First time i..

All right after all that serious stuff here is something light and beautiful it’s about love. Something which makes u do crazy things, which can give so much joy and pleasure and which can also be the source of never ending pain. Being in India, with all those restrictions being in love has some additional excitement. So this one is about the first time I was bowled over by someone.

I was still in school then, in the 12 std, lived in the boarding house, kind of a hero for what I did on the sports front. The all boys School, was located about two miles from the City, though we had a girls School too but that was in the City. It would be one of those rare days when u got to see a girl on the campus. But whenever one showed up whole lot of guys would be clamoring to get one look. Girls would almost at all times be the topic of discussion. One of those days I heard about this new girl Sonam at the girls school, how beautiful she was blah blah….

Few weeks later I was at the girls school to play a friendly basketball match with their team, part of their trainig program. I was the first one to walk on the court, when this girl wearing black shorts and a brown silky top, turns arnd and throws a ball to me, while I just went wow..she was really beautiful …. it was Sonam.

A week later these girls were coming over for a dance party, every year we had 3-4 such parties and it created so much excitement. Being the School Captain I had to start that dance which after few minutes the others wud join in. For those initial few minutes it wud be me and my partner alone on the floor. One of the guys threw a challenge at me, that I ask Sonam for the first dance. That’s what I did, we danced for some time, the challenge over I made an excuse that I had some work which wud take a while, just to get away, but this girl, she says I am waiting for you. When I came back after some 30 minutes, I did not expect her to be waiting for me but there she was sitting alone in the corner where I had left her, a big smile when she saw me, that moment floored me, her innocence and simplicity got me, the fact that she was really beautiful was a bonus.

To meet her was so difficult, my school had military like discipline, the guys in boarding house cud not go out without permission, which was given in rare cases. For each activity guys wud be counted to make sure everyone was there. Anyway I found out how she went home after school, both of our schools gave over almost at the same time. She walked some distance to the bus stop from where she wud take the bus. So I wud slip out of my last class a few minutes earlier, borrow a mobike, stop near her bus stop and then start walking towards her school, and so we used to bump into each other, we met just for few minutes because I had to rush back for lunch. Initially I pretended that we ran into each other by chance, though I am sure she guessed what I was up to.

Then I went to the University, while she moved to a girls College, where my sister was also studying. My sister got princely treatment from her, she wud not let her do anything, Sonam wud take care of everything. Sometime I went to visit my sister with my family dad n mum, when it used to be the time to return I wud be the last to get into the car, I had to wink at Sonam who wud be there my sister. Life was so beautiful, occasionally we wud talk of getting married but then before that we wanted to do something, settle down. Especially since we belonged to different religions there was always doubt wud the parents accept something like this.

Meanwhile Sonam applied for and got flight attendants job with an international carrier, suddenly we were like a 1000 miles apart, but we kept in touch, initially she used to ask me to join the Airline too, but that was not part of my plans. But i wud find all kind of excuses every now n then to travel to Mumbai where she was based, but gradually we just drifted apart, being on International Flights she was mostly away from the country. The distance got too us. There was this sinking feeling when the realization dawned that she was no longer mine, 8 yrs is a long time to be together with some one and then……she was such a wonderful person, so caring…..

Took some time to get back to my normal life. Then I went abroad for my MBA, on my return the first thing I did was to try and find her, may be we cud work out something, because no matter what had happened but we both cared for each other a lot. But there was absolutely no trace of her, I was told she had joined another Airline. I went to her house but her parents who were in some government job had moved too. She kind of just vanished in thin air. Some time I just sit n wonder where she is what she is doing……I still think tht some day we would run into each other and embrace each other in an everlasting hug………

All I have now is all those vivid memories, sometimes I hate myself for my memory.