The non human...

From the stygian skies of the winter, the sun appeared as a prodigious ball of fire, erupting out its glinting and razor-sharp rays, lightening the murky conditions and scattering the wintry mist. At a snail's pace I came out of my old fashioned bed and went straight towards the balcony, just to feel the warmth of the sun prevailing in those chilly conditions. The mercury dipped the whole week and today was no better. Although no cold winds were blowing, but the blanket of coldness had engulfed the city making my shiny teeth to clatter in different musical tones.

Now my eyes searched the street in front of my house for Raghu, the lunatic. Though I’ve no special predilection for the insane, but Raghu was different. He once saved my life, by jumping into the river in which I had accidentally fallen. That act of humanity changed my life and we became sort of friends. I regularly meet him, helping him with food and other necessities. No one is aware of our little relationship and seriously I don’t want anybody to know about it. For I belong to those elite group of men who would engage in a forbidden relationship such as this, but would never express it to the world, for that defies the position in society they have. 

And finally I could see him walking barefoot on the ice cold asphalt road, wearing nothing but and aged cloak that too tattered from nearly all places. His hairs were so long that they nearly kissed the road. But still I couldn’t see any signs of the grotesque cold troubling him and seeing how valiantly he was facing the frigid conditions, the music stopped from my mouth. He was laughing at every person who turned up in that busy street. And then as soon as his eyes caught mine the barmy laughter turned into a pleasing smile. I tried to return him a smile but the mere sight of my neighbour stopped me from doing so. Mr. Sharma was looking directly at me as if I had done a perilous crime by looking at the lunatic. Then my eyes, which were fixed on the lunatic soon changed their direction as I looked the dark skies, looming like death above my head. My eyes were then forced to look back again at the street as the clamorous sound of screeching brakes reached my ears. I saw a car hitting the left knee of Raghu, forcing him to fly in air for a split second and then with a loud thud he fell on the well-built road. Blood soon trickled out of the injured knee, thick and red, as pure as mine and as pure as the others. Loosing no time Mr. Sharma and I reached the injured lunatic. A large mass of people had gathered around the broken body. A large volume of blood had amassed nearby Raghu and the volume augmented every coming second.  Jul 15 Yadav Act III: 

The driver of the car was none other than Pankaj, son of Mr. Sharma. He came out red-hot; fumes of anger came out of his face giving a scary appearance to his already hideous face. And then looking directly towards Raghu he said in a high tempered voice

‘You son of a pig, don’t you know that the road is meant for vehicles and not for crazy, lunatic and insane people like you. You deserve to die, but who the hell told you get yourself killed by my car.’ And then pointing to the broken car he continued 

‘You street dog, look what you’ve done to my car and rest assure I am not going to take you to the hospital. You are born to die and you will die you…’

And I was not astounded to find the people nodding their heads in approval; it looked as if in the market of this society the price of the metal was greater than that of blood. Mr. Sharma tried to calm Pankaj, but he went away kicking the stone that lay in his path. Raghu tried to get up but every time he did so he fell on the ground. No one helped him and he remained there motionless, desperately trying to get up but with no avail. But still he had the smile…

I tried to open my mouth in protest but the feeling that no one would agree with me forced my lips to stick to each other. And when the world is deaf its better to be dumb. The fire of my protest soon turned into ashes, which diffused in the air leaving no clue about it. No one including me even tried to help him for we all were humans and he was a lunatic…

I went upstairs, but he remained there, motionless and drenched with blood. The lunatics are not for the world and the world is certainly not from them.  

Even the rays of the refulgent sun failed to alleviate the aura of darkness casing my soul, composed of the culpability and resentment in me. My false ideals came before me and vanished in thin air. The very purpose of my existence ceased. 

And from that day I never saw him again, everyday my eyes searched frantically for him. But he seemed to be lost in the world of the inhuman humans…

A few months later 

I started my new car and then turning on the music I went away blissfully to attend the wedding ceremony of my distant cousin. The dimness of the dark night plus the heavy fog made it near impossible for me to drive. Hence I was forced to drive slowly, an art, which in fact I had never learnt. For a moment I took my eyes away off my track. I didn’t notice a handicap man crossing the road and bumped the car into him. The man flew a good few meters besides the road. I quickly jumped out of my car. When I went closer and saw his face I was appalled for it looked vaguely similar and it took me no time to identify him- Raghu. The first accident made him loose his left leg and now his right leg was broken and bleeding badly. 

‘Luckily’ Mr. Sharma and his son Pankaj were passing by. They came towards me and seeing the plight of the lunatic they understood the complexity of the problem. 

Pankaj said

‘So it has happened again. History has an uncanny knack of repeating itself. Uncle I told you that day, this lunatic is nuisance. I am sure it was his mistake’

I tried to speak the truth but I couldn’t and nodding my head I replied in a low voice uncharacteristic of my attitude

‘Yes, it was his mistake. He was walking carelessly’ I couldn’t say anything more as words found it difficult to come out of my erroneous mouth. My mouth dried up and my tongue stuck to the lower most part of my mouth. 

And then Mr. Sharma said patting hard on my back

‘Don’t worry Mr. Yadav, you continue your journey. Let this putrid pig fester here. Someone will take care of him just as it happened last time. Serves him jolly right.’

My watery eyes met Raghu’s. I could see a glimpse of hope in them. He wanted that someone to be me. He wanted me to save his life just as he had saved mine nearly a year ago. But I didn’t and went away walking briskly towards my car. He was still smiling and that smile haunted me all my way.  Jul 15 Yadav Act III: 

I was left being mortified at my state of despondency. The dance of life was being presented before my eyes, veracious in every facet, where humanity was a mirage and I was a part of it. Selfishness, which was copiously strewed, appeared to rule and the tactful society was the ruler. The invidious crime that I had done couldn’t be exculpated on the grounds of my false ideals but by the simple fact that in today’s modern world, man has been chained by the false conventions of the society, which have reduced his capacity to think and act in the right way. And till such chains are not broken the society will continue to justify crimes such as this, because for it the wrong is the right.

My desolated soul was laughing madly at me. My highly set moral values tumbled down to the ground. Maybe if I had helped him, he wouldn’t have lost his legs. Whenever I look myself in the mirror, I see not a human but a devil snaring out his fangs filled with the poison of social obligations.

Although he was a lunatic, he was still a human and I being a human was still a selfish demon.

The mercury is still dipping. I still stroll out in my balcony to feel the warmth of the smouldering sun. Raghu still saunters in the street, even without his legs. He still laughs at the people and he still smiles at me…