* PEHLA NASHA, PEHLA KHUMAR *

March 2019,

The hot and blazing summers were at their beginning but the temperature started showing its attitude. "Afternoon lectures kon rakhta hai yaar or wo bhi itne garam mey??? (Who keeps such afternoon lectures bro and that too in this scorching heat), said one of my friend sittng under the fan inside a pre-heated classroom where our biology lectures for NDA Examination were scheduled for 3:00 PM. "Yaar mey Commandant toh nahi hu na varna tere liye special ussi ke AC cabin me bitha deta tha (Bro I am not the Commandant or else I would have made special arrangement for you in his AC cabin). After sitting idly for nearly 15 mins, our biology mam arrived. She was fair in colour, perfectly round face, with a perfect round body posture, with a thin line of eyebrows, 5'8" tall and on that day she was wearing her black tees and a full-length blue jeans and to increase her height for more 5 cms, she wore high heel sandals too. Don't know why she was wearing those heels and with whom she was comparing herself. But yeah, she always used to come in a 'boom' manner coz whenever she used to arrive, all boys used to wait for her on the corridor because her dress style used to make our eyes go booom. We paid attention on her more than what was she teaching. But there was one problem with her. She used a high level beauty products but didn't but a perfume for herself and we boys have a very bad habit of judging a girl by her perfume's smell. Atlast, we were " Haq se Single" boys.

"All of you open page no. 137, Plant's Digestive System. And you over there, the boy in specs and yellow t-shirt, start reading the first paragraph", she ordered. And she chose the most notorious boy of our class, Yash Deshpande. He never used to bring any book in those noon and evening lectures as he was not interested for appearing in NDA. He stood up and firmly told that he didn't brought the book. "You were knowing na that it is my lecture and you should have your NDA Pathfinder with you. Get out and bring your book now!!", she said angrily. "Mam my book is torned and lost too in my dormitory. I searched for it everywhere but was unable to find it and don't even know where I kept it last", he said arguingly. Furious by his silly answer of book lost, she scolded her and he kept on arguing with her. After a 10 minute argument, she started leaving the class and said," I am not going to take your lectures from now on coz where you don't have respect for teachers how can I be teaching there?? I am leaving now...", she said in a damn angry mood. A boy from the front bench stood up and stopped her," Mam your scooty keys are left behind. Take this too while going". Now, her anger was at apex now. She was going to burst into many words and scoldings too. And what I thought that happened and she screamed out.

Just then, one of our Warden, Mr. Pravin Dalod was passing by doing some fake quality inspections to see her. Yeah he used to like our bio mam. But, he was a kind of shy guy. He was 6'2" tall with a muscle body and is active in many sports so yeah he was a tough guy and we weren't expecting him at that time. He came in and said," What happened Mam??? I heard your voice from the office and directly came over here. Is it alright mam???". And then she started explaining in a screaming way on him and said everything what happened. He heard everything and firstly, he wiped out his face with a hanky coz she used to sprinkle some minute saliva drops on anyone front of her while speaking and secondly, he said just a few words, " ALL OF YOU OUT ON THE GROUND. NOWWW...!!!" And we ran out as fast as possible and stood on the heated marching ground of ours. He came out and gave us some quality lecture of obeying elders and teachers and also to make some impression on his crush too. After 20 mins of lecture, our lecture duration was over and she too said few words and waved us bye-bye. In return, we were also waving back at her after all this what happened due to her. She left us in the hands of a dreaded warden of our time. He gave us 'Ragda', a kind of military punishment including rolling on ground, crawling, running, going here and there and the list in it keeps on adding as per the Warden's mood.

