A “Sidekick!!!”

Those days, I thought, that was how things worked. Boys proposing girls at the age of 9-10 seemed natural and normal. Back then, I didn’t feel there was anything strange about it. Though today, it intrigues me. Age 10!!! My son is 11 now and I cant imagine him falling in love. I understand having a crush. But, falling in love…LOL, with all capital letters!!! I cant imagine him going behind a girl to woo her or make her understand his deep love for her to get married to her.

Yes, you heard it right, Marriage. That was exactly what I used to hear when these young  teens confessed their love. Today, such love would be misunderstood as “lust” or “sex”. But those days, it had only one meaning. 'There is love in the air and if they both have same feeling, soon we will see them married.' It sort of sounds cute now as I think of it.

Anyways, the tom boy me, was a perfect friend for many such girls who were being proposed by boys. Every festivals, every inter school competitions, every get-togethers – We found such boys. Mostly in a bicycle, they came in as a gang and would do every single idiotic thing to get the attention of the girls. When it went over board, I would be back answering them. Wonder, what was I? A Bouncer for the rest of the girls. Whatever.

There was even a regular “Proposer” who claimed to be in true love with every other girl at every other location. Once, I even asked him, how could he say so. And he said, “Ha, no dear. Last time, I was misunderstood. That was not real love. But this is. I am truly in love with this girl. Please, can you help me.” Gosh, isn’t that crazy. Yes, it was. For me. I felt, it was odd to have such flickering heart that beat fast for every other girl. But, he had no shame, I suppose. He went around proposing girls and I kept witnessing it. Now don’t ask me, why was I everywhere. I used to be an active participant in talent shows and sports competitions during my school days and such places were a favourite spot for such fickle-minded boys, I assume.  

Ok, maybe, only I had this opinion about such boys. But the girls who were getting that extra attention from one such boy was always in an elated and excited mode. She would be seen walking around with more poise and extra dose of shyness. And if she got proposed, then are the days about sharing the secret news and would be talking about it with much pride. Post the same, I would be witnessing secret meetings on the road side or the bus stop or even the temples. Personally, I had even accompanied some of them as a ‘friend’. Now I realise, I was just a ‘cover-up’ for them…hehe!!!

So, somewhere from age 8-11, I played the role of a ‘bouncer’, ‘loyal friend’, ‘cover-up’….In a Bollywood movie, think my role would be considered as a ‘side-kick’…

Gosh, should I laugh or be pathetic on my role…

A “Sidekick!!!”

V-Month Rewind...

February, the month of love…so they say…Who? Who cares! I don’t think I never even heard of Valentines Day until somewhere in 2000. Was I that bad in the matter of love or was these so called “DAYS” came into the limelight only by then. Naturally, think the marketing sense of this society grew with demand of business. That’s what I would say.

Anyways, when somebody asked me what my plans for the Valentines Day was, I laughed. Life was in a mode where I personally never got so excited about such days. Forget V-day, even birthdays seems boring… So I have no idea what were my plans…

Frankly speaking, as a child, Love was sort of an amazing secret. A secret that all would love to have and at the same time feared it to the teeth. As kids, we would talk so much about how that girl is in love with that boy! How this boy cheated that girl for this girl! How she thinks that that boy loves this girl!

Sad is the reality that this heart tickling secret always floated around me, but never in me… Growing up as a tom boy, I was mostly only a witness to many such love affairs. I felt it was so weird to actually claim to be falling in love.

Hehe!!!, so, this month, I wanna take a u-turn to some childhood memories… a Walk through the childish past…

A V-Month Rewind...

My V Day...

Valentine’s day… Life has been a rough patch for some time now that I sort of ignore these special days… Afterall; what are they for. To increase the profit rate of some companies who rely on such days for their living. Ok; I am not being sarcastic. But, seriously, why do we need special days to celebrate relations. I have said this many times before too.

Now, the issue is… on these days I need to be extra careful on  what I talk or even wear… As there has been a tendency of people judging and asking… “Oh is it because it is ___ Day?” Oh, come on… NOOOO… I just happened to wear a red today. I was just picking it up on the way. I missed to bring lunch from home… and so on… hehe!! Anyways, I am not going into my displeasure of celebrating special days… For somewhere deep inside, I realise, how much ever, I protest… A little extra attention once a while do make you feel happy…

The day passed by uneventful. Only difference was that I was getting queries asking me what I’ve got for V day. Can’t say none; as I do get a whole load of forward messages in Whatsapp. Thank god, whatsapp is free and so forwarding is extremely easy. Frankly, I would appreciate an SMS better than a whatsapp forward message. To all who asked me, I said the truth, ‘Nothing but forward messages.’ Some chuckled, some responded with a long buzzing ‘hmmmmmmm.’ Felt nice to think that they had high confidence in me that even at this age I am expected to receive surprises on a V Day… Sad that none of these idiots, instead of asking, felt to actually get me something… lol!!!

Emptyhanded, I reached home after work… My superhero looked weird, with a strange smile and suspicious looking mannerisms… Now what did he do? Unlike other days, he was being very formal. “How was your day?” “Did you eat food?” “You want some water?”… OK, my mental alarm was ringing loudly…Something is wrong… What what what… I asked,

“TELL ME, WHAT? IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG?”

