Namastey!

Yusuf's last post was well written and reminded me of my days in India. Though I wasn't ragged. The days were too young to be thinking about ragging. This post tells about when and how the feeling for the opposite sex developed in me. The incidents and things that took place which I will always remember, including my first crush.

I was about 9 year old at the time. The town was Fatehpur Shekhawati, Rajasthan, India. I had been studying in this school from when it was built, and I was the third admission in the school in KG. The School is called...Seth Hanuman Prasad Dhanuka Adarsh Vidya Mandir.

Since I was among the earliest of admissions, the school was literally like my second home. I had seen everyone join in, from 3 people to 800 in about 6 years. The teachers were nice to me, the sweepers, security, the bell guy...all knew me like they would to their son. I also used to play the dholak(an Indian musical instrument like both the sides of table joined end to end) in the assembly everyday during the prayer. Always felt special in the school. All this kept me in the limelight among the students big or small(girls big or small u could say).

Now until I was 8, never knew about the attraction between a girl and a boy but slowly started feeling it. I had 9 girls in my class and 16 boys. All the nine girls suddenly started talking with a smile and a blush. And I started doing the same. The environment of the class was all of a sudden very different. Everyone had butterflies in the stomach the whole day. And after the school when I would leave on my Bike, my eyes would meet with other girls on the way and I would return home all happy! I didn't know but I was slowly growing up and so were all my classmates.

Now because I was recognized all over the school, I started having girls around me all the time. We would all eat together, the whole school, and I started seeing more and more girls accompanying me to lunch. I didn't complain. Why would I? I liked it all. Developed special liking for one particular girl. Kirti is her name. I have never seen anything more beautiful than her. There might be girls whom the world considers extra ordinary but because she was the first one to strike the chords of my heart, she'll always maintain a special place in here. But there were other girls too, Nilima, Surbhi, Parul, Pooja, Krishna, Mahi etc. I enjoyed being with them too. All were nice girls.

We had our history class in which the teacher always asked some or the other questions from the book. He used to start it from the front row and move back slowly if they didn't know the answer. The one who knew the answers got to slap everyone who didn't know it. Since the girls used to sit in the front and I was the last person. I frequently got this opportunity to slap the whole class. I off course used to slap the boys hard but the girls would get them light. There was another rule, If the punisher slaps lightly, he or she would be slapped back by the same person. And guess what?...I would always get it back from the girls! Once when Kirti was given the chance, she came to slap me and did it very lightly, I was asked to slap back and I did the same. We slapped each other 2 more times but no use. The teacher then slapped both of us very hard bu there seemed to be no signs of regret.

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