Tired and all shabby from head to toe, we were kept standing after 30 mins of Ragda for some more felicitation by our dorm's warden, Mr. Zarkha. He came in with a heavy belly coming out but squeezed in somewhat for not letting the impression to flew away. He was a Gymnast in his times and a retired Army officer who served the nation in J&K, Pathankot, Himachal and Eastern side of India too and now he was serving as a Senior Warden in Bhonsala Military School, Nashik. " My dear boys, kindly take your bags and study material from your dorm and meet me near the Gymnasium Hall within 5 mins. Don't keep me waiting or if anyone of you comes after me there, you all will face the Ragda. Run...!!!", he ordered us in a scary tone. We all got diappeared from the ground within 10 secs. We used to fear him because he used to support us so we have to return back some respect for him too. "Chal yaar Kabir varna wo aa gaya to laga dega apni (Hurry up Kabir coz if he reached early, he will not be sparing us)", one of my friend said me and I just shook my head.

We all ran near the pavement of our Gymnasium Hall where he instructed us to be. We stood in three's. I was heighted by around 5'11" and my height suited me to stand in the corner of our three's. He came towards us, waving his hands besides his fat belly. He firstly came towards me and said, "Weren't you the main culprit behind this Ragda??? If I found out to be you, I won't spare and especially YOU." I shook my head in a 'no' manner and replied with a "No" in a meek voice. I was having a pretty good connection with him. Last time, I and my friends were caught playing around in the corridor and for this, we were punished to sit in the study hall everyday for 7 hrs for 1 week. And many more incidents with him I will share with you in our journey.

He came forward and asked calmly that who are those due to which I got scolded from the Commandant Sir. Both Deshpande and Harsh Dharia raised their hands, accepting their mistake. He called both of them out and punished them. He scolded them and ordered all of us to sit on the pavement and study till the evening bell rings and also cancelled our Sports Time too. Upset and forced, we sat on the pavement and took out our books to show him that yes we were studying. He had a keen eye sight and through it he confirmed that everyone is studying and made his way inside the Gymnasium Hall. Seeing him go, I kept aside my books and saw some unhappy faces besides me. We all love sports and the sporty moment was killed for today by our Zarkha Sir. Thank You Sir.

My eyes stood up and saw 10th grade girls and boys were arriving on our side.At that time of the month, they were having their matrix examinations going on and they were returning back to their dorms after their exams. I pissed them off. There were many hotshot girls in that batch and my class boys, 11th class boys were having hidden crushes on those girls but no one brought on their tongue to say their inside words for each of their particular crush's. Now we all were already facing such a humiliation and now more humiliation from the girls too. I hid my face unwantedly inside my book. Don't know why but yeah I am a Boxer by my profession so yes its a guilt for me. No, I don't had any crush on them coz I never noticed them carefully, as I got my own business to look upon. They came close and were passing in front of us. I, don't know but scrolled my eyes up and saw one of those girls. My eyes strucked with hers. We were looking each other and I had an undesired eye contact with that girl. She was in her 16's. Her colour was fair, lightly densed eye-lids, almond shaped eyes with a small mole on her right cheek, her hairs were short like a tomboy but not purely a tomboy, her face was mildly curve, she was somewhat fat and was having a perfectly tuned figure. She was wearing a white full-sleeve shirt with a black formal lower. She had big round glasses on her face which made her even more beautiful. She was passing-by and I was just staring at her and at the end she blushed back. Butterflies were all over my stomach and all of a sudden my heartbeats reached 150 bpm.

That 5 second eye-to-eye connection, made her my new crush and made me fall. Oh my god, this was amazingly fantastical and was hillarious and mind-boggling for me. Now, I thought that I was also added in our class's hidden crush list on those 10th girls. I realized that I don't wanna be a "Haq se Single" guy now. I was smiling inside and was unnecessarily happy. When I saw up, all were watching me, I controlled my happiness and remained silent but still those feelings were bouncing inside me. Now, I made a decision and decided to search for her and my search for her then began....

" Wo surat pe kayi fidaa the,

Jaane kitno ko rulaya uss chehere ne,

Haar kar jhuk gaya ye dil tere liye,

Aaj bhi yaad ati hai par wo pyar nahi tere liye..."