FW

(cont'd)

We lunched together. His eyes were different - he was too worn off by the tough life in India, as he told me. Again people around set plots against him. He could not find a job, and was doing a kind of speculation trade in the foreign exchange market - via the internet.

For a while, he did make a living from this - to me - highly unsecure income. We had tea in a few peaceful afternoon, and long chats over the phone in many winter nights. The conversation, nevertheless, was usually in one direction: he lost money in the exchange market because people around stole his idea, and other friends of his - some of whom I knew very well were straight and honest persons - looked down upon and got away from him.

"Maybe you should find a job and settle, rather than relying on something (to me) not much different from gambling ? After all, your mother should take some rest and retire." I suggested. His mother, whom I met several times in the past, was a hard-working woman who kept the good old tradition and never said something rude.

"No, I cannot get away. They shall spy on me and take my idea whereever I go."

"Who ?" I began to worry.

He was mute, and the conversation broke off. Some days later I asked a friend - a psychiatrist by profession - what to do. Of course nothing could be done. "You have no proof that he is insane," my friend commented.

Again FW disappeared from my life for another few years. When my memory of him had almost vanished, he rang up my office one day. "I can go no where. These people keep spying on me. Why are they against me ?"

I considered for a while, "Maybe you should find some reliable people to talk to ? Have you told your mother ?"

I was wrong, not realizing I was that reliable person. He retorted right the way, "Don't you believe me ? Do you think I am making all this up ? These people are all together. Once I tell them, they would lock me up again"

The line broke off. I've never heard from FW since then. Did he say "again" ? Or was it my hallucination ? I think of his university in Australia and office in India, and feel unrelentingly sorry for his mother.