A COWARD'S RETREAT

• I had a friend in college. We used to together on his bicycle to evening college. We would discuss poetry and he used to write much.
• Suddenly one day, he told me that he had mental problems. It shook me, but I said "not to worry."
• After sometime he stopped coming to college. When I went to his home, his father told me he would relapse into strange behaviour and after medication he would be normal.
• I went to see him often. His father was grateful if I went to see him, as giving him drugs was easier in my presence.
• Then he would come to college and then stay away. This continued till I finished college.
• When I finished college, one day his father came with him to see me. His behaviour was strange. He imitated the train when he told me he went to his village by train.
• His father asked me to tell him we are going to a movie and to take him to his doctor. I agreed. And I took him in an auto with his father following.
• Once inside the hospital, his father told me "see now he'll scream." I asked why and he said "shock treatment". I had no hint of this.
• Later, when we met him, he was inside a cell. He looked me and said: "you said you would take me to a movie, you let me down." The look on his face was enough to kill my sleep for months.
• When he was discharged, he came to my house and said crows and chameleon were talking to him.
• After that I lost touch with him as we shifted residence. It must be about 25 years since then.
• I don't have the courage to find out what happemed to him. And like a coward, I write about him.