MY FIRST CRUSH

Let me take you to when i was at school.I had my first crush when i was in class VIth and she caught my eye on the first day of the session itself.Just before the bell rang,she stood outside the class, talking to someone(who cares who she was talking to).My eyes got glued to her Black hair,brown eyes and her cute smile.As she walked through the door, all the students stood up to greet her.Yup!!she was my class teacher,Miss Singh.She looked charming in her maroon Churidar, bedizened with tiny mirrors and beads. She was an epitome of beauty and for me she defined beauty.

My seat being closer to the teacher's desk(by close i mean right in front of her desk)gave me the opportunity to admire her beauty in a finer way.Each day i would run from the bus to my classroom,so that i dont miss even a glimpse of her.Homeroom used to be for just 20 minutes,and tat would leave my desire to adore her, insatiated.But it was as if God showered some luck on me,she turned out to be my History teacher as well.Going to school never felt so pleasant and wonderful.My friends appreciated Miss Singh, as they believed she taught us well.Unfortunately, i never got a chance to appreciate her intelligence as i acknowledged her for something else i.e. her poise and her soothing voice;).Though i listened to her with all my heart n soul i never tried to make out as to what she said.All i did in her class was gaze at her in awe of how elegantly she carried herself.Her every move made me crazier and made me respect her even more.

Everything was going fine, but then it happened.After the school ended that day my friend and i became mischievous and started jumping on tables and chairs and spewing water on each other.Suddenly i heard a voice shouting and yelling "Prateek,what are you doing?" as i turned to look who it was, to my horror it turned out to be Miss Singh.She was standing outside the classroom.She shouted again "Come here prateek"in anger.(I have to admit she looked cuter when she became angry)what the hell why only me.was i the only one responsible for the mess.Didnt she see the other guy.she wud hate me for this.how wud i marry her now.this was not going the it was suppose to be.I thought it was best to keep my head bowed and give her an innocent-wat did i do look.But she told me to look up.She was gonna slap me and wanted me to look in her eye when she did that.To my surprise she didn slap me, instead, she pulled my cheeks and smiled at me.I was speechless and there was nothing left but to smile back at her.I can never forget her touch on my cheeks.I kept on asking myself why didn she slap me or scold me?i didn’t get an answer but then it struck me, “may be she liked me”.

I was a goner now and so much in love with Miss Singh.When you are 13 there is no logic to love,even if a girl looks at you for a few nano-seconds ur mind goes haywire and ur heart starts pounding harder and harder.Her pulling my cheeks became a routine whenever she got a chance she did it.I started applying creme on my face(which i hated doing) to keep my cheeks extra soft and fluffy.She always called me Prateek Bhole.While i was reaping the fruits outta my cheeks a few jealous kids wud remind Miss Singh that my Name was Prateek Gupta and not Bhole.She would tell everyone that I was the most innocent child of the class and would listen to her very carefully when she taught us.Her reply would make my ears go hot and i could do nothing but blush and give her a smile.

The year went by like a blitzkrieg  and the day arrived when we were to receive our report cards.I knew I had done well in the xams and was among the toppers of the class.I was excited to meet her as i knew she wud reward me for my performance at school.May be she had pull both my cheeks or may be give me a kiss(on my cheeks of course!).well that may seem a bit far-fetched but you never know when girl-luck starts shinning on you.As she gave me my report card and congratulated me for a good performance and that I was a scholar Blazer holder now.Gr8!!but I was waiting for the real reward.The reward I’d been waiting for,since so many days.Now that I was a blazer holder I was sure to get one from her.I was sure she wud give me a tight hug and would ask me to marry her.But sadly nothing of this sort happened and infact she even forgot to pull my cheeks and went on to attending some other god damn child’s parents.I stood there looking at her and thinking why did she ignore me?And then it hit me that i was being  ridiculous.I was only 13 and she must be at least 10 yrs older than i was and had to accept the truth that nothing could ever happen between us.Thinking abt all those precious moments when she used to pull my cheeks and passed her smile at me,I left school feeling morose.

Next year I didn’t see much of her. actually she left school and soon I too forgot her.The next yr I saw her again at my school,infact she was gonna be our history teacher again.I was jubiliated and felt ecstatic and several questions crossed my mind “had fate given me another chance to win her over?”,”where had she been?”,” why did she leave the school?”.As she entered the room and I looked at her,all my questions got answered and my heart sank into a deep ocean.She was married now and on top of that PREGNANT too.UGH!!I took my face in my hands and thought, had i been a few yrs older she could have been mine or cudnt she wait for a few yrs.Quite a few things changed.I tried not thinking abt her the way i used to initially.She had stopped pulling my cheeks.But somethings still remained unchanged like she still called me Prateek Bhole and still felt that I was the sweetest child of the class.

She could teach us for just 1 semester.May be it was time for her to give birth to her baby. :)

I yearned for her to pull my cheeks for the last time before she went away, but then i realised that- MAY BE PART OF LOVING IS,LEARNING TO LET GO