4. As Innocence Overflows

Crush, did I manage to put up a smile on your face with that thought? OK, maybe I should have rephrased it as ‘childhood crush’. Oh! C’mon don’t act innocent at all, we all had them. May not be like 13,14 y/o guys and girls nowadays, chatting on social media chatrooms, celebrating one month or two months anniversary and promising each other to stay together forever and other such emotional shit. Nope not these ones and if you somehow are a part of this community you better not even proceed.

The time I am talking is more like the early 2000s and since I already cleared up about the late advent of internet, social media and such instances of technological marvels if this story gives you late 90s sort of vibes then there is really not much I can help about. Oh! Also, by the way, I shall be writing all these from a guy’s perspective so in case you as a girl feel that you are not able to relate then apologies in advance. Howsoever it shall be really sensible of me to put up a disclaimer to urge you to not judge us on the basis of all these, cause c’ mon we were dumb-heads back then, we believed Ben 10 watches were real, we fought Pokémon and Bakugan battles in school corridors, we hardly knew that line where cuteness ended and creepy behaviour started.

These things started to me when I was in class ⅳ or ⅴ, Ok whatsoever who even cares! At that time you start to feel she is the most beautiful girl in the entire class, you are in awe of her eloquence, posture (doesn’t matter even if had no idea of these words back then) , her oiled hair with that red hairband, her crooked teeth, the droplets of sweat over her nose and forehead, I mean every damn thing about her. It’s not that you see her and plan a long way forward, it’s always more of living the moment. You try your level best to be paired up with her for annual day dance or drama or whatever. Doesn’t matter what role or position you happily accept her presence around you even in the form of mother or sister.

Those were times when you idolized the pairs of Ash Ketchum and Misty or maybe Hatim and Jasmine and wished yourselves in their shoes and to the contrary found the likes of Raj-Simran or Rahul-Anjali quite out of place and irrelevant.

The quest for all this howsoever sometimes made us unknowingly cross the fine line between being cute and being creepy and I guess you all in some point of time must of have done this thing. This was the era when, mobile handsets were still considered a luxury and every home had a landline phone, that came with its own set of advantage. The receiver got no idea of who the caller was. And boy did it help us. Picking up the handset with a trembling hand, taking a long breath and then dialling that 6-digit number and then an eternal wait accompanied by heavy breathing as you hear the dialler go Trring…. Trrring… and then suddenly from the other end, you hear a sweet voice go “Hello…” You say nothing just wait for a few more confused ‘hellos’ before finally putting the handset down. As I write now, I know it sounds pretty doltish, but all you know you are talking about a 10-year-old kid.

The moment of heartthrobs were generally the group projects for which we had to meet after school at somebody’s place or maybe the exchange greeting cards on the new year eve. And one more event that I forgot to mention that remained special especially for me was the Raksha Bandhan, never even cared to know about the significance or that sort of things, but the feeling that arose when she asked for my hand and I held my hands out gleefully smiling as she tied that ceremonial rakhi and I promised her for a gift the next day.

You know what, these were friendships built upon innocence, they knew nothing of cheating, jealousy, hatred nothing. It was always about sharing laughs, foods and some stupid pranks. And it’s not that I complain when I see all these things happening again today, but I do feel a prominent lack of innocence, the childishness and the fun behind it all and that what makes me write about the good old days.