Vikrant - Changing Adjectives

Note: Totally fictitious. I have liked the way it has turned out – did not have anything on my mind when I started writing it.

 “Vikrant committed suicide in 2006.” The tea in his cup seemed to have gone heavy in no time. Immediately after he heard Shrikant saying that, Jay put his cup down.

 He kept staring into the cup half filled with tea. He could see the vapours rising from the surface. He thought they had gone chilling cold.

“Vikrant went into acute depression in late 2005. He consulted psychiatrists and counselors. Nothing helped.” Jay remembered Vikrant standing on a couch with his shoes on at this coffee shop-cum-bar and announcing to the guests present, “Friends, my friend here has done a good job in his new business venture. In his honour, the drinks are on me!” As the crowd would break into an applause, Vikrant would take a bow himself. On behalf of his friend who would smile sheepishly.

 

Jay remembered Vikrant. As the person Jay wanted to be – a person who smiled at every stranger, a person who would end up befriending atleast one person each time he travelled, a person who spoke too much, made too many promises – yet never let any of his word go wrong.

 

“Vikrant would lock himself up in his room in his last days. His servant would keep his food outside the locked door and collect the empty plate two hours later.” Jay remembered Vikrant eating panipuri at the roadside stall – with the innocence of an eight-year old on his face. Jay remembered Vikrant buying a dozen balloons from a physically challenged old lady. Then letting them go up in the air and taking snaps as they disappeared into the blue sky. Jay remembered that Vikrant had disappeared like these balloons.

 

“What the…”, Jay could hardly finish his sentence. He only remembered Vikrant’s smiling face, the lean body and the eloquence only Vikrant could show.

 

What could have happened to this person who was enthusiasm personified? “But why?”, Jay asked Shrikant. Jay had tears in his eyes. Shrikant’s face, however, was stern, expressionless.

 “You’ll not believe it. His parents found out one day. He was gay!”

 “What?” Jay’s jaws dropped.

 He had a question mark on his face and many more in his mind. He began to think, “Vikrant was gay? He said I was his best friend. It meant he had feelings for me? Oh yuck, no! Oh I remember, once he had told me that he would stand for me whenever I wanted him to. Did he mean it ‘that’ way? Eww… He always befriended people whenever he was touring the country? Did he have ‘such’ intentions on his mind when he smiled at people or helped them? Oh God!!”

 It was only for a moment now that Jay remembered Vikrant’s smile. Jay clenched his lip almost into a disgusted frown.

 The tears had stopped from Jay’s eyes. The adjectives that made Vikrant what he was to Jay, had fallen off. To Jay, Vikrant was no longer ‘friendly’, ‘helpful’, ‘happy-go-lucky’ or ‘polite’. To Jay, now Vikrant was only gay.