I have chosen to use the term flame in the unusual sense, i.e. an object of one’s passionate love; sweetheart: as the dictionary defines it. I bet that Grannymar who chose this topic did not have this in mind when she picked it. Since she would perhaps be looking for something on Flamer, I shall include a little on that as well.
My first flame was when I was 14 and my flame was perhaps 12 or 13 years old. It was completely one sided. She would not even acknowledge my existence, leave alone return my smiles. I was heartbroken is an understatement.
My next one was introduced to me by a family friend thinking that the two of us would make a good pair. I was all of 15 and she 16. I was totally clueless as to what would impress her and tried a number of things but none worked and one day, she simply said, stop coming over to my place. This time, I was not heartbroken but disappointed.
My third one followed immediately thereafter and it was finally time for teenage romance to bloom and flourish. It lasted all of four months and she packed up with her parents and left for another town on transfer. This time I was devastated.
Many other flames came into my life after that, one very serious which again ended on a matter of principle on my side and one of religion on hers. Finally, I got married and about that flame, all my readers are well aware and I do not intend to go into that again.
The third flame who caused me to be devastated, came again into my life by accident when I was all of 37, i.e 22 years after we had parted. I was in a market place in a North Indian town visiting a customer, when someone touched my shoulder from behind and asked Ramana? I turned around to find my flame of 22 years ago, standing there with an inexplicable look on her face. I, in turn asked her Sharda? And we met in that busy market place and shook hands and tried to pretend that it was the most natural thing to happen. The customer, his assistants, the local Sales Manager, passers by etc, were all staring and Sharda suggested that we meet later, gave her phone number and disappeared. I rang her up in the evening and was invited to her place for dinner. She had lost her father, and the Government Department where he had worked had given her employment as it is done in India. She and her mother were living in that town and Sharda was looking after her mother and educating her younger sister and brother. She had never married and was very happy that I had and promised to meet us at Delhi, if she ever came there.
I never met her again. I do not know what happened to her or her family and that flame died a natural death.
My father and my son are conspiring to bring a flame, some flame, any flame, back into my life. I am bemusedly enjoying the tamasha. Who knows? Another flame may appear again, as Maria has warned me! Maria, are you reading this?
Flamer.
Wikipedia defines flaming as the act of posting deliberately hostile messages on the Internet. A flamer is one does that. I thought that I had a flamer when I received a couple of comments on my blog from a new comer, but it turned out to be genuine and I am relieved. On the other hand, the Loose Bloggers Consortium and some of its commentators have had a hectic time the last week with a suspected Flamer. Some of the bloggers have decided to bar the Flamer, some like me are still sitting on the fence and quite how it will pan out is anybody’s guess at the moment. I hope that it will resolve to everyone’s satisfaction soon and that we can all get back to our usual fun and games and the occasional emotional outbursts. I am trying to lighten the atmosphere, as my readers would have seen, by posting some really frivolous stuff. I have been ably assisted in that endeavour by our inimitable Maynard who threatens to assist even more. I think some laughter and joy is called for. I hope that Maynard will make good on his threats. I however hope that he will not ask me to use the gadget that he sent photographs of to me! That will not be flaming but smoking in a rather uncomfortable manner.
This post is the Loose Consortium Bloggers’ Friday post when Ashok, Conrad, Grannymar, Magpie11, Marianna, Maria, Gaelikaa, Helen, Judy , and I write one post each on the same topic. Please visit the other blogs too to have different views on this fascinating subject.
