FIRST LOVE

It was a New Year's party at my friend's house.I had designed a new three piece dress.The dress was made with a soft synthetic fabric in wine colour.A short skirt,contrast top with frilled neckline and a short fitted jacket in the same floral print fabric was the dress.To add grace to my walk I selected a high heeled sandal and gathered my hair at the top of my head to look grown up, letting a few strands of loose hair to fall sideways carelessly.A wrist watch,gold ear studs and gold finger ring were all the accessory I needed to complete my dress.I sprayed a dash of my favourite perfume,got my handkerchief and a small clutch purse and ran out of my house.My mother told me not to be too late from behind but I was hardly listening to her.My father's car took me to my friend's bungalow through the busy streets. Soft music was wafting from her living room.The front door was wide open and the place was decorated with flowers,lamps and balloons to mark the celebration.I heard voices from inside the room and I knew that the party had already begun.I suddenly felt shy and hesitant for no particular reason, and shrugging it off with irritation I entered the party.Several eyes turned towards me at once.My friends came forward to greet me and we embraced one another and I joined them with bottled up excitement.After a while, when the initial euphoria of meeting my friends during winter holidays had worn off, I casually swept the room with my eyes.I noticed several boys and girls I didn't know.They were not from my school"They must be the neighbours or cousins"i thought to myself.Soft drinks was being served in a corner and I went and took a glass for myself to keep my hands occupied and joined my friends.We were all chattering.One of my friend suggested that we play a game.We were equal number of boys and girls.The game was about selecting popular movie star pairs,write their names separately on chits of paper.The matching pairs were written same number in every chit so that nobody got confused so as to who was to pair with whom.The boys gathered separately from us in a group and we gathered in another group.The chits were put in plastic bowls separately for boys and girls.Each of us selected one chit.I don't remember now which movie star's chit I got.I hardly watched movies in my younger days but a tall boy came up to me and said,'I think we are paired.I looked into his chit but couldn't recognise the film star's name.Our numbers matched with each other so we said hallo and sat together as pair like everyone else.Every pair had to give some performance which could be a song, a dance, an act from the movie in which the pair acted or dialogues from the movie or we could do something totally new.My partner,the boy said he did not know how to sing or act.He didn't know any dialogue from any movie either but he said he could dance.I had never danced in front of anybody.The friends only knew that I sang so I felt unsure,excited as well as shy all at the same time.I told him I knew how to waltz.He said he could waltz too.So we took each other's hand and amidst giggles from my friends and elbow nudging, we danced together on a popular English music.When the music stopped we were laughing because we had both made mistakes in the steps and both of us had almost collided.After the dance the boy joined our group.we ate together from the buffet arrangement and he asked me about myself.I took it all in fun.we had a band of amateur musicians and my band members were also invited to that New Year Party.After eating we sat ina circle and they started playing their musical instruments.I sang some popular bollywood songs.He was right to say he did not sing.He sang like a crow but he sang with me.We were all enjoying then someone said 'let's play musical chair'we agreed and hurriedly arranged the chairs and found a pillow to pass around.The music started playing and one by one my friends got out of the game.We remained till last and shared the prize, a box of chocolates that we ate together.All the time I found him beside me and he made me laugh with his jokes.when the clock struck 12 a.m we bursted the balloons and went out to the lawn and watched the fireworks that the boys had arranged.After the fireworks we all shouted happy new year and wished each other.Some of my friends went inside the house after that.The boy and I stayed behind on the lawn.We sat on a chair beside the damp flower bed and talked.I was enjoying his unwavering attention.He told me about his life,his family his plans for the future.He said he was preparing for a tough examination so that he could study in his dream university in England.I told him I wanted to go to Australia where there are large farmlands with cows,horses,sheep and Shepherd dogs.He started laughing.'you want to go to Australia because of such things'?'Yes' and once there I want to marry a wealthy Australian farmer who has jets of his own',I said solemnly.He became silent.Then he said'I want to own a large company and have many employees working under me'.'we both seem to have different dreams and expectations from life'I said after a while.'Yes,but I like you.'I didn't say anything perhaps i thought it was too soon and I didn't know how I felt.It was past 12 at night and it was time for me to go home.We went into the living room together and I went to gather my clutch purse.He stood quietly at a distance looking at me as I said my goodbyes.I waved him goodbye and left the party with a friend who lived near me and I had to drop her on the way.A few days passed.Our school reopened and I got busy with school work.One day, a letter came for me at my school's address.My name,class's Ecton were all written clearly on the envelope.My friends were all surprised.Who had sent a letter to me at my school address?They were full of curiosity.One of my friends sniffed the letter like a dog.'This is a love letter'she exclaimed.'It's perfumed',she said.It was a two-page letter written with red ink full of poems and praises of me in lines of popular bollywood movie songs.I laughed along with my friends as I read the letter.I read the letter several times in solitude.Then I put it in my cupboard inside a heavy hard covered story book so that nobody could read it.He had written that he would write again and had given his address in the letter.Maybe he wanted me to write something to him.But I did not write anything to him.I remember I started writing poems on nature after that bur I never wanted to show my poems to anybody.My friends must have conveyed the massage to him that I had read his letter and thought fondly of him.So a few more cards came from him to my home address.The cards seemed to be thoughtfully chosen.I treasured all of them for many years but I never wrote anything to him.Then he wrote that he had passed his exam and was going to his dream university in London.He wrote and requested me to keep in touch.I did not even send him a farewell note but I told my friends to convey my congratulation to him.He did not write after that.I graduated from college and went to a bigger city hoping for better opportunity.My dream of going to Australia did not materialise.I kept dabbling in this and that.I heard from a mutual friend that he was doing well and was interested in me as a life partner but I was far from wanting to settle down with anyone.I was still searching for my reason to be.I heard about his father's untimely death and his mother's illness.I lost touch with most of my friends.Some got married and moved to other cities and new life.Some left the country to go abroad.He remained in my memory as a shy,young boy who had dance with me on a new years party.