Page 73 - You Only Live Once [BooksLD]

I feel as if I was a sea of madness, bubbling to break free. As I danced by
the shore, I finally did! It is in the moments when we lose ourselves, our
sanity, that we actually feel alive.

In the evening I walk to the small restaurant-cum-mess downstairs for
dinner. A few girls are sitting here and there, chatting about everything
from the current government to boyfriends. Madhuri enters the place and, as
usual, she is with Maria.

Maria, while seated on her wheelchair, gestures at me with her index
finger to come closer. I follow her command. She then gestures at Madhuri
to get her a pen maybe. In no time she hands her a diary and a pen. She
trembles as she scribbles, ‘Who is she?’

Madhuri tells her that I am the new tenant who has moved in today. She
then whispers in my ears, ‘Don’t worry! She is too old. She has
Alzheimer’s. She forgets too often. Go, get your plate.’

Next morning, as I am practising songs on my terrace, someone rings my
room’s bell. I open to see that Madhuri and Maria are my guests.
‘She needs to sit in the sun every day for an hour. I hope you will not

mind. We have only one terrace. She likes the view from here.’
‘Oh sure! Why not?’

Madhuri leaves Maria with a diary and a pen. She probably has some
chores to finish off downstairs. I continue to practise. Lucky sits next to
Maria.

I set my guitar and sing,
Heaven is white

only in fiction.
It is certainly blue
and green in reality.

What’s your drug?
Mine is the sea, rains.
What’s your drug?

Or the mountains.

Maria closes her eyes as she rests in her wheelchair. She is facing the sky,
with her eyes closed. It feels as if she is listening to my song.