They were all of 14 years old, and a very unlikely pair. She with her 24″ waist, fair complexion and brown eyes was the most beautiful of them all. He was pitifully thin, had disheveled long hair and was known for his antics of harassing his teachers with snakes, lizards and crabs. Needless to say that girls avoided him and he couldn’t care less. She was not even in the same section as him. Just that his best friend was “maha fida” on her but couldn’t bring himself to talk to her. Mind you I am talking about 1980 and Nagpur. He insisted that his best friend *ask* but ultimately did it for him, the trysts were to take place at his house as meeting outside would have been too much of a taboo and both his parents were working. Rather convenient…
By the third meeting his best friend had figured out that she was smarter than him and he was not getting anywhere. The best friend dropped out of the triangle but she continued with her Saturday afternoon visits. She discovered that he was not at all bad. They never said “I love you” to each other – It just was assumed, nor were there any promises to love you till the end of this world. In fact by 17 they just moved on… … Each to their own way.
She was my first love – I still love her, I am sure she does as well.
She taught me several important things, again not in order of importance
1) She taught me how to think like a woman – as closely as a man can
2) She taught me how to open hooks with just thumb and index finger
3) She taught me how to make a woman feel “cared for”
4) She taught me how to braid hair
I can keep going on with the list, I am sure she also learned several things from me, BUT there is one thing that I can never repay her back for, nor will she accept any payment for – She sat with me and cried on my behalf when my mother died, We were just 15 and somehow I just could not let my emotions out. She wished that I would cry it out but did not insist. She had just said, I remember the exact words – “Be brave Tarique someday there will be someone”
Just remembered all this while reading this at