The summer of 2007 will always remain in my mind(heart in fact!!) as the most beautiful period in my life. What started off as signing up into one of the many networking sites to increase my circle of friends and to meet newer people, led me in finding my old school sweetheart who was till then somewhere at the corner of my heart and only coming out once in a while to remind me that "Hey shyam am still out here!!!", now made me think that I exist only for her.
Well...it all started after my third year final exams got over and we went home for vacation with me whiling away most of my time chatting and browsing with friends and that time I added her to my messenger and what started off as normal conversations about college(she is three years younger to me!!) started getting very personal and I blurted out that I have always had a huge crush on her right from our school days. She was a little surprised well shocked would be a better word and then I started which I never ever thought I would become good at "flirting". Harmless flirtings started turning on things for both of us and in a very less time maybe only a month or fewer I think, we fell for each other. Not a day passed by without both of us sharing all the details about each other and the hunger only started to build....the hunger what people called as "Love". We shared so many things, which I would never have done(or I never will!!) with the bestest of my friends. Days on which she didn't come online, were very boring and those days seemed like they will never end.
I yearned for her innocent and cute chats. For a guy who always thought only in the movies people fell madly in love, made me to come in face with the reality. I was falling for a girl whom I haven't met in years, had no idea how she looked, was she the same beautiful,tall and thin girl I fell for in school or has she became fat and not worth to look at. Thoughts about her...only about HER were racing in my mind day in and day out. My holidays came to an end and it was time to go back to college for my final year and I took her landline number as I wouldnt be able to come online everytime.
And my final year in college started and it was business as usual...get up,class,bunk,class,bunk,lunch,bunk n sleep,class,roam and come to hostel. This happened everyday. As we had no internet connection in our rooms and one or two computers working in the hostel cafe as well as lack of privacy, my chats with her dropped to a minimum. Yet the spark remained, shining brightly as ever. One fine evening, after a lot of dilly-dallying and feeling nervous just like how one feels before getting the question paper in hand in a final exam, I called her up. I listened to her voice and I couldn't believe I was talking to her and I thought her sister lifted the phone up and asked to give it to her elder one. I could hear a giggle and she told that it was her. Then I realised why scores and scores of men fell for women. Her voice and that soft giggle made me slip a bit before I fell badly...in love with her!!
After some conversations she opened up freely to me and we talked and talked about everything. Slowly, we started flirting with each other and every evening I called her up never minding the number of recharges I did to my phone. I fell for her but I didnt tell it yet, because my intention was never to fall in love, not with my close friend's cousin. If you ask what my intentions were when I started chatting or talking, pardon me my intentions were only to while away my time, my feeling of being single. But I was wrong, the same intentions matured into something else, something which I never thought will change me,make me more human,respect others' feelings..made me everything which I never was. Days rolled and end of July, she proposed. It happened on a Sunday afternoon, first ever direct proposal in my life from a girl whom I loved equally. To be frank I saw it coming but not this early. I was thrown back with this question about committment.
The word always gave me the jitters, even now that I dont know whether I spelt it correctly. I was trembling and I was thankful that this was happening over the phone and not personally. She was in Hyderabad and I was in Tanjore a remote town in Tamil Nadu and I never believed in long distance relationships as they bought more insecurity than longingness and thats what happened finally!! So I convinced her that even I like her alot and that we will think about committment once we meet. And it was also that she was quite taller than me and I didnt want to create a situation where she should feel that I lied or cheated her about myself when we meet. That was an unforgettable day I will always remember...I will always cherish in my life, my first love!!!
