Imaginative story
Until completion of tenth grade (SSLC) I never bothered to write any letter as I was wholly dependent on my dear Daddy and my older brothers for every correspondence. Also I had no occasion to write any letters independently. The only reason for which I needed to write letters was for submitting a leave application to the Headmaster in the school. This was usually done by my father.
I secured admission to the Pre-University college in Mysore choosing Science discipline as I had the intention of doing a Masters in Science stream and becoming a lecturer. My second language was Sanskrit. In my college the girls and boys from the Arts section were also joining us for the Sanskrit lectures due to the fact that the number of students choosing Sanskrit were dwindling.
I loved to read the poems of great Kannada poets. I had become a fan of poet Narasimhaswamy whose publication Mysuru Mallige (ಮೈಸೂರು ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆ) had the uniqueness in depicting true family love. I also had the habit of scribbling some poetry in Kannada language. While writing poems I had chosen and used the name ಸೌಂದರ್ಯ (like the name 'Cinderella') as my imaginative dream girl.
In the first Sanskrit lecture class, when I really found my dream girl of my poems in real life (in a girl who used to attend our Sanskrit lectures) I decided to write a letter to her at the behest of my friends. She was from the Arts section and as such I had no details of her but my mind was always enthusiastic in having friendship with her and thereby winning her heart. The best was to show my skills in Kannada poetic intelligence. Thus I chose to write my first ever letter which incidentally was also my first ever love letter.
I wrote in poetic language and the letter was ready. Now the question arose as to how this letter should be delivered to her. I thought of all possibilities.
How about mailing the letter to her residential address?
If by chance the postman delivers that letter to her father, then I am sure her father would immediately visit the college and ensure that I am expelled from the college.
Suppose the letter is seen by her mother, apart from scolding her daughter at the first instance she would have asked about my details such as caste and creed, sincerity, intelligence level, well-to-do/affluence, family background etc., keeping in her mind of matrimonial alliance of her daughter.
On the contrary, by chance if the letter is seen by her brother, I am sure he would have taken an oath of not having his dinner until he would attack me and bang me like a band-box while I return from the college and ensure that I don't look at his sister again.
Ohh! I can't afford to take such a risk. I thought of other alternatives:
How about delivering the letter through my friends or her friends or through college peon or canteen boy (or via pigeon as in मैने प्यार किया!) etc. Oh no, I was getting confused. Finally I decided to handover the letter personally to her without involving anyone as the contents of my letter would be known to the messenger if I do that. 'Yes, this is the perfect solution', I concluded myself.
On the next day I waited for her to come out of her last lecture in the afternoon session. In fact I had never spoken to any girl until then as I had studied in boys high school. I had memorised the chit-chat that I would have had with her. While she was walking in the corridor after her last session I introduced myself to her with great confidence that she is attending our Sanskrit lectures, I am in science stream, my name is xyz. She probably had thought that she shouldn't behave rudely as she had to see me again in Sanskrit lectures. She just smiled. And without waiting for her to further react or reject me, I took out my love letter and said to her that I have written a poem in Kannada and I would like to have her views on the poem. To this she thought for a second and replied to me that she doesn't know how to read Kannada. I never expected this answer from her and I wasn't prepared for what I should have to do then. I just said 'Oh sorry' and put the letter back in my pocket.
Now I recollected the incident and tried to analyse the whole episode. Why should she say that she doesn't know how to read in Kannada? Here in Mysore/Karnataka the studies up to seventh grade have a three language formula, meaning all students need to study English, Kannada and Hindi. Thereafter Sanskrit or Kannada or Hindi may be opted as second language. But the third language also needed to be studied. When Kannada language was a must till 7th grade she should have studied Kannada. Was it because she wasn't confident to analyse the poem? Or was she from our neighboring states?
Ohh! Why shouldn't I have written in English? I tried to console myself that she probably was not having skills in Kannada poetry. But after a couple of days I got the information that she knows Kannada and she is a native of Mysore only. She was smart enough to assess me or the contents of my letter and nicely she had escaped fooling me easily.
When she had fooled me I said to myself that I should forget this girl. I had my ego. Now I thought once again to whom I should give that letter. I couldn't find another girl who matches with my dream girl, Cinderella. Hence, I couldn't give my love letter to anyone.
It never occurred to me to destroy the letter, as my letter was so precious, it was my first ever letter and first ever love letter too. I was keeping it safely with me until the day of my engagement. On the next day of my engagement, fearing the consequences, I decided to mail that letter to my fiance even after knowing the fact that... had the letter been given to any of the girls in my college, the simile which I had expressed in my letter would have matched to some extent at least. But alas! I had no option.
end- ನಡೆದದ್ದು ಅಲ್ಲ imagination - modified translated version.
written in kannada someಟೈಮ್ in 2002
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