WO/MAN (Arthanaareeshwaram)

Karan

Next morning, Arjun went to Rukmini’s room but found her sleeping. Disheartened, he left to school. The whole day, he couldn’t concentrate on anything.

As usual, he was all alone in the last bench. He did not have any friends. All thanks to those bastards who went around, spreading rumours about him being a ‘gay’. He clenched his jaw as the thought sprung up in his mind. {How wonderful his life was, until a few months back?}

Arjun has been selected as the basketball-team captain. He was one amongst the best players in his school. The only person who could compete with him was Karan. But Arjun’s discipline and soft-spoken nature made Acharya sir select him, in comparison with the haughty Karan.

Overwhelmed by the good news, Arjun ran to his favourite place, the lake side and took out the idol from his pocket. He hugged it with tears in his eyes and started speaking with it.

“Thank you! I … I am so happy. Thank you so much. And yeah, I have been thinking about something recently and wanted to discuss with you about it.”

He pulled the idol closer to his face and whispered to it.

“Since few days, I am feeling strange. All the while, I keep thinking about you. I cannot sleep, I cannot eat, I cannot concentrate on anything. I want to be alone all the time. I don’t want to speak to anyone other than you. I want to spend hours thinking about you and fantasizing about a future with you. Sometimes, I even imagine strange things like you coming alive and promising to be with me till the end of my life. Nothing in this whole world grabs my interest as much as your name does. And you look so handsome. I ... I get this strange feeling that ... I just want to lick your lips. What do you call this crazy feeling?”

“It is called love!” Arjun turned around to find Karan approaching him with an evil grin. Arjun’s cheeks felt hot.

“And I never thought you would be in love with an idol.” Now Arjun’s blood began boiling.

“Not an idol. Krishna!” Arjun spoke through gritted teeth.

Karan laughed. “That is even stranger. You are in love with a guy! No wonder you have not yet developed masculine features.” With this he swiftly left the place.

It took a few moments for Arjun to realise the meaning behind Karan’s comments. And when he did, his jaws and fists got clenched …

“ARJUN!!” Arjun looked up to find the history teacher glaring at him. “Day-dreaming?” The old man asked.

“Must be about KRISHNA … or is it some other guy now?” came from some corner of the room and the whole class burst out into laughter.

Arjun picked his bag and stormed out of the room without bothering to utter a word, or offer a glance towards the shocked teacher.

Deep inside, his mind warned him against disrespecting his teacher. But he had had enough.

As he headed towards his room to drop off his bag, the bitter memories resurfaced in his mind, making his eyes moist.

Arjun had run behind Karan that day, but couldn’t find him anywhere. From the next morning, his life took a complete U turn. From being the most respected student, he became one of the most ridiculed students. Students avoided him, teachers gave him sympathetic look and rumours buzzed at his back all the time.

His life turned into a living hell when people started treating him like filth. The only people who still treated him as a human, were Rukmini and Acharya sir.

But he could not take it anymore. The simple thought that Rukmini could get herself into trouble by taking his side, made his adrenaline pump up.

He grabbed a basket-ball from the sports room and rushed to the indoor basketball court.

There, he witnessed something unexpected.

*************************** The sentences that have been underlined are flashback.