I will never ever forgive myself for being the reason why a woman had a terrible experience with her love life. When I was 21 I joined NIIT in Ravipuram for a 2 year Diploma Course in Computer programming. It was a then very prestigious course and 2 or 3 year (in which the 3rd year was setup as an internship at a IT or IT related company) ensured you very given the best options of getting a good career in the field. That’s not important, what is important is that out of the 4 semesters, 6 months each along with the exams for that semester, my 1st one was one I want to forget about.

I never had a problem in making friends. So when I joined and I met the 13 other people in the same batch, I quickly made some friends. There were only 3 girls in the batch and our faculty member was a lady as well. I made good friends with all of them and enjoyed my time with these guys. However, one of the guys had a crush on one of the girl in the batch. She was very close to me so he would often ask me to kinda big him up to her so he could make his move. At first I thought he was sincere and so I did. And it worked. Pretty soon they became a couple.

However I later one found out that he was a total asshole and was into just using her for his needs and would dump her after a while. I kind of go to know about this during the end of the semester. I took a break of a month from my course as I would undergo an operation that would require me to rest at home for about 4 weeks. This meant I would change batches and join another batch for the remaining 3 semesters. When I came back I joined those guys and made a lot of good friends. I quickly distanced myself from the guy, especially since the girl never became good friends with me again.

We did speak but I got to know that he would brag to his friends about getting to “use and abuse her” (his words) and I never saw her after she left the institute post completing her course. I tried to keep in touch with her but she obviously saw me as a responsible party in what was a terrible thing in her life. I guess I don’t really blame her.

What was the hardest part of being a kid?

The hardest part of being a kid was watching things happening around me that I couldn’t speak up about or talk about. Certain things I hated and I didn’t like that some adults kept quiet about it and let it happen. Nothing like murder or anything else illegal but still somethings which should not have happened. I also felt that at that age if I had spoken out, my points wouldn’t be taken as seriously as that of an adult. I have hated the elders in my family for that.

You also didn’t make any significant amounts of money and hence you couldn’t by things for yourself. Any money we got during Onam, Vishnu and perhaps a birthday plus your allowance if you got any on a regular basis, was what we bought things that we wanted but not really what our parents thought we should get. That was hard. Nowadays I plan my budget as much as I can and buy whatever I want.

And at times you weren’t taken seriously. Certain things which you feel strong about is not taken with the same seriously that you strongly do. Best thing is when you grow up, you can turn the tables on them and not take their ideas as seriously as you had to pretend to when you were a kid.

Prompt from 31 Days Of July Writing Prompts at The SitsGirls