I think, therefore I write

The shaved head – Where it all started

Grade: LKG

My parents had my head shaved as an offering to some God, without any consideration of how I would feel about going to school with no hair on my head. I dreaded the teasing I would have to endure from other kids. My mom convinced me that there would be other kids too who’d have shaved heads over the summer vacation. With that small consolation, I entered the class and stared around. In the vast number of heads bobbing up and down, as kids screamed, fell down, laughed, stared pointlessly, pulled each others’ hair, ate chalk and so on, mine was the only shaved head. I made a note in my mind to bawl at mom the moment she came to pick me up from school. And I also made a note to thrash any kid who’s tease me for the lack of hair on my head. Minutes passed, I was sitting in a corner munching my snacks in the break time. Then I don’t remember how it happened or why (maybe I refused to share my snacks), a boy kid laughed at me and called me ‘mottai’ which means ‘shaved head’ in my native language. I was furious but turns out I was not much of a macho back then. So instead of entering into a fist fight with him, I dutifully went and reported to my class teacher about it, adding a few more tears than necessary. After witnessing the scolding and thumps he got, I resumed munching my snacks with satisfaction.

Grade: UKG

Over time, the above incident was forgiven and I had become friends with him. I don’t remember how but after all I was 4 yrs old and all it took to win me back then was sharing a snack or a chalk. So how I reconciled with him doesn’t matter. We both sat next to each other and I would chatter all day while this kid listened to me patiently. This continued and my class teacher started keeping a keen eye on me as I kept talking, in class, out of class, during class and any minute I was with him. Turns out she was waiting for a chance to meet my mum and complain about this incessant talking and soon enough, the opportunity presented itself. I had scraped my knee big time while playing and mom took me to the doctor before school. It got late and hence mom dropped me till class to request the teacher to excuse me and my bandaged leg. Once I saw this kid sitting next to a vacant seat, expecting me, all my tears vanished. I wanted to run straight to him and tell about the story of my bandaged leg. And so I did, without even collecting my bag and lunch from mom, and started my show while he looked on. Meanwhile, my teacher lost no time in complaining that this is exactly what she was talking about.

Grade: 1

During the awarding ceremony at the end of each year for the toppers, I was sitting next to the same kid. We were sharing the first proficiency prize. My mom had decked my hair with jasmine flowers which have those gorgeous red velvet-like flowers in between. We were bored to the core with all the chief guests talking on and on before giving away the prizes. So I suggested to my now best friend that he could pluck the red flowers one by one and we could play with it. So we did for another 10 mins, without any concern about the onlookers. By the time I went on stage, there were only jasmines drooping sadly from my hair.

Grade: 2

We both has become so close that we formed a kind of rowdy gang and started dominating others. I don’t remember what this was all about but remember wanting to be with this kid even as a sidekick. Of course being in 2nd grade, we wouldn’t have been much action than talk. Anyway the news reached the teacher which again resulted in a complaint session and twisted ears this time for me. He was spared because he was the good boy, topper always and she believed it was my influence that’s getting him into trouble.

Grade: 3-10

We became the best of friends. I’d do anything for him. Of course there were a lot of fights but it was always forgiven and forgotten. I looked up to him in anything I did. He was the competitor for me whom I tried very hard to beat but could never. As a joke over a fight, he set me lines once. He said I had to write a set of useless lines over and over again until my diary was full of it. You wouldn’t believe me, but I did it. It was because of him I passed my physics board exam, it took him one hour and endless patience to make me understand how the current could flow in opposite direction of the coil. Yet, he did it. He dragged me along with him for all the competitions he participated in. We won quite a few prizes, though the credit for most of them went to him.

Now:

A lot of things happened after grade 10 that turned our lives topsy-turvy. We went to different schools, then different colleges. A lot happened in our lives separately and together. But all that is there to tell you now, to complete the tale, is that I cannot believe that I am married to that boy kid who teased me for my shaved head in my kindergarten. Even more, I cannot believe that is the first meeting I remember of us. When people ask how we met for the first time, I think of it and burst out laughing. There were no romantic looks across the bar in our story, there was no tingling touching of hands, there was no looking into each others’ eyes. All we had was a shaved head, and boy did we make a story out of it!

pic

When I think back, I realize the enormity of knowing someone for 22 years when your age is 25. Heck, you only know your family before you’re 3 and you don’t remember anything of it. So as far my memory stretches back, he is there. People ask us, don’t you get bored? Nope, after all these years, we still have many firsts and no lasts.

Until later πŸ™‚

P.S: To my amusement, he kept denying his involvement in the naughty incidents I have written about. He keeps denying still and will do so forever. He says he was such a good kid and would never tease another kid like that. And I say – Heck, you were 3. At that age, what would any kid know about being nice πŸ˜›

P.P.S: He is still a kid, in so many ways. I can see the shade of that kindergarten personality many a time, now that I am living with him. πŸ™‚

22 Comments

  1. Aathira

    This is one of those posts that made me go Awwwww! God bless you guys πŸ™‚ loved hearing your story, Keirthana!

