It was as I remember my first experience with Indian railways. I was 8 years old studying class three. I along with my dad, mom, brother and uncle were travelling to Trichy for a marriage on one of those summer holidays. The train we boarded was Pallakad Town Trichirapally fast passenger. In those days back in 1997, it was not a fast passenger and it started from Coimbatore. The train was relatively new and was not overcrowded despite the holiday season.
The train has started roaring and at some point of time in the journey, there was this gorgeous, cute girl who came up to my place and introduced herself to my parents. I really have to stammer out to my mom that this pretty girl is a classmate of mine. She spoke as if she have knew my parents before and suddenly asked me whether I could come and meet her parents. Before I could give her a answer, my mother has pushed me out of my seat and I was walking along the train's corridor with her left hand firmly holding my right hand. We walked past a few compartments holding our hands together before we came to her seat. She was accompanied by her mother and a old lady probably her Grand ma. She introduced me as her friend and after all the formal questions and answers, her mother offered me a biscuit which I politely rejected. I bid good bye to her and to her family and returned to my seat after having a hard time figuring my way back.
It wasn't a thing really for me during that time, but during my class five hopes were really high. Our school only had upto 5th standard and all the pupil were writing entrance exams in various better schools for a new start. I too have tried up with few schools. It was then the class was divided into groups of four, two studious and two dumb pupil. Studious were supposed to help the less privileged. Me and her being studious were put up together and when ever we used to recite to each other, she used to give a smile that worth's a hundred million bucks, and whenever she smiles there will always be a dimples in her cheeks and boys fell in it. I was one of those.
Another instance that comes to my mind happened again in class five. Since we were studious we used to write class tests without supervision. There was this question which I studied but couldn't able to pen it down. I asked a another friend of mine to give me a little start up. He too faithfully tore a small bit of paper and wrote something and threw it to me. But the paper instead of coming to me, flew to her. She looked up to see both of our faces and again continued her work, looking back again at her test note book. Neither of us had the courage to ask her for the paper or to hide it. It lay there in the floor visible to everyone. When my class teacher came, she saw the paper on the floor and we were caught. With his handwriting my friend was undoubtedly was caught red handed, what mattered was, to whom he had passed the bit paper. Without even having second thoughts my class teacher turned around to look at me. While my friend claimed that he was practicing the question before the start of the test, I flatly denied any knowledge about the bit of paper. My Class Teacher asked her whether she saw anything suspicious. To our great relief she denied that she dint saw anything and was busy with her test. It was the last thing I remember in my early school life.
Then we departed. I went to another school and time ran by. But whenever I go by my old school or through that Shopping Complex where her father owned a shop, I always sneaked in with anticipation to have glimpse of her. One the first day of my college, during the first Roll Call, when the Professor called up her name, I had a mixture of emotions. I held my neck up high to see the face of that girl only in vain. But when all the days-scholars of my class was asked to stand I was first one to stand only to find out that there wasn't anyone looking like her, standing in the girls side. Hopes of seeing her again fell down.
15 years later after the first incident, I was sitting in my office, bored, I was doing a random search for all my past classmates in facebook she was my first search. After one or two failed attempts I found her. YES. YES. She was friend of friend of mine. The mutual friend was obviously the one who threw the bit paper on her instead of on to me. To this day I do not know how he has caught with her? but I sent a humble friend request with a note that I was her old schoolmate and she gracefully accepted it after few days. I also had an chat with her one day. She was quite the same in colour as she was in class five, but looked a little taller in photographs. Well It was really nice to have some one after such a long time, isn't? After all when it was your first crush.
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