  "For heaven's sake I dont want to meet you again" - This is what I heard last from my friend. Girls are one of my fascinations may be the biggest driving force behind all my actions.
But, there are only a handful of girls whom I liked and surprising they all have some common traits. Its 1986, I was in second grade, and I found my first crush, Vijay Priya. She was from delhi, extremely cute and intelligent. I never talked a word to her. Art, its actually a skill i have by birth but i never had any strong desire or passion to pursue it fulltime.
It was when I was in third grade I remember doing my first sketch, a ship. Science, its the magnets and the paper arrows that always filled my thoughts those days. When I was in third, I wanted to build a flying paper arrow with a sand engine! These are the three channels of thoughts all my mind is made up of. Its Nirmala, she joined my class in fourth grade. Not all that smart but was number four in our class.
She was little short and very friendly and I talked to her a lot. I used to ask her to come to school on holidays and played with her. It was a little mature friendship, we used to participate in competitions together and win prizes. I became a full time artist when I was in fifth grade. Made a lot of sketches, and used to give it to friends. Used to take photos of my friends in paper camera and give them a sketch of their face. Started using water colours and found some cool techniques to do it well.
Cartoons were my favourite. Maths became my favourite subject and I started putting a lot of enthu in it. Ambika was my class topper in fifth standard. I started getting weird from here on. Looks funny, I wanted to marry her. I did so many things to talk to her. But dont remember any serious conversation with her. Went to hindi classes as she was going, and I was desperate to talk with her. Put fight and participated in a play with her. She was an angel and I was a shepherd! Sadly, I had only one scene acting with her.
I moved to a different school the next year. Hoped to meet her in some interschool competitions but couldn't. One fine day, I heard that she is going around with a friend of mine and she finally got married to him in 1996, early marriage. Everyone knows about my paintings these days. Tried my first self portrait in sixth grade, but found it hard to draw it small, I drew it as big as I saw it in the mirror.
Used to do a lot of simple experiments at home, mainly involving light, mirrors and lens. I met vanitha in a hindi class. she was in seventh grade and i was in nineth. The very first day I met her, she came straight to me and started talking incessantly. She is also from delhi, little taller than me, fat and intelligent. We started talking and we talked everyday some four hours and it continued for four years. She was one girl who liked me a lot, and talked about me with her friends. I did lots of paintings for her, but never gave one to her.
Its all still with me. She used to write poems and she even wrote a poem about me once and gave it to me. I kept it with me till my final year in college, but finally decided to lose it, I put it inside a library book and returned the book. Its nice, I used to threaten her that I wont come to hindi classes anymore and she used to tell me that she was coming only to talk with me. She convinced me to continue the classes. We were very competitive, she came once zonal first and I was second. I liked her and wanted to propose, scheduled a time with her and I called her out and said 'don't talk to me' .
She was shocked, i was also shocked as this is not what I wanted to tell her and I couldn't tell her that I liked her. After few months we were once caught up in a rain alone, I went and talked with her, she blasted me and wrote the poem about me the next day. Obviously the poem was about what she didn't like about me. In the few months i didn't talk with her, i did a painting and gave her a copy of it through her friend.
On the last exam day,actually the last few days i was in touch with her, she got the painting and showed it to me that she still had it with her. I had to stop going to the hindi classes that means stopped meeting her too. Soon, became a good portraiter. I did a portrait of my hindi teacher and gave it to him. That was my first small portrait in water colour. Astronomy got somehow into my mind. Designed a telescope to view moon in three dimension, but it didn't work out. Later, I joined the college in Madras and wrote her a big letter. Days gone, weeks gone, no reply from her.
I fell sick and took a month break. When I returned, I got a reply from her ending with "your loving sister, vanitha" . 
