I felt I was insane till I met her :-)

It was raining cats and dogs. I and Deepthi were getting back from our evening tuition. We both had bicycles but just to spend long time together, we used to walk holding our respective bicycles. Some times we had a cycle race between us. She on her lady bird and me on my Miss India cycle used to rule the streets. Almost every girl who did schooling in 90's knows these bicycles which used to give a stylish look to us. My Miss India exactly looked like the one in the below pic but was a brown colored one!

Image source: here .

 That day we were just tired due to a long Physics lecture. Before we could decide light is a particle or a wave we realized it travels faster than the sound , due to an eye blinding flash of lightening in the sky followed by a thundering roar. We were in the mid of the road and trees started swaying wildly and we were not even able to hold the bicycle firmly. We got drenched in seconds. We rushed in to the near by video rental shop (Yes it was late 90s and a video cassette rental shop was a common sight at every bend of the street). A black and white Telugu movie was playing in radio. It was an audio movie. My grandpa used to enjoy those movies to our utter amazement. I used to think, how weird is it to enjoy an audio movie in the era of Television ?


Anyway coming back to the rainy day , the old movie was a quite famous one and the only choice we had was to listen to it and wait for the rain to stop. As we were trying to dry ourselves many college guys rushed in to the shop and we started giggling. Teenage silly girls we were who giggled for no reason. Every one was drenched  and it was quite embarrassing to me. I started looking in the opposite direction. A guy was holding an umbrella which he offered to us. Deepthi was trying to look at me as if to get approval. I gestured her to not take their help and muttered, "No thanks." Saying no thanks to many was a style statement to us then. Deepthi glared at me as that was the only option we had to get out of the shop and reach Deepthi's home which was near by.

The guy insisted. I again rejected. The guy said, "Take it. I anyway don't have hair on my head to get drenched or catch cold where as you need it. I can collect it later. " That made me turn around and the way I madly laughed scared the customer who just visited the video parlor! You may call it a dramatic special effect but a song started playing in the radio in Telugu which when exactly translated goes like this, "The words a female speaks have different meanings. If she says YES it means NO. If she says NO it for sure means YES," and the song went on and on.

The guy recently got his head shaved. "His exam results must be nearing and he would have been to Tirupathi to donate his hair to God." We whispered to each other and giggled again. The guy sensed that we were cracking some joke on him, gave a sharp turn and replied, "I donated my hair but it was due to some other personal reason and not due to exams." I gave an embarrassed smile and conveyed thanks for the umbrella and we both briskly walked towards home.Once we reached home we realized that the guys were also coming in the same direction. My James Bond brain started thinking fast and I came to a conclusion that they were stalking us. Deepthi ignored my thoughts and passed on her cutest smile to them. As they approached us we realised that they all stay in a pent house opposite to Deepthi's . 

We returned the umbrella and thanked them. We came inside and again laughed for long with out any reason. We had some lovely Bhajjias and chai made by her mom. The rain subsided. We went upstairs and danced like mad while it was still drizzling. May be we wanted to feel like the bollywood heroines by getting drenched in the rain. It was late evening and we switched on a light bulb on the terrace. As and when we switched it on the light on the opposite terrace or rather the pent house was switched on too. It immediately caught our attention. We glanced in that direction and the first guy and another tall lanky guy who seemed to be his close friend, both smiled broad and waved hi. I easily get embarrassed and go in to my shell where as Deepthi is pretty cool. To my horror she was waving back.I was lurking in the shadows while she walked till the parapet and had a brief conversation with them. I was scared like anything when she even disclosed my name to them.

I scolded her for doing the same when she came back. It was a biggest adventure to me in those days - disclosing my details to strangers. She asked me to chill and we went on with our daily routines after that.From that day I observed that the umbrella guy and the lanky guy came out and sat near the light bulb almost every day as and when we came upstairs with our books and the mat for the combined study! At first it scared me but later we both enjoyed the attention. We got so used to the scene that if one day we didn't see them on terrace we used to wonder why there was no attendance that day. The next day their faces used to break in broad smiles and slowly I started acknowledging too. Deepthi taught me the fact that- - It is ok to talk and be friendly with guys. I was 14 then and was still under the apprehension that it was always good to stay away from the trouble , that is from the guys! I soon realized I was wrong. I made some great friends among boys and sensed that some times they are more warm-hearted than girls and 9 out of 10 times there is no scope of jealousy or competition!

Sorry. Don't have a good quality pic as of now. Our Xth standard pic (on the last day of the school). Thats me and deepthi standing from L-R (red circles). We were not happy as we were leaving school and as we couldn't stand next to each other.

Days turned to months and years and we became the bestest buddies. Whether it was a mischief or an adventure or just a silly execution of a stupidest plan, Deepthi was always my partner in crime. She became a pillar to me. When ever Mathematics scared me during exams I used to take my bicycle out and rush to her home. The coolest and calmest Deepthi always came to my rescue. She used to translate the construction steps in geometry and explain to me in the easiest possible way.

• She used to laugh loud at my idiotic jokes.

• She was my first ever buddy with whom I spoke my heart out, with whom I spoke about "boys".

• We had common crushes, common ambitions , common jokes , common fears and much more in common.

• We stayed in a school during our Industrial trip to Hyderabad. I was almost in tears as bathrooms were dirty and water was icy cold during the chilly month of December. It was her silly jokes and support which kept me alive that time!

• Deepthi- the name brings back a surge of memories. We used to be in touch even during our graduation. She always used to cut a joke that we should pair up if we don't get a perfect guy in our lives. I actually loved that idea. Then we didn't even think of the section 377. LOL!

• Deepthi's distant calls were the longest calls I ever took once she left for the U.S.A.! I was in touch with her till 2009 but in late 2009 she stopped calling. I tried my level best but lost touch with her. I got busy with my life and she got lost in nothingness. For some reason she doesn't use facebook and her email ID is not functional. Her old number did not work. I am still hunting her down with the help of common friends.

Image source : here

Thanks to the Dove Guessing Game with my friend! contest by Indiblogger as I again remembered that I need to track her! This time I am going to call her home town and find out about her :)

This post is a part of the above mentioned contest (#DoveFaceTest is the hashtag). Do visit the Dove Cream Beauty Bathing Bar link when your are here. Thank you all for reading this :)