    • Keirthana

      Thanks Aathira and glad to see you here too. I just hopped on to your blog via Soumya’s and boy, what a work! Planning to dig your archives over the weekend.

  2. Rupasi

    OH MY GOD!!! I am in love with you two!!! WOW!!! *I am smiling all the way*
    Now THIS. IS. LOVE. You two are extremely lucky to have each other!!! I don’t even talk to my KG friends anymore, hell I dont even remember who they were and you have known each other for 22 years :O

    Honestly! I love you both now :*:*:*:*

    • Keirthana

      Thanks dear πŸ™‚ Yeah, Since we have gotten used to being with each other for so long I sometimes tend to overlook the intensity of such a thing. Writing this post was one way of reminding myself of it πŸ™‚

      • Rupasi

        Oh Man!!! You know honestly I am more of on the jealous side :P:P:P:P:P

        But I think even if it is 22 years you have been together, you would have never gotten bored with each other, right?

        • Keirthana

          Ha ha, that’s okay πŸ™‚

          yeah, we don’t get bored because I am spicy enough to ruffle up fights, emotions in our relationship and he is stable enough to keep me rooted πŸ˜› That’s how it has always been balanced πŸ˜‰ It’s like you can be absolutely you with that one person.

          • Rupasi

            Hahaha… That’s absolutely lovely πŸ˜€

  3. Bikram

    Now that is indeed Destiny I will say ..

    I dont even remember my LKG and UKG .. although I am still friends with a couple of guys whom I went with in class 1 .. but then we were together till 10th πŸ™‚

    God bless the both of you… πŸ™‚

    Bikram

    • Keirthana

      Well I would say a combination of destiny and effort. It did take a lot of effort on our side to nurture what we had and to maintain it that way. But I would have to accept that destiny also had something to do with it, else of the numerous fights we had, somewhere along we might have felt fed up. But we didn’t! Now that I call meant to be.

      Thanks!

  4. Ajay Kontham

    Whoa! You weren’t a macho back then! Then NOW? I better keep some distance from you. πŸ˜› And I can’t imagine the fate of that kid from LKG now. What might he be enduring? It’s difficult to even imagine. πŸ˜›

    But I must agree. This is the sweetest love story I have ever heard. I mean from LKG ? Who would have thought, right? Reading yours, I wish I met someone like that or teased someone like that. May be, like 0.0000001% chance. And I have been travelling almost all over India, so that chance went down the drain. πŸ˜›

    God bless you. Stay Happy. πŸ™‚
    And don’t show your Macho-ism now as you claim he is still a kid in so many ways. πŸ˜›

    • Keirthana

      Ha ha πŸ™‚ Yeah now I am bit more macho than I was as a kid but not so much as I was in college. Have learned to tune it as needed πŸ˜›

      Thanks! You still have the chance of knowing someone for the rest of your life, love just manifests in different ways πŸ™‚

      Thanks again and don’t feel so sorry for that kid. However kiddish he may be, he is stubborn and stands his ground. So no problem for him πŸ˜›

      • Ajay Kontham

        Tune it as needed? That sounds dangerous. πŸ˜›

        Hope. Only thing I’m left with. πŸ˜›

        No problem for him? You are saying that? It is he, who has to say that. Now with all the gym, nothing can stand your way, not even the stubbornness. That ‘bechara’ kid. Kya hoga uska? πŸ˜›

        • Keirthana

          // That β€˜bechara’ kid// That’s my state many a time at home. You don’t know him. If he starts his antics, I’ll be the bechara one. πŸ™

  5. Uma

    Oh my…you knew him since kindergarten???wow and more wow to you guys..
    such a sweet story πŸ™‚

  6. Soumya

    Childhood sweethearts?? Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww πŸ˜€

    This is one of the best love stories that I have ever read. And for some reason from now on, the minute I think of you, I shall be thinking of a shaved head πŸ˜›

    Or the minute I see a shaved head, I shall think of you!

    • Keirthana

      Thanks darling! And yeah, I had that coming πŸ˜›

  7. Maithili

    When you told me that you are childhood sweethearts, I had no idea that you met in kindergarten and what a story it is! It is the cutest story I have read on blog πŸ™‚ God bless you guys with more happy tales

  8. Annie

    Hey!! Turns out this is the first childhood sweethearts story I have read… and it is so romantic.. surreal definitely, but awwww! πŸ™‚

    • Keirthana

      Really? Thanks! Lucky me πŸ™‚

  9. Greenboochi

    Awwww and more Awww πŸ™‚ Stay blessed and happy forever πŸ™‚

    • Keirthana

      Thank you GB πŸ˜€

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