nothing is gonna change my love for you...

when i was growing up glen mederios singing soulfully "nothing is gonna change my love for you" was an integral part of threads weaving "knight in shinning armour" types of dreams. this song along with others like " i just called to say i love you" were then available in the 80s most romantic song collection. a cassette which was pretty steep in price in those early 90s. so if a friend or friend of a friend had it, we would all get it recorded from it. after a long time i am listening to it on you tube and it is brining back fond memories of growing up, school, long forgotten friends and the excitement of first romance knocking on our hearts.
whenever we visited archies cards shop, this song among others would be sure to play. the mushy romantic cards promising endless ever lasting love, the over priced cuddly teady bears and songs like this would make the perfect atmosphere for romance. i remember those trips to archies shop in gariahat near basanti devi college. we would always go there after school, five or six of us. it was almost always girls, i dont ever remember going to archies with boys from school. some of my lucky friends who had boy friends in school would be going through the cards, sorting out the cheapest but mushiest card for their boy friends. while others like sudeshna and me, who outside the shop did not want boy friends, would go all sentimental, wishing just then that we did have some guy waiting for us with sweaty palms outside the school gate. there used to be those huge archies card, which at time would be hundred bucks or more. we would be looking at those and wish freverently that when we had boy friends, that boy friend would be romantic enough and rich enough to send us one. we loved going to archies. the best part about it was that archies would be decorated on the theme of the up coming occassion like christmas, val day, rakhi. "cool" people would be hanging out there. and it felt nice to be part of that crowd. we were such innocents. now a smile lingers on my face visualising me some 15 odd years ago in my rolled up blue school skirt and white shirt, trying to look like i belonged and there were some hundred boys i needed to buy romantic cards for. but alas. so i would just be looking at those cards, and store them in my brain for future needs.
another important occassion was when our girl friends recieved cards from some boy. the moment the boy gave a card our teenage esteemation for that boy would shoot up. he would be the nicest and most romantic guy ever. imagine a guy sending cards. if the size of that cards would be slightly bigger then our ohhhhhs and ahhhhhs would increase. but the girls would have trouble smuggling it inside their homes. so it would be given to someone like me who never had strict supervision at home for safe keep for sometime till mother dear goes away or something. then that girl would call about ten times to remind me to get that card that day. she would take her card home and put it under her mattress and look at it futrively when no one is at home, or everyone is asleep late at night. sometimes boys would propose girls with cards, even if the girl was not interested in the boy, she would simply take the card from him before rejecting his undying love.
funny how our sense of romance was regulated by archies and limited to cards, chocolates, music and maximum movies like qsqt and maine pyar kiya etc. but i wonder if we have actually matured more than that? maybe years have added cynicism and sophistication, maybe now a trip to europe or diamond on our finger would make us happier but even then whenever i hear "nothing is gonna change my love for you" my heart does a flip. and visions of mushy romantic cards and cuddly teddy bears float up!