I was dressed in a black shirt and trousers, my hair standing in deliberate rebellion, a spiky mullet I had carefully styled at Javed Habib just a week earlier. And because apparently that wasn’t enough preparation for my freshers day, I had spent an entire hour at the parlour getting a fruit facial.
I was trying to look my best.
For whom, I wasn’t entirely sure.
Maybe for college. Maybe for myself.
Or perhaps, without admitting it even to myself, for her.
I had been thinking about her for weeks.
We had been talking almost every day. Long phone calls that stretched without us noticing the time, endless chats that somehow always found another thing to talk about. Somewhere along the way, she had stopped feeling like a stranger. We were friends. Just friends.
At least, that was the word I had given it.
That morning, however, I knew I wanted to see her.
The freshers’ programme had already begun by the time I reached the campus. I had deliberately stayed away from the morning proceedings, terrified of being dragged onto the stage, made to dance, forced into a catwalk, or worse, asked to give a rose to some senior while an entire auditorium watched me embarrass myself.
I had checked with Sravan, my senior friend, more than once.
“Has the stage part finished?”
Only after he assured me that the juniors were no longer being called onto the stage did I finally book a cab.
Cowardice, perhaps.
Or maybe just the survival instinct of an introvert.
As the cab entered the university campus, I looked out through the window.
Greenery stretched in every direction. Trees, gardens, flowering plants, long stretches of green that made the university feel less like a place that had been constructed and more like a place that had simply been allowed to exist.
The road curved gently past the university auditorium, lined with button mangroves and flowering plants. The morning seemed unusually beautiful.
Or perhaps I was the one who had changed.
Everything felt brighter when you were beginning a new life.
A new college.
New people.
New friendships.
A new version of myself waiting somewhere ahead.
And somewhere in all that newness was a girl I had been waiting to see.
I took a deep breath.
Then slowly let it out.
I didn’t know it then, but perhaps that was the last peaceful breath before everything changed.
Those would become some of the most beautiful days of my life.
Ironically, I was already wishing them away.
I wanted to enjoy college life desperately, yet another part of me wanted the first year to end as quickly as possible so that the ragging would be over. I couldn’t have known then how cruelly time would answer that wish.
Years later, I would look back at those days and realise something almost painful in its simplicity.
The days I had once wanted to escape were the days I would eventually give anything to relive.
But that morning, I knew none of this.
I was just a boy entering college for the freshers day celebrations, nervous about being seen, excited about being unknown, and curious about what life had planned for me.
I entered the auditorium. FERVIDA CORDA. A banner welcomed me.
It was chaos in the most beautiful way.
Students were laughing, shouting and dancing. A few were performing on stage, while the students in the audience had completely forgotten that they were supposed to sit quietly and were dancing along with them. The whole hall seemed to pulse with the reckless happiness of youth.
Nobody knew yet how quickly life could change.
Nobody cared.
And perhaps that was the beauty of being young.
I found Ganesh, the first person in college with whom I had instantly clicked, and took a seat beside him in the middle row.
Boys on the left.
Girls on the right.
And she was somewhere over there.
I took out my phone.
Me: Where are you?
Her reply came almost immediately.
Her: Third row. Right side.
I turned towards the girls’ section and started searching.
Nothing.
I looked again.
Still nothing.
Then, suddenly, I found her.
Or rather, I found her eyes.
Everything else came a second later.
She was wearing a magenta anarkali, the colour making her complexion look even more radiant under the auditorium lights. Her hair was loose, falling naturally around her shoulders, without any attempt to tame it. There was something effortless about the way she had come that day. She wasn’t dressed as though she had spent hours trying to look beautiful. She simply was.
But it was her eyes that ruined me.
There was no kajal. No mascara. Nothing dramatic. Just eyeliner, drawn neatly enough to trace the shape of her eyes without hiding what made them beautiful in the first place.
I had never paid this much attention to someone’s eyes before.
They were large, expressive and strangely alive. Even from where I was sitting, I could see something in them that I couldn’t put into words. They weren’t merely beautiful eyes. They had a presence. They seemed to hold my attention without asking for it.
