Aab has a girlfriend. She loves him immensely, and is never hesitant in expressive her love. She also expresses her anger freely on him, sometimes pummeling him with her wrists, at other times hurting the choicest abuses on him. Aab smiles serenely regardless of how she treats him. He is not embarrassed when she kisses him or slaps him in public. Because ….. everyone knows that she is “mad”. Only Aab knows she is saner than most people. Only he can see her heart, feel her pulse, and sense her innermost feelings. Aab’s girl friend was a stunning beauty years and years ago. She was ambitious, charming and vivacious. Few know when, and none care why, she was repeatedly raped by a bunch of goons who promised her a film career. Her body survived the onslaught, her mind did not. Society forsook her. Friends disappeared. Having no wealth left, she was reduced to wandering the streets. Some roadside eateries would give her leftovers. A few neighbourhood ladies would give her their discarded garments, more because of their own embarrassment to see her half naked in public. Periodically she would be raped again. Now it neither affected her mind nor her body. She would laugh at the men who raped her, the women who shunned her, and the urchins who teased her. Until she met Aab. The first time she looked deep into his eyes, she saw her past, present and future rolled together. She saw time standing still, and eternity rolling by. And she fell in love. Aab did not need to fall in love. He was always in love with her, as he was in love with all women scorned by society. He had no desires from her, but he had so much love to give. To her it made no difference how often he met her. She would greet him depending on what mood she was in. He would accept. The love affair goes on. There are moments when they sit under the shelter of a closed shop, share a bun dipped in hot tea, share the warmth of their bodies, and ignore the scandalized stares of passers-by. When the rain stops they get up and walk off – Aab to his homestead, and his girlfriend to find a dry footpath to sleep on.
