"Hi Prasanth", she said

It’s New Year. After four hours sleep, I went to school. I was walking towards my classroom to drop my bag, wishing all my mates on the way who were headed towards school ground for prayer. I dropped my bag and was about to go. And just then, she entered. I was not looking at her but I could feel her moving towards her desk. We were a bit late to school and so they were no one else in the classroom. I was acting as if I was busy and was looking at her, the way she rolled her hair behind her ears, from the corner of my eye. I love that frame, every time she does, it’s wonderful to watch. She dropped her bag and turned; I continued to act busy. I thought I would follow her to prayer. But surprisingly, she walked towards me and said, “Hi Prasanth!”, my heart slid for a second. Yes, that was surprising because that’s the first time we ever spoke to each other. I wasn’t actually interested in her. She was one of the three girl-new-comers of the class that academic year, six months ago. One day my friends compelled me to choose one among them. I reluctantly told them her name and the very next day, as many as five classmates asked me if I was in love with her and none of them belong to the same gang. So the news spread, spread like fire. Eventually, I think, I started liking her. I am not sure if it was love, but there’s something in her that I was attracted to. She said, “Hi Prasanth!”, my heart slid for a second. “Hi! Happy new year!”. She wished me the same and gave me a greeting card and walked away. The envelope reads, “Dear Prasanth… Luv, RJ”. I was happy, curious, nervous, blank and cold-feet-ed at the same time. I was alone in the classroom and I opened the greeting card and it reads, “Dear Brother, Wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!”. I was broken into pieces, splintered, smashed, harmed, hurt, ruined, destroyed, devastated or to simply put, shattered, the first day of the year. It did take time for me to get over her; it wasn’t easy when I know I would see her in the same classroom every single day. It was hurting when someone makes fun of this and even more hurting when someone consoles me. Eventually, my classmates forgot, my friends forgot, she forgot, but not me. I never spoke to her again nor did she. One fine afternoon on a sunny day, I got over her; I got over her after one and half years the incident happened. I was writing my board exams in other school and there she was sitting a couple of benches behind me and she was from a different school.

I am Prasanth and welcome to my blog. I was in IX grade then and it was in 1999.