Falling Courtains

Our relationship was neither connected nor did it have any boundaries. Hence when I heard about such a news I decided to run to him.

Across the encircled red positive mark and under the green cotton bed sheets he looked safe to me. I saw his legs and the varicose veins criss-crossed like numerous question marks.

"He runs. Always... to nowhere... from everywhere" Words were flowing out and I really didn't notice her sitting beside the bed. The dark circles under her eyes were not of just one sleepless night.

I remember all these incidents. Only these incidents, perhaps. I did not visit him after that, as it was a varicose vein problem which I believed not to be very serious.






He was rolling an aluminium pot in the front yard of the house when I saw him this time. There was this mortar mix which got hardened as rock inside the pot. I added my smile to the scene and the motion picture stood still for sometime between my smile and his constant look.

"And here you are back". Stopping the rolling pot, he showed me the bamboo chair.

"So then? How is your varicose now? Does it disturb you a lot?" When it comes to questioning, I am quick.

"Now I do not run". He quickly put on a smile as if it was forgotten.

"...." I didn't know what was happening around and didn't want to bother him much. "So you used to run?" Still I asked.

"Yes, I was running away"

"From who? From what?" I opened my hands as if I could behold the universe inside.

His smile looked fake to me and he seemed to be sitting on a flying carpet which could drop him down any time.

"Why should I run? I am not haunted any more"

"Haunting you? Crazy bee, what's eating you up like this? You never talked to me"

"Yes, I am crazy for others" He was waving his hands in the air with fury as though he was trying to push something aside from his front. "I hate it".

My jaws fell apart. "Hate what?"

"This curtain, this veil which is in front of me. Always carrying an image of mine. Haa! When others see me, it slowly rolls down in front of me". He was shivering. "It reflects me good, ugly, angelic". "I never loved, never had emotions, hardly did I bother to cry".

I allowed him to speak, chewing blank air.

"You are looking at my images on these veils, look at me and talk. You do not see me, nobody sees me. I want to come out". His energy was surprisingly high.

Knowing the untold stories which were tied together like keys in a chain, I looked at the mortar mix which was trapped inside the pot forever.