A Tiny Si Love Story - circa 1996

A long story that he professes to share, perhaps he wants the world to hear it loud, for he always wanted to write about it anyway and what better way than the silly valentine's season to write about the lost loves he never had, the many lives that he sometimes lived.

So, a tale to tell - of silly emotions and of broken hearts, of childish innocence and of crazy passions and now, 20 years hence is a right time to talk about that silly silly love story.

Started strangely enough - his father mentioned to him casually that a friend's daughter who is in the same standard would want to study with him but he being a sum-total of 14 years with strange feelings already churning inside him brusquely cut off his father and the chapter came to close for this shy boy in a shy small town.

Cut to the next year when the first hints of stress that takes a toll on many lives already beginning to bubble, he was already either in love or crying over his studies when he started tuition from his science and maths teacher who was also very popular with students from other schools. 

And,,,,,,, there was this one girl that he took a liking too. It was a simple acknowledgement of a liking for he was also aware that the girl was some kind of a relative of a friend of his father. And that was primarily because he was aware that she used to come to school in a strange coloured jeep that the friend of his father owned. But that was that and remained at that for a few weeks.

But soon enough, he saw her being dropped by his uncle whom he had seen a few times since childhood and realised that this girl was the one talked about in the previous year and fate has brought them together again. The likeness exploded from somewhere and it became a full fledged heart wrenching explosion from the depth of his heart.

The love grew while he became shy and then one day, his mother came to pick him up and happened to meet the love of his life while he was nowhere to be found. His angry mother found him loitering near the house and told him that she had met this kid and he behave well with her and take care. 

Ohhh, with his studies already in doldrums, here he was, with a rapidly vibrating heart, here he was, seriously attending tuition's from that onward. The parents became happy, the teacher too but was he really studying or just looking over at her from his position as the lord of the last bench.

His seriousness of attending his classes increased so much that he only looked forward to his extra classes while was mostly found to be dreaming during his normal classes at school. Most people actually took it as a positive sign that the runaway child was under control these days. 

Meanwhile, instead of taking the older short-cut to home, he started using a strangely long route that snaked through half the town and would reach home late and covered in soot. Meanwhile, his friends started following him and half the kids of his class were found to be reaching home late. Parents across the landscape began worrying about their late-coming children who could offer no better reason than the fact that they were loitering behind some unknown students.

He followed her and everyone followed him and it became a long procession spread over more than a kilometre. He was merely content in walking behind her and that too, from a long distance and life was going on smooth. Meanwhile, she tried to talk to him sometimes but he would go "mad" if there was ever a word for such a stage even when she looked at him and would either walk away or preferably would run away.

His parents were pleased as he suddenly started wearing nice clothes and the neighbours' were happy as he stopped playing too much, thus not disturbing their potential IIT aspirants kids. Basically, everyone was happy except for our poor romeo in question. He was plagued with despair.

He forced his mother to buy him more clothes as the months passed. He was drowning, he was conscious and became more aware of himself as a person, he washed his face, he combed his hair, he wore good clothes. Uff, he was good good boy burning inside.

She used to sit in front of him or in a bench next to him. He was aware of only her and no one else. The teacher was also happy as his naughtiest student was suddenly overtly serious. He would steal a glance the moment the teacher turned his back, his breath would often be inches behind her and he was sure that she was aware of it. It felt like there only two people in that small room and not twenty packed kids trying out chemistry for their survival in next years board exams.

She would often stare at her and he would have minor heart attacks every time that happened. By the end of the class, both of them would be exhausted to the extent that a friends started questioning his new found passion for sulfuric acid burning through his deep deep soul. 

Increasingly though, he became irritable in nature and would snap at his friends. His studies showed no discernible improvement though his attendance improved. It got worse when she did not come for three weeks and he went mad. Mad and irritable. By the time, she came, he was angry with her as well and it showed in all his behavior. He would be sullen in the last seat. In school, he created an image of a ruffian as his studies went downhill and he completely stopped looking at her. The whole room was suddenly claustrophobic. 

Finally, after seemed like a lifetime, he improved a bit and was as usual walking slightly behind her. Suddenly, uncle or her father passed him and he said hello but he was driving too fast. She saw him being silly again and broke into a laughter. But she and J laughed. That laughter made him break into a smile but the wait was harrowing as the next class was after a week as the whole batch had moved on to the next year - the year of the board exam.

The wait was on as was his visits to the local temple as he required extra-special services of god this year to pass. He had to visit the temple for the next few days and this kept him busy and perhaps alive as the pain of being far from her would have surely killed him. He did pass and happily went on next week to join the new class where a particularly difficult form of chemistry would fly at him while his heart would be all boiling. 

The saga of class Xth had just begun