The dirtied walls of Pragati Vidya ka Mandir grunted with frustration as it's gates opened to a hundred students in crisp white shirts paired with turquoise pinafores or pants. Class of 1993 had commenced to a hot Monday morning and a dull groaning Sameer trudging about at 8am. The hot summer sun felt clammy as sweat beads embraced the pores of his skin. His stark white shirt stuck to the contours of his body from the sheer sweaty outline it had become. Sigh. He needed a smoke.
Throughout his turbulent life, Sameer Maheswari had been certain about one thing: he hated summers. His distaste for the dry hot April winds would never cease just like his unending love for the silky mass of black on his head.
With a proud smirk, he ran his fingers through his mane; slaying the senses of the group of girls across the corridor. He had to agree that his parents may have given him a lifetime worth of separation anxiety but had also blessed him with damn good genes. Not only was he butter fair and handsome, he also carried the most enviable tresses on the planet. His looks and his swag endeared him to both the boys and the girls at Pragati Vidya Ka Mandir.
But despite the adoration and the fawning, none of the girls in his school aroused any feelings in Sameer's heart and soul. His Nanu would often joke that the Maheshwari charm was wasted on Sameer because he had never fallen in love or had a girlfriend, yet deep down even his nanu knew that the little boy in Sameer was still searing from his mother's negligence and father's untimely death. And secretly, every weekend when Jaiprakash Maheshwari went to the temple, he slipped an extra box of laddoos to the almighty to send an angel in his grandson's life, who would bring to his heart the purity of a woman's touch and warmth of feminine presence.

Unbeknownst to his Nanu's wishes, Sameer had set his mind early in life that he would never find a woman with better hair than his, nor would he want to put his heart out there to be broken by a gender that has cheated him before. And as every child of 6 perceives, for him these reasons were logical enough to live by all his life.
Now a beautifully sculpted 18-year-old, Sameer Maheshwari (often likened with Salman Khan) was high in demand by the female populace of his school. With him in the twelfth grade and already being groomed to takeover the Maheshwari textiles, many families were interested in getting their daughters engaged to him, to be married at 21. But no one attracted him. Girls roamed around him all day yet he was more interested in Munna Pandit than the seekers of his affection. Why won't they just leave me alone?! He thought leaning against the corridor wall in front of his class window.

And then, the winds changed. Along with the summer heat, a warm balmy breeze blew in the open corridor as two girls walked in.

All of a sudden it felt like the world froze as the new girl softly treaded towards Sameer, her steps tiny and gentle a lot like her petite body. Long raven coloured tresses blended in the wind as she looked down shyly, her face  soft, innocent, and alluring.

And then she looked up.

From then it was all a blur for him: his friends, the school bell, the box of cigarettes in his pocket, and the trickling summer heat. All that existed were those doe shaped eyes with the deepest of brown orbs and the thundering beats of his heart. Her eyes reminded him of the wet earth fresh from the rain; brimming to its core, layered, and warm. Her gaze seeped into his soul, embracing the darkness with a gentleness that made him tremble.

Maybe it was the extra bribe of sweets that Jaiprakashji served to god every Sunday or the longing heart of a lovelorn delinquent teen: destiny had finally shone and Sameer had fallen in love. At the first glimpse of her, and with every delicate step she took towards him he stirred with the awareness of her having crossed the thresholds of his heart.

In his full 18 years of existence, this had never happened before; Sameer Maheshwari was enchanted to the soul. From sunrise to sunset: he no longer gazed at the beauty of the fusing shades in the sky, instead his eyes focused on the mixing colours of scarlet sunset and the dark night in the intoxicating gaze of Naina Agrawal. His new classmate. The divine being who had weaved a spell on him with her innocent charms and warm smiles.

His heart had jumped in elation when she had entered his class and soared higher as Shanti teacher had assigned her to sit close to him. Naina had dropped her bag the minute she had sat down with Swati, right next to him. As he helped her, for a brief second she looked into his eyes and he felt his heart shake violently. Her eyes, they were so dark and so telling. They were warm and kind, profound and sad, and unbelievably kind. Naina's eyes glowed like a flame in the consuming dark, setting his soul on fire. There was shyness in her gaze as she took her bag from his hands, her fingers slightly brushing the back of his palm, making them both colour and shiver. Her one slight touch was so potent and magnetic. He watched her smile at him, tug a strand of her hair behind her ear, and then focus on the blackboard. But he, all he could do was stare, flummoxed as he was by the redness which had slightly tinted her cheeks a second back or was it a minute back. He had lost track of time like he had lost his heart.

For a full week since then, all Sameer could do was look at her and observe things about her. Like how the bright light of the sun mingled with the hues of auburn in her hair, making them glow brighter. She would usually leave her mid length hair open and then tie them in a pony with the deepening heat (while she thought it was from the summer, Sameer was almost certain it was from his burning gaze that refused to leave her). The mole at the edge of her cheek tempted deep forbidden fantasies in his heart (and other parts of his body). He had also noticed that she was a beauty with immense brains. Not only could she slay his heartbeats with a simple smile, she could also make them go haywire with her intelligent replies and questions in the class room. She had bonded like lightening with Swati, and always greeted everyone warmly. Yet there would be times when he would find her lost in thoughts, a melancholic air around her, she seemed to be fighting with storms that he wished he could erase. In those moments, she felt too familiar to him: he could see in her, his own grief and anguish. Like two lone souls surviving in an abysmal universe of agonies and insecurities.

