My first love....

She was my childhood sweetheart, I don't know when I first met her, neither do I remember when I really fell in love with her, all I can say is, from when I have memory, she's there....

In middle school, I used sit hours in my house's "sit out" lost in dreams about some aspect of hers.. you know how complex they are, ... and so trying to see if I can figure out a little something more interesting about her...

In high schools, my notes to her would invariably start with a "If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this,it is this and if there is one worth giving life for, it is you it is you it is you....."


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My first memories of our association is when a lot of my uncles , aunts and sometimes grandfathers would put just the two of us together..... give me puzzles to solve, when to all other kids they would give something more worldly to play with... I remember how many times my cousin sister (elder by 2 years) and I would be given the same problem and we wud run in two different directions to solve it.. I would come back much much before my sister and whisper the answer in my aunt's ears.. Minutes later my elder sis wud come, still confused and all frustu that her younger bro has cracked it already ..

A few nice teachers here and there in my school , and my love and passion for her just grew.. Thinking about her problems and trying to solve them in my own ways became my favorite pastime ....

Oh, what all were the things I loved to do with her - I would give a watch with seconds to a friend of mine and ask him/her to time me when I try to do a mental multiplication of two four digit numbers, and speak the answer out mentally.. sometimes I moved onto five and six digits
Once in my 11th I remember 3 different people firing away numbers - not perfect square- and me giving them the square roots to two decimals, in a few seconds- all mental calculations.....

I used to have all my secret codes(passwds) something to do with Ramanujan's numbers.. what more, I used to have my own "arun's numbers"......

Oh, what a crazy lover I was...


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Come college (ie 11 and 12) and I had the best Professor in my life for Math... Prof C Balakrishnan. Since the college was all about strikes, and no portion was covered there, the tuition center was the resort and thats where he taught... Brilliant isn't just the word- eventhough in general he would try to keep the standards of the problems in tune with the "back benchers" every now and then he would come with an IIT problem or an Olympiad problem and would give me that look thro' above his glasses... - enuf for me to forget the surroundings and get immersed ..

Come my second year, my Math Prof at the college was also very enthusiastic. He would dare to stand up against the "striking student politicians" and say "I will teach, you do what you want". He was so sincere, that students who otherwise wud have wanted the strike , would also support him... His name was Varghese, I believe..

And this me, what did I use to do ?... I used to make Prof B at the tuition and Prof V at the college compete.. I would say to one "You know, today at the other place, Prof gave this particular problem.. I think that was nice"... and he would give me much wanted difficult problem...

And yeah, my lost-in-the-dream world continued, eventhough reduced for lack of time due to JEE preparation... I remember one day I decided to spend the whole day (of my already tin vacation) on trying to solve Fermat's last theorem.....

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Anyway, over years, from being lovers, we became casual friends.. my loyalties shifted, I don't know how I could, but yeah, its now more of a hi-bi ... But occasionally- when I realise that I still remember my 10th standard board exam Roll no: (422491), and even my cousin sisters' Roll No:(343454), I fall back into the memory lane, for a walk along the long forgotten corridors