My First Love Letter

Whenever I think about writing something creative my memory immediately takes a stroll back to my college days. For those were the days I used a lot of my creative abilities to write love letters. I have written close to about 20 love letters to girls and my letters never failed to impress the girls. Hold it!!! Yes I have written 20 love letters, but none of those letters were from me to some girl. It was usually one of the cupid struck friend whom I had to oblige in all those 20 times and they would always end up signing the letters I wrote thereby giving it that personal touch of theirs (big effort for a man in love). For three years in a row I was a very busy guy in the month of February. Before I reproduce one of my favorite letters I wrote for my friends, I have this very romantic experience to narrate.

It was February 14^th 1994. One of my very close friends Alok was head over heels on this girl. I was summoned to write my first love letter. The mission not only included writing a letter, but of choosing an appropriate card, selecting a bunch of tempting red roses, the location where the event would take place and the dress our hero should wear. Sort of a big responsibility. The d-day arrived and after much of rehearsals the previous day we got ready for the grand finale. I was more nervous than Alok for my reputation lay at stake. Anything goes wrong Alok would surely kill me. All our college buses would start from this big parking terminus and most of the buses would be empty when they start out from the terminus picking up students further down the way. Fortunately our heroine was one of the few students who would board the bus at the terminus. So the bus terminus was chosen as the perfect stage for executing this romantic drama. I had advised my friend to take advantage of the emptiness of the bus. Here we are finally waiting at 8.00 clock in the morning at the terminus for the girl to come. With lot of deodorant and perfumes splashed all over, sacred ash spread on the forehead, neatly combed hair, prayers on lips and a new green (Symbolizing availability) color shirt and pink color pant Alok was looking like a hero straight out of a telugu movie. His gleaming eyes wore that “we may not be smart, we may not be rich but we are always available” sort of a look. At about some 300 feet away I could see a small figure walking with a bounce of a frog (love is blind) and our Alok stood up with a jerk. Immediately Alok had become nervous and caught hold of my hand and said “ Dey machi you are also coming with me when I give this letter, in case she does not accept at least she will not slap me if you are around”. Somehow the thought of getting slapped or slipered itself sent shock waves down my spine. But I could not refuse to his request. The girl slowly walked past us and went a few yards further before boarding one of the empty buses. The only way in or out of the bus was the door at front. Somehow I felt this girl was not in her elements today and wanted to back off from the whole operation. Alok was determined it was now or never. He turned to me and said “both of us will go inside together, you will go first I will follow you, all you have to do is go directly and sit behind the girl in one of the rows. I will then follow and hand over the roses to her along with the card, assuming something goes wrong I will jump immediately and run and you wait inside and let me know how she reacts”, His logic appealed to me. More than helping a friend it was the thought of looking at how girls would react when approached that made me accept the logic and how many time would one get the privilege of watching a live romantic action. For the kind of “Bakra” I was, I readily nodded. What are friends after all made for. As planned I entered into the bus first passing a cursory glance at our heroine I walked past her and sat in a row exactly behind her. Time started clicking and a thin line of fear and anxiety went across my stomach. Our hero took longer time than expected before entering the bus (may be he rehearsed for one last time). He came closer to the girl; and my heart skipped a few beats. He some how managed to say “Hi priya”. And from behind his back he pulled the bunch of roses and a card and dropped it on her lap. CAPTURE THIS MOMENT FOR THE ACTION STARTS NOW. Looks like priya guessed she got proposed. All of a sudden she started screaming at the top of her voice “No Alok , Alok No, No Alok……even before she said No Alok for the second time, Alok ran towards the door , jumped out and slammed the door behind him. But Priya did not stop shouting “No Alok , Alok No, No Alok…… , I was stranded inside a locked bus with a girl screaming “No Alok , Alok No, No Alok……, I somehow wanted to get out of that messy scene and did not have the courage to cross her and go for the door, my instinct asked me to jump out of the window. And I did. I just landed down with a thud from a jump of close to 6 ft from the window. I somehow regained my balance and as I stood up, I was face to face with my head of department and another professor of my college. I don’t know what went on in Priya's mind, from screaming “No Alok , Alok No, No Alok……she some how got tired and was just screaming No, No, No … . Here I was standing before my professor, jumping out of a window from a locked bus and a girl screaming No.No,No…from inside the bus. I somehow felt like a thief caught red handed. Within a few seconds I realized I had to run and I did. We decided not to attend classes for the next one week. Somehow in spite of all this Alok was able to convince priya over the phone and she accepted his love, she also seemed to have clarified to the HOD that it was not what they had imagined. It is almost more than a decade now but I will never forget “my first love letter”. For all those who are wondering what happened after that, the love just lasted six months. As of now I have to tell you Priya got married to a “big fat chicken “ with a US dollar account and Alok some how got out of the whole mess by asking me to write "my second love letter". Now for the sake of all cupid hit Romeos I reproduce my first love letter.

Dear Priya

ONLY I said that I love you,

I ONLY said that I love you

I said ONLY that I love you

I said that ONLY I love you

I said that I ONLY Love you

I said that I Love ONLY you

I said that I love you ONLY

Only Yours

and

Yours Only

SS

Alok

And finally Anand I hope you wont get angry with me for changing your name to ALOK. I just wanted to protect your identity man.