The First Time

Abhishek was nervous. And rightly so. It was his first day in a new school. The anxiety levels were through the roof. His previous school was one that focussed on the kindergarten levels and hence had fewer classes and in turn fewer students. But his new school was one that moulded minds right from kindergarten to the metric levels. The building, the classrooms, the people all seemed gigantic to the six year old.

He just couldn't let go of his mother's wrist. With each step that he took towards the school gates, his grip got firmer. His mother could sense the fear in Abhishek and knew that it was only natural. She was scared too, but hid her true feelings and put up a brave face for her second born. She knew if Abhishek saw her in a vulnerable state, he would never be able to let go off her hand.

It was almost 8'o clock, time for the school day to officially begin. Parents would have to now take leave of their children and hand them over to the school for the remainder of the day. Abhishek knew that the comfort of his mother's hand was soon going to slip away and that he would be on his own in this huge maze.

She was holding her father's hand. Her eyes had a sense of anticipation. An unmistakable smile beamed on her face. Rutuja was anything but scared. On the contrary her excitement was hard for her to contain. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

His first look left him puzzled. Abhishek couldn't believe someone could look so beautiful! Suddenly his fear seemed to have vanished into thin air. He no longer had anxiety or doubt in his mind. His grip over his mother's wrist begin to loosen. Sensing this his mother looked at him and then looked at what had caught her son's attention. As she saw Rutuja, she couldn't help but smile. Her son was smitten and that too by such a sweet looking girl. She almost giggled at the thought of her little tiger going all weak in the knees for this little angel.

She finally let go his hand and watched as Abhishek inched towards the fair maiden. Suddenly Abhishek froze in his steps, turned around and ran back to his mohter and tugged at her sleeve, signaling her to bend down so that he could talk to her. As she obliged, Abhishek asked her

"Mommy, is that girl an angel?"

Abhishek's mother almost guffawed at her son's question. She whispered back in his ear,

"If she is, she is the most beautiful one I've ever seen son. Why don't you go and talk to her?"

As Abhishek started walking towards the little angel, he felt a sudden knot in his stomach. He couldn't quite tell what this new feeling was. But no matter how alien this new emotion felt, for some reason, he did not want it to go away.

Abhishek, the six year old boy, had just experienced his first crush.