For someone who cringes every time mallu music blares out of the loudspeakers during the festival season, I enjoyed listening to a mallu song they played this evening which took me back to my childhood.
It was 1996. I was beaten up by Girija madam for the nth time for getting into a brawl (I was the only good boy in a class full of monsters). "You look innocent, but you're pure evil." Almost everyone I know has told me that at some point. Well, my answer to those people is that if they are deceived by my looks or my taciturn nature there is pretty much nothing I can do about it. She made me change my seat and asked me to go sit with the class monitor. I pretended to be bereaved by madam's "punishment", but deep inside, my happiness knew no bounds.
She was the brightest student in the class whose report card was always filled only with 'A+'s. I promised myself to never get into trouble again just so I could sit with her for the rest of the year. I pretended to be grief-stricken while moving with my schoolbag and waterbottle to sit next to Nismi Varghese who was every teacher's pet. There she sat, a dusky, slightly chubby girl with her hair put into pigtails, making unflattering remarks about me to Neenu and giggling with her. Both her hands were full of bangles, long nails painted in red, she smiled bossily at me told me in her husky voice how she was going to turn me into a better human being. Little did she know that it was an impossible task. A few days into sitting with her, being ridiculed by her most of the time, inanely badinaging with each other we became the best of friends. I used to call her chirikudukka for breaking into laughter at the drop of a hat. She told me she laughed so much only because I made her laugh and that I was a joker.
After getting promoted to 2nd standard, I was skeptical of not getting to sit with her ever again. We were ushered to our new class by our new class teacher Mrs. Usha Devi. Everyone rushed into the class catching the seats of their choice. I too found a seat which I liked and made myself feel comfortable there. The next thing I realized was that Nismi was following me and she chose to sit next to me. Because of the boys vs. girls thing we always had in our school, I asked her "Why are you stalking me and why couldn't you choose some other place to sit?" She explained how it was her responsibility to look after me and it was Girija madam's order and not her wish. I shot back by saying that it was meant only for last year. "This year you are free to sit anywhere you like." "Well, I am sitting here because I like this place and I'm not going to let you get away so easily from me." "Damn! Just when I thought I was free again!" I smiled stealthily as I turned my face away from her & thought to myself, 'YES!!'.
The annual day was near and the whole school was busy with the preparations. She was the lead in a group dance, I would peek into the activity room everyday just to watch her dance. I was not too delighted to see her dancing with Meghnath who was holding her in his arms. There was a reason why I loathed that Junior School Pupil Leader who later also went on to become a School Pupil Leader. On the annual day, I watched her dance with him on the same song that I was referring to earlier; my insides were burning like charcoal. Yeah big surprise, I'm possessive.
Towards the end of the year, she got transferred to another school. She was terribly missed everyday. During that melancholic phase, I wrote and composed a song called 'Why this Kolaveri di' which was plagiarized 15 years later and went on to become the biggest sensation. Yes, I'm fighting a legal battle against Dhanush. After Nismi left, I felt lonelier than ever. I was made to sit with a girl called Swathi Krishna who had a blinking problem. She told me "Charles is the boss of that bench and we have to obey all his commands." I was like 'Wtf?' She supported Charles every time I had an argument with him. Sycophant! She made me miss me Nismi even more. It is true what they say, you never actually get over your first love.
