A Piece of my Heart

My journey of life started around twenty six years ago. It was going smooth in the initial years. However as years passed by, life started taking a few twists and turns and what followed was a series of chapters. Chapters that brought a complete change in me. It gave me memories that I cherish till date. ‘A PIECE OF MY HEART’ is an adolescent love story which is very close to my heart. It is a journey of a teenager, who didn’t know what exactly love was, to a matured twenty six year old guy. I enjoyed the process of writing this book. It gave me the liberty to think about the things that happened in the past in a different dimension. It changed my outlook towards life. It brought a change in me as a person and a human being. Hope you all have a good reading experience. And yes not to forget… The book is dedicated to ‘HER’ - NINAD WAGH

CHAPTER I: THE FIRST MEETING School days are the best period of your life. You start exploring life, meet new people, gain knowledge, experience new things; along with memories that you can cherish for a lifetime. Even I had such an experience. I was in my tenth standard then. It was the fag end of my school education. I had passed my ninth standard with ‘not-so-good’ marks but decent marks. Now it was a big and a tough year ahead. It was the time to pull up your socks and study hard. Even I did the same thing. But the only difference was that other students studied hard and I ‘hardly’ studied. In these years of my school education, I had observed that there are three kinds of students: Some make wonders happen; some see wonders happen and others just wonder what happened. Needless to say that I was of the third type. S.S.C meant life was now restricted to school, classes and books. No more freedom, no more social life; but the excitement and eagerness of a new academic...

CHAPTER II: THE FRIENDSHIP After my first meeting, I met her again the next day and this continued. As days passed by, I started to befriend her. We started meeting regularly. Sometimes after the class or sometimes to exchange some notes. Slowly, rather unknowingly, we started coming closer, of course not physically but mentally. We became the best of friends. Friendship blossomed. I found a great friend in her. A friend who could understand me whenever I was in need, a friend who would be happy when I was happy, a friend who would be with me during hard times. I didn’t have much friends but the selected friends that I had were my life and she topped the list. I shared a great rapport with her. One day after class I met her, like always we talked for a while but don’t know why I was feeling very uncomfortable. I had a mild stomach ache and felt feverish. She sensed my pain, “Are you ok?” she asked. “Yea I am. But I think I should go home.” “Yes you should. Ple...

CHAPTER III: A PLEASANT SHOCK As days rolled over, I just didn’t realize how quickly time had passed by. My preliminary examination started and I decided to get a bit serious with my studies, but destiny had something else in store for me. I was getting ready for my class exam, doing the last minute revision, when I got a call from another good friend of mine. She was our common friend. “Hello!”  “Hello! Say what happened?” “Nothing. Just wanted to ask you a question.” “Question? Which question?” I asked confusingly. “I wanted to ask you if you love that girl?” “Girl? Which girl are you talking about?” Though I knew what she was talking about; still I pretended as if I didn’t know anything. “Oh you very well know whom I am talking about. I want your answer in the class!” She said and just disconnected the phone. I was stunned for a moment and didn’t know how to respond. I started blushing and borrowed time to answer this question....

CHAPTER IV: A NEW JOURNEY I reached the class finally with all the emotions in my mind. I was anxious. My body language was different today. Of course it was supposed to be. After all, it needs guts to tell someone that you love her. As soon as I reached the class, I saw the eager face of my friend, who had called me earlier in the day and because of whom I was in such an awkward situation, waiting for my response. I started ignoring her or tried changing topics because though I had made up my mind of saying ‘Yes’ but still I was afraid of the consequences. This continued for some time but finally a ‘Yes’ popped out from my mouth. My friend was so happy that, ironically, I felt as if she was in love with me. She then used the same trick on the girl whom I loved and interestingly a positive reply came from her side as well. I just could not control my emotions. I was happy and very much excited. I felt as if I was on cloud nine. It was a start of a new chapter in m...

CHAPTER V: THE VALENTINE DAY It was the month of February. The month of love. Love was in the air. It was my first valentine’s day so it had to be special. Till then Valentine’s Day was just another day for me. I was very excited and so was she. As Valentine’s Day neared, I thought and thought about a perfect gift. I wanted to make this day very special for her. Finally after a lot of brain storming I zeroed upon a ‘bracelet’ which I thought she would love wearing it. It was a token of love. I bought the gift and wrapped it in a heart shaped box but then came the biggest question. “How would I give her the gift?”  Since our relationship was a secret, going on a date was out of question. Then how? Again my thinking process started. Any person would like to exchange gifts in some romantic atmosphere but for me that did not happen. We met near my building about an hour before the class. As we met we started walking casually on the road as if we were strangers to each...

CHAPTER VI: THE SMS We successfully completed a year of our relationship. It was time to celebrate but we did not. Instead I just called her to wish her, “Happy Love Anniversary.” We were happy and satisfied with this gesture. No celebrations. No gifts. No party. Our relationship continued and it just continued. It was the month of March. I was relaxing at home. After a long time I had got some free time. The weather was beautiful. I was on my couch listening to some soothing music. All worries and tensions were kept aside. My mind was calm and my heart refreshed. Suddenly my cell phone beeped to give me an indication that I had received a SMS. I was in a casual mood to read the SMS and… “I wanna keep r relationship only up to frndship n nt more than tht. Pls dnt ask ‘wh’ questions. Sorry fr the problem caused. Hope v bcum gud frnds.” This dreaded message crashed me down. My peaceful mind became restless. My heart became numb. I didn’t know how to react. I went an...

CHAPTER VII: FEW YEARS LATER… As years passed by I was going through a very emotional phase. We tried to adjust ourselves in the ‘Just Friends' category but with passage of time, our friendship died a silent death. A love story that triggered between two souls just to end before it could blossom. There were ups and down in life. The heart was sad and the mind depressed. I was battling all this because at the end of the day Life was moving on. I tried forgetting her but neither could that happen because she was not just in my heart but she was my heart and how could I forget my heart that kept pumping every second after second. Trying to forget someone whom you love is just like trying to remember someone whom you never knew. People thought I was happy but what people never realised was that deep inside I was a lonely soul amidst a huge crowd trying to find solace. Every happy face has a troubled past and I call it ‘Experience’. An experience that taught me many ...