An Unnatural Shade Of Love (#JaaneDeMujhe)

"The nation rejoices the Supreme Court's landmark judgment to decriminalize homosexuality," said the anchor on the news, as my mind served me a plethora of bittersweet memories.

Telling Mom as a seven-year-old that, for my wedding, I'd like her to put together my bride's trousseau along with mine. I hadn't even completed, when I was slapped across the cheek. After a few minutes of silence,  Mom said, "You're going to have a groom. Girls don't have brides."

"Why? Don't I get to marry whom I love? What does that have to do with whether it's a boy or girl?"

"Cuz I said so. Don't you dare spout such gibberish again. "

Fast forward to when I was fourteen. Letting my parents know their beloved Aaliyah was homosexual. Being rushed to a psychiatrist the immediate next day to cure myself of such a 'perversion'. Being told," You betrayed us. But I guess it's us who failed as parents. We failed to install even the most minimum decency in you. "

And the memory that obscured all others, that recurs every night, makes me break into a cold sweat and causes every bit of optimism to leach out of me.
We met at work. I was the most outgoing extrovert, progressive,  almost radical in my views. She was the  daughter of a conservative Punjabi couple. Shy, bottled-up, a champion workaholic. And the purest soul I'd seen.
She had a hard time coming to terms with her sexuality, with the fact that she loved me as much as I loved her. And before she knew it, her parents knew.

They didn't spare her an iota of dignity, showing up at the Goldman Sachs branch in Bombay where we worked, assaulting her in the most derogatory language.
The next thing I knew, she was being hauled back to her family home in Bhatinda.

I remember her hurtling around her room, packing, as I entreated her not to give up on us.
"Don't leave, Mira. Don't believe what they say. Love can't be a perversion."

"This 'they'  you're talking about, they're people I love. If being 'straight'  makes it easier for them to love me, so be it. And anyway, homosexuality is a disease. Ma said so. "

"That's how you'd like to label our love? A symptom of the 'disease' called homosexuality? Mira,  we're doing nothing wrong. "

"I love you, Aaliyah, though it causes me immense chagrin to admit to this. But letting go of each other will make life easier for both of us. And what was that about us doing nothing wrong? You know,according to the country's constitution, we're CRIMINALS. "

I remember taking a call a week later from her brother, informing me that she had hanged herself. I remember receiving her suicide note by post, repeatedly reading the one-line letter :" Aaliyah, Letting go didn't make life easier. So I decided to let go of life itself. "

Ours was the most 'unnatural' shade of love. But it was love alright.

Word count :500 words.
Dedicated to VYRLOriginals