Illecebra- A Short Story

The Twist

One particular thing about Vaibhav that kept me going back to him helplessly was his passion. His passion for life, his passion for love but most importantly his passion for himself. He would ofen say, "Geet I love you but dude I'm my own favourite and that's a fact no one can change."

His self love was my favorite attribute of his, he would not have anyone hurt him mentally or physically because yeah he was his own favourite person. He would argue, he would whine, he would even hit to protect himself but one thing that he never did was convey his inner thoughts.

I knew it for sure that he's not one of those people who are very vocal about their inner self. He would spend a day or two wiping the tears of the one beside him but not for once would he utter a cry for himself.

Although he didn't say it but one could easily see it in his actions. Like I decoded a few blind hints that he gave me unconsciously. He tapped his feet whenever he was hungry so I treated him with a bowl of Maggi. Clenching of his fist would indicate that he was upset so I had to hug him and give him a pat on his head. Repeated clicking of his tongue was a signal that he'd be coming to annoy me any minute just because he's bored.

Some tonal differences in his voice also helped me in deciphering the moody maze called Vaibhav Kapoor. His nasal tone was meant for the sarcasm that he would attack me with. If you hear a raspy voice adding extra emphasis to each and every word then his highness was needy. His angry voice was the most amusing thing because it would thin out like that of an unprofessional opera singer when he shouted and it was impossible for me to contain my laughter in those moments.

Our relationship was running several layers deeper than the superficial one, involving lesser words but more gestures. This was a blessing until this lack of communication turned out to be lethal bomb for both of us.

Over the time I realised how he was equally broken as I was. Just like me he was pretending to like programming. He was aiming at nothing but to earn money because he wanted to prove his worth to his father. A father no different from mine. A father who would consider his own child as nothing but a futile investment.

Watching him hustle each day towards a goal that was never his was painfully nostalgic. I wanted to hold him back from heading into a direction that had a dead end but I never did. I never stopped him because he reminded me of a young Geentanjali who wouldn't be stopped by any hurdle that crossed her path. So all I ever did was pray silently that he finds his real thing real soon.

Surprisingly that didn't take long as one particular day, I discovered the source of his tireless passion towards life. I heard some musical beats coming from our bedroom and there he was with headsets on, all focused on his computer screen, creating beats for the broken like us. He always wanted to be a musician but he quit his dream for the same reasons that made me quit mine.

He composed several songs, most of them were funky hip hop, some were crazy pop while there was one song that was incomplete since the longest time.

"It's a song about you and me. A song about us. I want it to be perfect so I'm taking all the time in the world to give it a perfect composition."

"What is it called?"

"Ours"

I can still hear the melodies in my head as I'm speaking. It was not something that you often hear. Something so inexplicably beautiful. A medley of retro beats with a touch of modernity, it was indeed a song about us. A song that brought together grandeur of the two worlds, two generations so exquisitely.

As they say time doesn't favour all of us all the time hence it brought with it one breaking dawn, dawn that was breaking us.

"Vaibhav I would love to meet your mother but you know how important this conference is for my career. I can't make it just this time baby, we can probably do it the next time she visits you."