Me and My Darling

                   We meet people in strange ways. Not every one of them stay with us till the end. Some part ways, way in the middle of the journey called life; some stick to us through thick and thin. This is one such story of a friend who I met, became friends, parted, found each other again and now are an integral part of each other's lives.

This is my friend's version of how she knew me:

It was the 28th of Sept, 1994. My Birthday. Intermediate 1st year. (11th grade). I was in college. New Generation was the name of our college. Nice name right? Well, the standard of education is also very high. In those days, it was a known fact in the whole town of Khammam that New Generation college is a very disciplined college.

        It was Maths class and the topic being taught was Calculus. Then entered our attender Ramakrishna. As the sound, "Sirrr..." echoed the otherwise silent and attentive class, our eyes rolled from the blackboard to the entrance.  Fear and worry filled everyone's eyes. Because important people do not come often; everyone held their heart in hands. Meanwhile, he carried the good news that principal sir is calling Kalyani Parupalli. Rest of the class breathed a sigh of relief except me. My heart was racing at the speed of an airplane.

As I already told you that our college is a very strict one, and everyone is scared of our principal Mr.Rosaiah sir. He is not partial to either boys or girls. No favoritism of any kind. Normally, he does not call anyone. As we were immersed in our thoughts, another yell near the door."Wyra.." Well, it's only a call, I heard it as a yell. That was the tone of our Maths lecturer Mr.Srinivas. He had the habit of calling us by our last names. As there were two students with the same last name in our class, I was baptized that way.

A small fable runs behind it: In those good olden days, I was the only student who was imported from the town of Wyra. The management said they would not give me an admission if that continues as it would affect my studies and marks. I made all the unkept promises to get an admission that I would relocate to the town within a month and joined the college.

So, did they know my secret? My heart started pacing like a race car again. Thinking what story I have to make up now, my brain was working like mercury while walking to the Principal's room.

As I lifted my head, our Principal in the same white shirt, which we used to comment, Chaar boondo wala..Ujaalaa..Before I could muster all my courage and say, "Sir"..Our sir's piercing voice echoed in my ear drums."Hello Wyra girl, how are you doing?" In the trans stage that I was, with blurred eyes and ears deafened, all the clouds that blurred my vision started fading away slowly and I entered into this world again. I replied, "Sir, I heard you called me".

Meanwhile, RamaKrishna appeared with a huge bouquet of flowers in front of me. While he was saying, somebody sends you a bouquet madam, Princy wishes, Many Many Happy Returns of the day ammaa..My head started spinning like a whirlwind for these two unexpected events. Realizing that I don't have any major problem and the perplexity hanging on my face, I paint an idiotic smile on my face and head towards the women's waiting room.

As I was staring at that, I found a small card at the bottom. When I opened it, I saw a name that I never heard of. V.P.Latha. Who is this V.P.Latha? I had a friend at that time and her name was Latha too. P.Latha. Did she send it? But, we both were in the same class then too. So, why would she send it separately? As I studied in a residential school till then, I was wondering who could be the mega-fan who send this mega bouquet?

Time for the munch bell.(Lunch bell). What else could happen in the crunch time? The entire girls gang assembled for a round table conference to dissect the bouquet and investigate the mystery behind V.P.Latha. Under normal circumstances, it was two other friends and me who would have lunch together. Unable to solve the mysterious puzzle, we all gave up and went back to our class. Oh btw, I forgot to mention something here. Our section was named as girls section. However, the management has picked 10 boys who were lean and short and put them in our class as the boys' section was overflowing.

Hmm..So boys are there right? We don't call them guys. We still call them boys only. After crunchily munching their lunches; running and jumping are common on the benches. We bearing irked faces and they jumping again is also common.

The only news that made circles in the college before lunch, during lunch, and after lunch is who is this V.P.Latha? Does it sound like a suspense movie? Well, it was a suspense 18 yrs back. What fun if I won't retain it for at least 8 minutes for you to read.

In the meantime, the tallest boy out of the shortest of boys and my best friend later(he wasn't even my friend then) sprung out of nowhere and asks, "heard that you got some bouquet from V.P.Latha?" I casually said yes and kept thinking until the tube light of my brain sparked and I realized he must be the one.

How did this fellow know? Had he asked normally, I wouldn't have suspected him. Since he specifically mentioned the name, my suspicion turned towards him. I asked, How do you know? He says: I heard it. How do you know the name? He grins. That says it all. So, I came to know the existence of V.P.Latha through this stupid friend of ours.

P.S: This was originally written in Telugu for the affect.  But I had to translate to English as most of my readers don't know the language. It's her birthday, not mine...:)

Happy Birthday Darling. I thank the almighty for having created you for me.

To be continued...in case you guys aren't bored by now...:)