It Was Always You

Chapter 4

Unedited

FLASHBACK ( The passages in italics will be Fb)

It was my first day in senior K.G., at a new school, a new city and even a new state.

I did my Junior K.G in a small school near my home town in Tamilnadu. On one of the bright sunny days of my first ever summer vacations, my mom told me that my dad was transferred to a branch in some other state and we will be shifting there. I was just a kid then, so when we left the town 2 days later I thought we were going on a Holiday trip. Only a week later, when we shifted from one of my aunt's place to our new home, and when on the same day my dad took me to ST.Aloysius International School to get me enrolled there, I realized that we were actually ''Shifting''. Well I didn't get to process that piece of reality as I was enthralled by the humongous campus and the infrastructure and by explaining that to my mom and every other relative of mine how St. Aloysius was the most famous school with biggest campus in our locality and one of the best ones in the 'SAINT' group of institutions.

The magnanimous campus has separate blocks for kindergarten, primary, secondary and high school. Each block has its own swimming pool. The primary, secondary and high school blocks have their own badminton, tennis and basketball courts. There is also a big common ground surrounded by tracks. All of these brilliantly encompassed behind a gigantic, shimmering gate.

And today I am standing in front of that gigantic, shimmering gate crying out loud as I realized I would never be able to see my old play friends again and that I would be all alone in a class full of strangers speaking some alien language. If there is anything that I have learnt from my, a week and so stay here then it is that the people here speak in some alien language which clearly isn't mine and I don't understand a word they say. In short I am going to be the new freak of the class.

My mom tried forcing, sweet talking and even bribing me. Well I wasn't going to budge that soon. So now, my mom is crouching beside me trying to console me in tamil. Every passing person was giving us a strange look. I don't know if it is my mom speaking in a different language for them or me crying like shinzo. Better not be me crying coz every kid cries on their first day at school and it was my first day in a new school, so technically I had my right here.

Well that's when I heard Saritha maa's silvery voice for the first time as she asked my mom, "Are you a Tamilian too?"

Their few minutes chat revealed that she was a Tamilian too and the cherry on the top was that her home town was just next to ours, literally a 30 minute walk from ours. She was sweet and kind hearted. As my mom blurted out why I was crying, she knelt down to my level.

"what's your name cutie?"

"Masoom" my sobs had subsided by then, maybe by my thought that my mom would become busy in her talk and take me back home forgetting the school. (Don't give me that look, I was just a kid then).

"Suits you best" she said caressing my baby soft milky white cheeks bringing a small smile on my lips. Apparently Masoom also means soft.

"Which class is she in?" she asked my mom.

"Senior KG"

"Well my son here is also in the same class" she said with a smile and that's when I noticed a boy of my age standing beside her engrossed in his video game.

My mom ruffled his hair and he gave her a nice, big smile.

"This is great, now you have got a friend who speaks your language, in your class baby." My mom told me emphasizing on 'your' both the time.