Nostalgia

I was going through all my old stuff as we were shifting our house. I found something in my old suitcase. The suitcase was full of my old documents, my report cards, certificates, appreciation letters, and some old drawing books and notebooks. Everything there had not been touched in the last few years and I needed to get rid of a lot of things since I could not carry all this to my new house.

Suddenly, I came across something so special that I could not resist leaving all my important work aside, opening it, and reading it.

 When I was in class 6, I had written something. It was my first love letter.

I had written it back when I was 11 years old, for someone very special but never dared to show it to her. It was addressed to a girl who lived in my colony, just a few houses apart from my house. I used to see her daily in the morning as she walked towards her school bus in her red skirt and white blouse. She wore white socks up to her knees, covering almost every bit of her petite legs. Her oily hair was braided into two long tails, each rolled neatly near her ears and tied up with flower-shaped red ribbons. She looked cute. She was my age but went to an all-girls school. I ran towards my room's balcony each morning as she passed by my house, but not once did she look up and see me. I always used to get late for my school bus and often got a good scolding from my mom, but I never missed this daily routine.

In the evening, after school, all the kids used to play in the colony's playground. She ran around in her pretty frocks with other girls, while I used to play football or cricket with the boys on the other side of the ground. We never spoke to each other directly, but I think sometimes she noticed me looking at her. She was a quiet, shy, and innocent girl, whom I thought to be my first love.

A couple of years later, her family shifted to some other city, and we never heard from any of them since then.

The letter that I wrote started with "Dear Vini" and continued for about 20 to 25 sentences describing how fond I was of Vanita and how I was desperate to catch a glimpse of hers. It also read that I would like to be her boyfriend and would marry her when we grow up".

Thank God, I never gave it to Vanita. It frightens me to imagine what would have happened if others in the colony had found out about the letter and even worse, how Vanita, merely an 11-year-old adolescent, would have reacted to this.

Sitting in my storeroom today, feeling nostalgic, I read the letter about twenty more times and put it in my pocket. I did not want to throw it away. I had vast memories associated with that sweet proposal which I could never make as I had rehearsed it hundreds of times alone in my room in front of the mirror.

As I returned to my bedroom today, I scanned the letter on my phone's scanner app and decided to share it with someone. It was Vanita.

Years later, in the WhatsApp Era, we were connected again via a WhatsApp Group of our old colony's residents. I had seen Vanita's number on the group several times but never dared to ping her. I often saw her wishing Birthdays and Anniversaries to others in the group but there was no communication between us.

Today, I gathered all the courage to proceed, not expecting anything in return. Just to profess my true love for her. I texted her and she responded with a 'Hi' within ten minutes. I posted the scan of the letter with a lot of laughing smileys and admitted to having written it way back nearly 18 years ago. Vanita paused her texting for some time, leaving me in sheer anticipation of what was going to happen next. I wondered if she was going to block me now or write something angrily. I made it clear that it was just a childish thing that I had done as a kid, and it meant nothing now.

Vanita finally replied.

"I am married now. But you should know something, as a kid, I liked you too. I too had a crush on you". The text was followed by smileys that reminded me of the sweet face of 11-year-old Vini as she smiled.

She typed again, "Let's be grown-ups now. Keep the letter or tear it, that's up to you; but as mature individuals, let us become good friends and stay in touch".

Vini ended her chat on a good note, leaving me with all smiles and sweet memories of my childhood.

That's when I heard my wife say from the other room, "Have you cleared the store? Got everything you wanted to retain from the dump?"

I merrily replied, "Yes. Got everything I wanted".