The doodle does the trick

Ravichandran was about fifteen studying in class ix at Mannargudi.There was a girl Visalakshi in the same class. She was exceptionally beautiful, extremely fair and hazel eyed. She had a smiling face and whenever she laughed he could see the neatly aligned white teeth gleaming inside. She was friendly with Ravichandran and sought only from him the note books whenever she absented herself from school. She never talked much with him except for exchanging notes. She must have been around thirteen. He found some excuse to make small conversation with her daily though she would be mingling only with the girls. Though cannot be called love, thoughts of her tormented the adolescent boy very much.
One day when she asked for his Chemistry note book, he scribbled in a paper his name in bold letters and kept it inside. Being timid, he considered keeping a mere slip with the name an audacious epistle of love. He spent two restless days thinking whether she would take him amiss. When she returned the book, he opened eagerly the notebook to see the slip. He found to his great joy and surprise she had written neatly her name Visalakshi by the side of his name .He also noticed that she had over written on his name making it bold with her pen. No word was spoken nor was any hint of the name-writing given by her.

Ravichandran wanted to make sure whether there was intent behind the adding of her name to his. He wrote his name thrice in a paper when he gave his physics note book. When she returned the book next day he felt her cheeks turned crimson and there was a certain shyness. He found her name written next to his name thrice with a curve joining the names. The young minds knew they were fond of each other and at that age they dared not express more about their feelings for each other.
When the school reopened the next year, he found her missing in the class. She had left the school evidently. He had stored the two slips of paper carefully hidden from others eyes. Her image never left him. Often he recalled her smiling face and the slips of paper. But as years passed by, her memory gradually faded away. Meanwhile Ravichandran did his B.Tech and MS and had taken up a job in US with a shortened name R.Chander.

He had come on a week’s leave to Chennai for his marriage with a girl finalised by his parents. The girl Vaishali looked very charming and he noticed she had a pair of hazel eyes. She had done her M.C.A and was a software analyst. The company agreed to transfer her to the same city where Chander was working. Within two days after marriage they had to leave for US.
Tears trickled down her face at the airport. The parents and relatives were all there. Last minute advices from her parents, reminders to chat daily and caution to drive only after she had practised adequately and such like made her feel bad at leaving them behind. When finally the couple were together in the plane side by side, she had mixed feelings of joy, hopes of a new life and unknown fears. It was past three am and she was tired when she fell asleep. Chander could not sleep. He watched some film amidst sideward glances at her beautiful wife. He doodled his name in the airline magazine.

When she woke up at 6am at the aroma of coffee, she found her husband wide awake. When asked why he did not catch a wink or two, he smiled that he could not sleep with such a beautiful woman by his side. She saw the airline magazine with his names scribbled. She snatched the pen from him and wrote her name Vaishali neatly by the side of his names and linked them with a curve.Chander was amazed and the thoughts of the school days at Mannargudi rushed.

He asked her whether she had studied her class ix there. When she nodded her head in affirmative, he asked her “Aren’t you Visalakshi? Do you remember Ravichandran of your class.?”When her eyes opened wide in exclamation and surprise, he pulled her towards him and started kissing her passionately unmindful of the amused stares alround.What a sweet culmination to the budding love story of childhood days.