My Maha..a P_M_G_ _N_T_ story

           Its all started in one fine Thursday morning, I remember that day till now because it was one among those wonderful days of my life(and Saturday n Sunday were not too far.. That’s  also an added reason ;) ). I always felt Thursdays' has always been an ironic day . But this time it turned a different way. A week in school  since the end of our summer holidays. June has always been a month of hatred for me during my childhood days, the reason, its obvious, after enjoying a vacation of one n half month again have to sit and stare at the black board for hours .The classes were going on and it was another new day for  we all  new set of  std III students. It was another day in our science class ,been handled by a mam named Mrs.kathyaayani. I was sitting last but fourth in that two row of girls. The class was on “find out the missing letters, under the category fruits and vegetables”. I checked for any new admission in my class. just two in girls, a girl named salma, who looked more like one drama artist with all those make-up on her face and loads of bangles in her arms. another one, I didn’t ask her name as she was looking all thin and the impression was not good but just smiled at her and turned towards my row mate nivaeditha (Clearly I have  no idea, where she is now).Our mam was asking everyone to spell out the missing letters in the given word. Everyone raised their hands and said the correct answer. Even that thinny skinny answered one(I think its orAnGE) and That disturbed me like anything so immediately I raised my hand to answer one, everyone was puzzled, the reason its me being poorer than a poor lazy goose  in study when compared to everyone. Even my mam gave one weird expression ,because what I chose was  not so easy like spelling TOMATO or POTATO or APPLE. Something much like a tongue twister for me, during those days. Well, it was Pomegranate (Hope I spelled it correct!!).I started Spelling It  P_M_G__N_T_. I was confident with ‘O’,‘E’. But The problem came in those missed out letters which came after ‘G’.I Placed R correctly followed By A. But the next I Got Confused between ‘A’ n ‘I’.Whether it should be “NITE” or “NATE”.I Started with ‘I’..Then I was like, “Illai (No) miss  ‘A’ Varum( Will come). But,waitees miss “I…….. A….”. Suddenly I saw that Girl turning to my side, without being noted by our mam.”nee correct dhaan pa sollu ( You are correct just tell it) “.And I ended saying  pOmEgRAnAtE. I heard claps from everyone, even my mam,she did clapped,Because for the first time in the academic history of ms. Aishwarya Govindarajan.she raised her hand for some reason and gave a correct answer too. But the reason behind !! A different kind of jealous towards that thinny skinny but to the contradictory she encouraged me with my answer, now I smiled at her and said "thank you". Even then I didn’t ask her name (Attitude ;) ) . It was during our Interval break, I went and met that salma and asked her regarding her whereabouts. But literally I was trying to Tease her( what to do? Its my inherited nature, courtesy: Appa n Uncles ;) Hope that salma is not reading this post). In the mid that thinny skinny joined us,I smiled at her again. She was asking me about my whereabouts, I told her everything.Now its my turn, I asked her “Un paer enna?!(what is your name?!) “.she replied “I am K.Mahalakshmi”. Its all started there, from that second, I never did realized that time, am Going to share some memorable part of my life with her. I came back home and told amma, appa about my Pomegranate adventure. But it was only during that weekend, when I was sitting at the entrance of my house and was looking at road side, I noted that “thinny skinny” sorry.. ”Maha” sitting just like me in front of a house thats  two houses next to ours. I was so happy to see her there, I made a big HIIIIII..and asked “nee angaedhaan irukkiya ?! ( are you living there?!)” . she said “yes!! Mael veetla , veetuku variya?! ( at a partition in the upstairs,coming now?!)”