I kept looking at them and wondering how something as simple as a pair of eyes could make a person forget what they were supposed to be doing.
I had come to college worried about ragging.
I had worried about the stage.
I had worried about meeting new people.
And now I was sitting in an auditorium full of hundreds of students, pretending to listen to what was happening on stage while secretly watching one girl sitting three rows ahead of me.
I had seen beautiful women before. I had admired beauty before. But this felt different.
I didn’t know whether it was the way the eyeliner sharpened her eyes, the way her hair fell around her face, the softness of her features, or simply the way she carried herself that morning.
Maybe it was all of it.
There was a certain innocence in her face that made her even more attractive. Nothing about her looked forced. She wasn’t trying to draw attention to herself, and perhaps that was precisely why I couldn’t stop giving her mine.
I had no explanation for what was happening.
I only knew that I wanted to keep looking.
And somewhere between one glance and the next, an absurd thought entered my head.
I could die for those eyes.
We were still just friends.
She had absolutely no idea that, from the other side of the auditorium, I had already begun falling helplessly under their spell.
I picked up my phone.
Me: Omg.
Her: What?
Me: Those eyes.
Her: What about them? 😂
I stared at her from across the auditorium before typing.
Me: I think they’re dangerous.
Her: Dangerous? How? 😂
Me: Because I can’t stop looking at them.
There was a pause.
Then:
Her: Stop staring at me.
Me: I’m trying.
Her: And?
Me: Not working.
She sent a laughing emoji.
I smiled.
Me: Seriously. Those eyes are unfair.
Her: You’re exaggerating.
Me: I’m really not.
I looked at her again.
She had no idea how beautiful she looked sitting there, completely unaware of the effect she was having on me.
Me: I feel like I could die for those eyes.
There was a longer pause this time.
Then:
Her: Stoppp. I’m blushing. 🙈
I couldn’t help smiling.
Me: Good.
Her: Why good?
Me: Because now I know I’m not the only one feeling something.
She didn’t reply immediately.
Instead, I saw her lower her face slightly, probably trying to hide her smile.
That only made me want to tease her more.
Me: I can’t take my eyes off you.
Her: Careful. Somebody may notice us.
I looked around dramatically.
Me: Let them.
Her: Vamshi! 😂
Me: What? I’m just appreciating the view.
Her: You’re impossible.
Me: Maybe. But you’re the reason.
She sent another laughing emoji, followed by:
Her: Just watch the programme.
I looked towards the stage for approximately three seconds.
Then back at her.
Me: Tried.
Her: And?
Me: Still looking at you.
She laughed.
I could almost imagine the expression on her face without even seeing it properly.
Eventually, even looking at her from where I was sitting wasn’t enough.
The person sitting behind her was blocking part of my view.
I texted her again.
Me: I can’t see you properly. The person behind you is blocking the best part of my morning.
Her: Best part? 😏
I smiled.
Me: You know exactly what I mean.
Her: What if I move?
Me: Then I’ll finally be able to admire you properly.
A few seconds later, she moved slightly forward.
My phone lit up.
Her: Visible now?
I looked up.
She was looking towards the stage, but there was the faintest smile on her face.
Me: Much better.
Her: Happy?
Me: Not yet.
Her: What now? 😂
Me: Turn a little to the left.
Her: Why?
Me: I want a better view.
Her: You’re so shameless.
Me: Only today.
Her: Only today?
Me: I don’t know. You might have to wait and see.
She turned slightly to the left.
I looked at her.
For a moment, I genuinely forgot about everything else happening around me.
Her: Okay, now?
I stared at her for a few seconds before replying.
Me: Now you’re making it very difficult for me to pretend I’m here for the freshers’ programme.
She sent a laughing emoji.
Her: Then what are you here for?
I looked at her one more time.
Then typed:
Me: Apparently, you.
And that was the moment I realised I was already flirting with a girl who, until that morning, I had been calling just a friend.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
