First Love...

Among all the things in this universe, there is nothing as beautiful as first love. Back in the 1990s, guys used to walk five kilometers just to get a glimpse of his girl. And when he got to see her, he would have no words to describe the elation. Luckily if she looked at him and smiled, then that's it, he would stay awake all night thanking his stars. Poetry would flow out of his heart and there would be a diary where he would write couplets and later show it to her. That diary also would have many dairy milk chocolate wrappers they ate together along including the gold foil, the first greeting card she gave, a strand of her hair and her signature on every page so on.

It is difficult to describe how it felt walking in serene colonies bunking tuition, often holding  hands. A look into her sparkling eyes in that moonlight was enough to  bring him down to his knees and a longer look, enough to drown him. That feeling lasted for a week, sometimes longer. And it's not about getting physical. Just holding hands would take you a long way into another world, into ecstasy. Long discussions about these feelings with best pals amplified the warmth in the heart. There were no cellphones, just landlines which he would speak only when the girl picked up and when her dad picked up, he would make up a story. In most cases, there wasn't even a phone. 

Somehow he would get lucky and get to befriend her neighbor and from his terrace, he would observe her home and wait for her to come on her terrace. And when she does, she is with her sister or her mother and ignores him. But when they're going back downstairs, she looks at him and very secretly waves at him and he smiles like never before. He waits for her at the bus stop and ask her to come earlier than usual. Just before getting into the bus, she turns and looks at him and smiles and for him, officially, the day is over.

The worst part was the Summer Holidays when she would go to her native village or grandmother's place and he counts every minute that passes and awaits Earth's axis to tilt back. And there, she has a cousin with whom she would share his story and one day  during that vacation, she would call him on the land line from a PCO and he gets to speak to her for three minutes. Those three minutes would whiz past him but still a smile would spring up giving him enough of what he needed - her.

Things go on until destiny takes over and if he's lucky, he gets to live with her. If he isn't lucky enough, some space in his heart gets rented out to her memories forever. As time passes by, memories become blurred, but her name will still remain his password. 

- Deepak Karamungikar