Sheepishly, he came forward with something bright green … As he handed it over to me…he hugged me hard and said, “Amma, Happy Valentine’s Day…” Surprised I was…but was into a shock as I heard what he had to say in continuation… “Amma, I love you a lot… I know, you would not have got any gift. So, I felt bad. I wanted to get you something. As I had no money, I made this card for you all by myself. Hope you like it.”

Tears trickled thru my cheeks. I wondered, when did my super hero grow up enuf to be considerate. I realised, again, that any extra you do for your loved one is never worthless. Slowly, I opened his four-page card. Each Pages had its own beauty and significance. His handwritten words were so touching and filled with his love. A Square piece had been cut off from the last page with a message to point it at his face. As I looked through the page, I found him standing on the other side wishing me Happy Valentine’s Day… 😊

I had no words. I was overwhelmed. My heart was pounding with excitement, happiness and blessed feeling. Reading what he had written, I asked him who guided him and he said none. Surprised, I am and thankful to God that I have him...May God bless him with all happiness and love and success... May he always value the value of love and prayers...thank you sweetheart, I love you... Thus, this day turned out to be the best Valentine’s day I have ever had… Blessed indeed...

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you…

Heartfelt Valentines Wish to my Friend...

Ha, the day started out in the most weirdest way…the mobile cheated me…the alarm didn’t ring…I woke just ½ hour before the office working hour started…and had to literally rush thru the morning chores… guess what…mom never knew, that I was not yet in the office...she just thought, that I might be long gone…when I came rushing out of my room, my mom exclaimed… “Ha, U r not going to office today???”…grrr…I AM LATE…and …. I just blamed mom and dad for being careless and not waking me up…good way to go, girl…send in an sms to my colleague that I would be late for work…ofcourse with a different excuse that I weaved out of my imagination…

Finally I hit the road after a quick 30 mts rush at home…only to get stuck in the damn traffic…what the hell is happening today…every single person in the city overslept??? Nothing to do, I switched on the radio FM…and aha…there is the wish going on…Happy Valentines Day…Oh, Blast… to be frank…I had completely forgotten that it was Valentines day today…or rather it didn’t cross my mind that it was 14th February today…uhmm…great na…I needed the Radio guys to remind me…afterall…today is the day of Lovers…

Not that there is something to look forward to in this day…as life goes…once u cross ur teenage days, the importance of such days just goes off…and the best I can expect is a Valentines wish from my partner…hey, but need to agree to one fact…soon after I knew that it was Valentines, I got almost 6-7 sms wishing me for the day with nice and sweet wordings…Wishhh…I was young and back in the college days…atleast could have expected a gift…Anyways, I was rude enough not return any of the sms…Bcoz, I had to be at office ASAP rather than raking my mind for some nice Thank you messages…thus the messages in my mobile stayed Un-Acknowledged..uhmm..good for me..I saved some money…lol!!!(RUDE!!!)

Hey, that reminds me of that day, a page of my life from years back…and a gift…A Dairymilk Cadbury Bar…uhmm… I always cherished gifts…and this was from a friend… but when the gift was given on a Valentines day, it became a bit ODD…or rather awkward…the gesture was friendship, but it could be very well misinterpreted…I couldn’t say NO to a Dairymilk then…so, with the immature heart I had, I gulped the chocolate in and hid the wrapper into one of the books I had in my hand…I felt as if I was hiding a big secret…lol!!!

Today, I realize… stupid I was…I thought getting a chocolate on a V Day was a crime…and I had to literally work hard to hide the fact from friends and family that I got a Dairymilk…and as years passed by…the secret became a much known thing…I realized that chocolates were nothing…there were still bigger secrets that a V Day could offer…haha!!!

But the most funniest part of the whole is…its been years after the above incident…Few days back, when I was busy packing my personal stuff for the shifting…I found my MOST PERSONAL SECRET BOOK….hahah!!! yeah, I had this crazy habit of jotting down poems or short stories and even philosophies from my crazy imagination…I never let anybody read them for the same reason that they were real crazy stuff…When I got this book after almost 4-5years, with much amusement, I scrolled my eyes thru its pages…and Aha…there is something gleaming back at me in Glittering Attire…It was the Golden Wrapper of the Dairy Milk and the Purple Outer cover…the same one that I had hidden years back…

I could still smell the chocolate smell…I could feel my friend’s emotions when he gifted me that bar of chocolate…I could remember my enthusiasm in finishing it without sharing it with anybody…I could smile on the thought that after almost 10 years, I got to see that wrapper again…Suddenly I felt sad…why didn’t I save many such gifts to be unwrapped years later…which could have brought in a Special Smile in me…afterall, gifts however small or inexpensive will always be sweet and nice…They are meant to be Cherished and kept Close to heart…

Today, another Valentines Day is here…I have had hundreds of other gifts in my life…but the wrapper that I found inside that book will always stay the cutest and sweetest one…Because, all these years it was surviving inside that book which had my crazy secrets and finally reached me to remind me the memories of the past…the memories that was sweet and nice…

To my dear friend who gifted me that chocolate,

“Wherever you are today… Hope, you get to eat one of those Dairymilk bar…and let that remind you of this friend who is thinking of you right now…Wish you a very very Happy Valentines Day…!!!”