I was essentially a shy kid. The farthest I remember into my childhood is this incident in the Carmel Matriculation School, Erode. It was a big incident in my life. Any incident involving a girl is BIG. No matter what age you are of, it is enough if you are a boy!
There was this girl Monica who used to be my ‘best friend’. These were ultimate words to solemnize one’s relationship in his childhood. It is said with utmost emotion and expression that all Karan Johar movies fail to evoke such a situation. So back to The Girl in question. She used to bring curd rice daily. But the day she got to know I liked ladies finger (okra) the frequency of finding those world class roasted veggies in her stainless steel tiffin box increased. (How romantic! are you thinking?) Well now that is how innocence works!
Now I don’t remember the happenings of the incident so perfectly. After all, my first stint with a girl happened in first standard. (Okay I am not a moron, stalking girls or stuff like that. It just so happened that I had a crush on the ‘okra girl’. Not that I knew what a ‘crush’ meant. I just liked her. Again, child’s innocence at play!)
It was any other afternoon we were having lunch in the school playground in the shades of the trees in the campus. After lunch ( I don’t remember how it happened) but we danced in the school stage for everybody to see just like that, no music, nothing! I still have doubts whether that really happened or it was just a dream. It is a vague childhood memory. We were punished to ‘kneel down’ on the stage (that was side by side, next to each other! I don’t remember who that ‘intelligent’ teacher was!)
We parted as I moved with my dad owing to his transferrable job to Calcutta. My ‘innocent’ mind (which I assume you think is not as innocent as I claim it to be!) didn’t know that I have to get her telephone number and address in the least. So Monica was left behind with Erode. But then came, Vijayalakshmi, in Calcutta. Okay here’s another aspect there have been no dearth of Lakshmi’s in my life. There was one Mahalaxmi (My 1 st standard English and Math teacher. Okay don’t say I cheated on Monica simultaneously. We both liked her. One more common thing between us.) and then Vijayalakshmi, there was another ‘…’lakshmi (I don’t remember!) in the all boys’ school where I was transferred to in Calcutta ( again a teacher, desperate measures!!). Then there was the plain Lakshmi in Tuticorin and so many unnamed and once seen Lakshmi’s all over where I ‘ve been! I guess the goddess of wealth had blessed me with her incarnations all through my childhood from Erode, through Calcutta to Tuticorin.
After Tuticorin, I became a balloon. I lost all my charm I guess (If that doesn’t sound too narcissistic!) They say salt in the air makes you fat. But then fate decided otherwise and I put on so much of height (you use put on weight don’t you? not put on height?) after completing my 12 th standard all the weight got distributed homogeneously in my body and I became a stick!
In my 12 th I finally broke the jinx of Lakshmi and got my name linked with Deepika s, Vidya s and Selvi s thanks to friends on the look out of “leg pulling”. Not that any of those girls were ugly or anything. But I was essentially in my world. Childhood had disappeared.
Anyways, I still remember Mahalaxmi ‘miss’ who used to treat me with a little ‘double standard’. I was her favourite too. Why would she visit me at home if I was missing from class for 2 days owing to illness? Or for that matter why would Monica teach me the secrets of perfecting the art of chewing curd rice and eating in order to avoid stomach aches (I eat rice hurriedly even now. No time to chew like a cow!! I wonder if she is still eating like that. She must have spent a quarter of her life just in that if she is doing so! Man she used to eat one mouthful for 10 minutes or so.. Really slow.. I was dumbstruck!). Nor would Vijayalakshmi lend me her precious books for a day! (She was your typical nerd girl who would die saving her rough work from fire!!)
I am still essentially shy!
