Growing up with life!

Although she was growing rebel but this was not her primary character. She was a very kind little girl who with time realised that probably the stray dogs and cats are her best friends. They never judged her, all they wanted was her attention and love. During the summer vacations she used to visit her relatives and cousins and share all the stories of her pets she had. She knew all the corners of her neighbourhood and when her relatives used to visit her she used to take them to the most beautiful places she knew. There were paddy fields, small parks, ponds, tribal villages and huts, large grounds where local kids used to play bare foot, the paths across small size jungles, the dam where hydel power station was set up by a Govt. firm, the sunset from the dam, the boats sailing on the river and a lot more. All these were just like postcard pictures. She used enjoy each and every bit of it. When she was around 12 or so, never even thought of going anywhere else out of this beautiful place. In fact even today the small town kids are not aware of the hustle bustle of the metro city life, I personally feel they are still wrapped inside the 90’s era of Bollywood. Young boys and girls run away from homes to probably the love of their life, or feel good with simplest pleasures available there and stay happy. Arisha was no different. She loved being in her shell, enjoyed her home, the surroundings, the early morning sun rises with local temples and their Gulshan Kumar bhajans, traveling 2 hours to attend her school, the summers and holidays when spent time with friends throughout the day without worrying for a smallest thing about the thing called LIFE. The summer vacations were amazing there! All day fun, play in the paddy fields, going to neighbours house and steal the mangos, or tamarinds or blackberries from their trees without their knowledge. Some one from the group of friends used to carry black stall, chat masalas and then all of the kids having the stolen mangos etc together. Those fun-filled days are unimaginable, in fact i am sure a metro city kid never even tasted a mango like that. The monsoons just after the summer used to bring greener happiness around. Most of the time due to road conditions the school bus either used to get delayed on the way to school or stuck and come back. These were picnic days! There were students from 5th standard to 12th standard who took the bus for school and if there were such days then all of them used to have fun and pray that they do not have to go to school. they all were given minor pocket money to fight these situations however, preferred having roadside chat, panipuri, cotton candies, finish the tiffin and come back home after the surprise picnic. Well, this was also the time to fall in “first love”. As I already said the small townies were anyway living a life portrayed by Bollywood in the 90s, and FORTUNATELY Arisha was a kid of 90s. But she was a tomboy, never really was fascinated by love, or may be she was scared to be scarred. Although she loved playing the cupid for her friends and did everything possible to help them in love. And she was brozoned by all the boys of her school. Meanwhile when Arisha finished her 10th, she fell in love with bikes, but motorcycles were not ordinary there so learning and riding one would be quite a taboo. Her mom tried to make her understand first but it was of no use. So finally she found a new friend and a passion for lifetime. Arisha soon started riding bike around the town and was certainly the talk of the town. This was not because she was a rider but for the reason that how will she ever get a husband to marry her. Her mother Ishani was surely worried inside but noticed her daughter happiest with the bike so did  not really want to discourage her. So when she was about to join her +2 classes, probably first time she noticed a boy who was also probably at his teenage, a little older than her. Guess that was the first time she did not want to be brozoned so took all the pain to strike a conversation with the boy. As I had mentioned earlier it was truly a 90s Bollywood. Love without any communication but just like the films in this case the eyes spoke a 1000 words. They never met in person even after noticing each other, days, weeks and months passed and finally one day Arisha gathered all her courage and told her first love and said “kya aap mujhse dosti karoge” (will you be friends with me?). This was the beginning of their love story. The 2 years were really beautiful, all they did is to look at each other, exchange a glance, smile when no one noticed and that’s it. On completing the 12th board she wanted to pursue her dreams and for which she had to move out of the dreamland and step into the real world. It was the hardest moment for her to move out of the comfort zone, the house where she grew up, the roads where she used to ride her bike, the sunset points, the paddy fields, the summer vacations, monsoons, rainbows, the winters everything that was familiar to her. Leaving the luxury of known to travel to unknown was the next junction of her life. Meanwhile the silent love story was also not going anywhere, although she was ready to fight the world but she was uncertain of her first love’s expectations from life. Hence she decided to move out of her comfort zone and take up real challenges of life. Arisha was heart broken and terrible upset that she was leaving behind the childhood but she was more hurt for her love which remain unanswered. She chose to be brave and this was the time to keep her feeling into a shell to protect them.