you'll find out just who was your friend
Don't be sad , I know you will ,
But don't give up until
True love finds you in the end..."
crooned Daniel Johnston on the jukebox as I thought of good friend I used to have.
He was a beautiful man and alive most of the time , when sober ,He loved catching butterflies on a warm summer day and making snow angels on a cold winter night.Things and people did not bother him much ."I am a shaman sapna.A shaman fueled by the Gods to make this world a better place"
As ridiculous as that sounded to an outsider like me , I believed him and played along.
We would sit at our favourite bus stop in Chicago and watch the world of public transit go by(of course , I did not have a job then)
It was like clockwork everyday .Wake up , pick up coffee n smokes and run to the stop.He'd be there smiling in anticipation ,He wrote a lot .His journal spoke in depth of his journeys had and yet to come.The commuters made a point to come early and listen to him recite a new poem everyday.He was weird , most intellects would confirm.
I was 20 and completely smitten by him.I had never met anyone like him in my early days of life in India .I mean the bus stop is hardly a place I think of while hanging out in Bombay.He had made it his stage , his forum ,, his university .people enrolled .People would've paid if he charged .People are like cows right , they just love to be herded.
Maybe I was a cow too.
He was late one morning .the commuters missed their bus waiting for him .I bit my toenails wondering.
He did not look right.His face was dirty and his mouth seemed dry ." You ok ?"He smiled like he always did.He removed his shirt and then his pants and then his underpants and then took center stage butt naked"We are the children of a fatherless generation..." he sang , in perfect harmony with the traffic.
It was only a mater of seconds before the cops showed up and arrested him .I followed .They took him to the local station and then transferred him to the mental ward of a government hospital.
He escaped in two days and returned to his usual spot.
Everything was back to normal.No questions asked.
It was June 8 when I found him dead .He had overdosed on heroin, they said.
He lay on the bench with his journal beside him.An angel no snow could ever make.I requested the authorities to keep him there for a bit.
People mourned before they got on the bus to resume their corporate lives.I just sat there shamelessly reading his journal.
"This is a promise with a catch ,
only if you're looking can it find you
cause true love is searching too
but how can it recognize you
Unless you step out into the light ?
But don't give up until
True love finds you in the end...."
He had stepped into the light and taken center stage again.
PS: I have started hanging out at bus stops.
(Sapna Bhavnani runs a salon in Bandra , Mad-O-Wot )
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