First Crush

Probably the very first love story I ever came across ( SRK-Yash Chopra stuff does not qualify as a love story). I was 13, just moving into my teens, apparently able to discern some of the emotions portrayed in the book, and I fell in love for the first time. The only trouble was that every other female I knew had fallen in love with him upon their first encounter. Right from my mother, my friends to, later, my kid sister. Fitzwilliam Darcy was not the kind you would fall for in the first meeting. He was arrogant, kind of difficult to please and basically a snob. But gradually he warms his way into your heart. His endearing care and concern for Lizzy, going out of his way for her, without expecting anything in return, will eventually make you fall in love with him, make you wish you were his Elizabeth Bennet. Sad, they dont make them like him anymore. I have, of course, read and re-read the book several times over these eight years, the latest being last night, and I am amazed, pleasantly, at how it still makes me feel. Probably the only thing SRK ever got right in his love stories was this: You'll always carry a torch for your first love ;)