and was a witness at my marriage in the church,” he said.
Raj Dabre ended his post with a reflection on the strange ways that destiny works. “Destiny is strange. You don't know who you will meet and become close with. Just say hi!” he advised.