On Friday morning, she had come to school with open hair dripping wet onto the white sleeves of her uniform. A soggy wet mess it had become, streaks of fair skin visible through the wetted fabric. Blood rushed to his loins at the sight of her, making him ache. The entire day he remained frustrated from the riveting floral scent of her perfumed hair, and the fresh drops lining her slant cheekbones. His fingers itched to touch her skin; once just once. He felt like he would explode into cosmic ashes if he didn't touch her.
Sometime during free period, Munna had smacked the back of his head, saying "bhai thoda control kar. Laal kuch zyada hi tapak rahi hai." Pandit had joined in with "Haan bechari Naina darr ke bhag jayegi. Jante hai hum ki tere liye bahut mushkil horaha hai magar jab tak tu use propose na karde usko aise toh mat dekh." Sameer had been flabbergasted, not to mention mortified, at finding out that his friends had caught him staring at Naina.

"Aisa kuch nahi hai jaisa tum log soch rahe ho." He sputtered, his cheeks reddening. "Abey oye, apne yaaron se chupayega apne dil ka haal? Hum teri rag rag se wakif hai." Munna interjected. "Saaf dikh raha hai hume. Jo ladka kal tak ladkiyon se dur bhagta tha aaj chup chupke ek ladki ko dekhta rehta hai. Tu pehle se zyada shant rehne lag gaya hai. Aur toh aur ab tu apne adde par bhi nahi aata cigarette aur sharab peene. Bhai tujhe pyaar hogaya hai. Shiddatwala. Shaadiwala. Naina se."

And like the fairy tale love of the moon and the stars, Sameer realised that gravity no longer claimed him to Earth, it was the specks of amber glow in Naina's doe shaped eyes that had come to define his universe. Setting in motion new laws and boundaries. Her innocence was his gravity, her purity his moonlight, and her smile the sun to his universe. He had indeed fallen passionately in love with Naina, marked his forevers with her, promised a world of dreams and roses to her. Without realising, in a second of a second, those eyes of her's had bewitched him for eternity.

Egged on by his friends, he spent all of Saturday coming up with plans to woo Naina. Pages after pages of ink blotches framed the decorative scrawl of his shayari. Words seemed to have abandoned him, because no matter what he wrote he couldn't seem to find anything as consuming and mystical as his love for Naina. Seeing Sameer defy his Saturday routine of frolicking with friends, his nanu could sense a poetical change in his grandson's mood. When he didn't see Sameer go through the special routine of pav bhaji and milkshake on Sunday morning, Jaiprakash Maheshwari could see in his grandson the lovesick fantasies of his bygone teenage days. That day during his visit to the temple, he presented god with two special servings of Milk cake.

Later that evening, Sameer stood by the window lost in thoughts. The onyx twilight colours of the fading sun only reminded him of hours trickling by till he could see Naina again. Not that she had left his mind in the slightest, her image was so imprinted in his soul that a thousand years later he would still remember her fresh as the blooming roses in summer. Yet the thought of seeing her next day left an elation in his heart that steadily turned to nervousness for the butterflies breeding in his stomach. This sensation had caught him off guard, he had never imagined that he was capable of experiencing something like this. It was an emotion so beautiful and profound that he treasured it in his soul: hoping against the tiniest hope that Naina would be his partner in life.

So the next day, Sameer Maheshwari did something that made his friends faint. He woke up at the break of dawn and told his friends not to come to his house as he was going to the temple, he would see them directly at school. This might have been normal for anyone living in 90s Ahemdabad but Sameer was not anyone. The day his mother had abandoned him to take care of her other family in Delhi was when he had decided that god didn't exist. He stopped believing because faith drives you in life with a strong sense of hope that what was messed would soon be resolved. And he no longer wanted to hold onto that hope when his family was broken along with his fragile and tender heart. That this Sameer Maheshwari was going to the temple meant that he had once again started to believe, to hope, and most importantly to open his heart for a future that was still uncertain but also gave him the strength to be certain. A girl managed to do that to him with the sheer immensity of her one gaze. He shuddered to think what all he would do for her when he finally had her.
And then a blush as crimson as the poppies at sunrise embraced his cheeks when he thought what all he would do to her once she was his. Careful Sameer Maheshwari..don't think all this before you even know how she feels about you. Utavle mat ho Mr. Maheshwari abhi toh intezaar karna hai aapko! His mind reproached his crazy heart. Only for his blush to deepen when he thought that would she scold him the same way once they are married and he would try to make love to her.

Love does make fools of us all and an 18-year-old fresh in love Sameer Maheshwari was proving this with his every breath.