.. I was so happy with her invitation, I just informed my amma and ran in to hers. She introduced me to her amma, appa( who, that time was out of station) , thottha, paati and thatha, last  but not least miss. Abinaya  @Abi( her sis).Later I came to know that Abhi and Gow were class mates(oh!! Wowieee).It was one of the cutest and sweetest of family I ever met,Till date I never had seen any of them turning Angry at anyone. Later, I turned in to one “part time-part of her family” .We four(maha,me,Abhi,gow) always spent most of our time, together in her home, watching cartoons, movies in noon time and building domes and houses in the sands which was there in the terrace unused, playing Hide seek in the terrace of “The Indian Bank”, staring at the cat walking in the terrace wall, telling stupid and silly stories, My lie times(that’s  a different story, will post about it later),Our chess times in the balcony of my house,our  time with two glass of rasnas (which I ll prepare ;) during her short visit to chidambaram). Atlast to everyone’s ,horror, A person who always kept scoring 19/22 ranks scored 5/22(even I didn’t believe my marks :D). In fact each and every stone in that classroom wall was surprised, Aishwarya getting rank 5.. :D.. But the reason behind!! I  worked hard,not because my parents kept on insisting, not because my teachers scolded me.. Because of the jealousy thoughts of mine against Maha’s academic performance. That time she scored first^, In the followed by exams I scored 3rd .But again hers was 1st rank. I was able to reach 2nd but never I made it up to the 1st rank. Every time it will be she who will be scoring 1st rank and me in the 2nd position.We had grown from class mates to kinda really good friends, I became closer to abi  . Even maha did started sensing the cold competition and that kept on growing, well and good along with our friendship. Our closeness made our family get closer still. In fact ours  got to know about a family who later became more than a neighbour. Just like stopping a cricket match between India Vs Australia  because of sudden  rain, our cold competition came to an end with immediate transfer of maha’s father from Chidambaram to Chennai. we both studied together just for a period of two. But that two years I infact got to realize more about myself and my academics. I didn’t study well not because I am not smart or clever. I realized, its because me being the laziest. I started realizing the reality in competition. I started realizing a form of long lasting friendship.We didn’t have telephone connection those days though I kept being in contact with Maha through my unsent letters. Letters-that were not written in those blue Government sealed papers or yellow colored cards. But those written in classes and exam sheets which will ask us to “write a letter to a close friend describing your recent holiday”,” write a letter to your close friend regarding her well and good”. My letters started bearing the “Dear mahas‘ “. though we started  calling  and talking  to each other through telephone in our later part of school days I kept following that "Dear maha" in letters till my twelfth grade.But later I got to know that even her unsent letters were addressed “Dear Aishus’ “ .Both of our fathers had one Idea of letting us study together in college(even me welcomed that Idea,I will get another chance of beating her in grades) and she being the one who always topped me in academics, as expected scored higher than me in Twelfth And we were not able to study in same college as our area of interest differed. She Got in to Anna university- trichy , and she is now  doing her computer science Engineering there. And me, as you all know well..shhhhhhh.. Though we talk to each other often  we  never had got a chance to stay together after our 4th std. But, recently I stayed in her house, in trichy, for 15days regarding some academic work of mine and those days literally were awesome.A wonderful time with whole of her family and moreover I got a Closer-chance to know more about the 20yr old maha, But still a kid by heart, The maha whom I first met when we both were kids. I saw a Painting of mine On “venugaanam of Lord Krishna” which I painted and gave her during our school days ,I heard from aunt that she decorated it further and kept it there in that shelf of her room. That In fact is my first master piece followed by “Kundhavai” of Ponniyin selvan ;) . I still have that small and cute musical jewel box she presented for my birthday, kept unused,But will open now and then to hear the music. Those lord nataraja n Lord Vishnu statues she gifted for navrathri J. Our school days were the “Days of mutual Admiration”. I will say “wow!!” at her ranks and her handwriting, she will say “wowieee!!” at my “capitals of the country answers  and those so called paintings & kirukkals”.. Even now I admire her For that Real “maha” and she admires me for the real “jillu” . though everything around us changed.

Hey Maha just thought of penning down everything as one of v.v.small surprise ..

those wonderful days...... !!

A Very happieeeeee Birthday stupid (1-06-1989)… J

Hoping those dots after “Wonderful days” should keep extending 

  Yours jillu J