It was after dinner when my parents were going to sleep on terrace owing to the summer heat and I was preparing to study in the hall. My friends were to come to study with me at home and I had just collected all books required for today and carried them to sofa. I went to get the exam schedule from my trouser pocket and pulled the shirt hanging on top of the trouser on the rack. I took the shirt to put it among clothes to be washed when my hand felt something in it's pocket. I remembered the note she had slipped in and asked me to read later.
I pulled the folded paper from shirt pocket and carried it with me to the sofa. Mom and Dad went to sleep instructing me to close the door properly once I was done studying and my friends were gone. I assured them I would and they went upstairs to terrace. I slowly unfolded the paper, in all honesty, not knowing what to expect. The folded paper turned out to be four pages torn from the middle of a notebook, a combined set of four pages, every line of which was filled in with beautiful Gujarati writing. I started reading the pages not knowing even now what it was.
There was no mention of my name but was clearly addressed to me. It described how we had met, the things transpired since then and the fun we have had in such short acquaintance and what impact I had on her. She hadn't signed her name either but had finished with a question asking me how I felt about her. It took me two reads to realize I was holding my first love letter in my hand.
A surge of adrenaline was coursing through my veins and I was dizzy with excitement. Studies were forgotten that night as you might expect. I showed the letter to all my friends one by one as they came in. All of them read it with more gusto and determination than our exam notes. They rejoiced and expressed surprise on a girl expressing her love towards me. I am sure they felt a twinge jealousy but this was the first love letter received to any one of our group and all of us were mesmerized by it.
We appreciated the hand-writing, the eloquent Gujarati words, the poetry expressing her confusion and her attraction towards me and the fact that she was so absolutely in love that sleep had illuded her. More practical of my friends, pointed out that she had refrained from writing any names and suggested she might've written a few of these already.
It was of no consequence to me. In my seventeen years of life, someone for the first time had bothered to express such vivid and passionate feelings towards me and that too in writing. I was on the seventh cloud or may be even higher, if it was possible. The year 1999 was about to turn in to a beautiful one and I was confident the second year of my college will be filled with new experiences.
Who had written to me? How had we met and how had she slipped a love letter in my shirt pocket without me realizing? And most importantly, what did I feel?
How would you have responded, were you at my place?
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