It was a bright Sunday morning of spring when Judas first opened his eyes. Born smaller than his twin sister, there seemed little hope of his suviving through his first hour of life. But strong will to live overcame everything that came served with this life, and the child who everyone took to be almost dead suvived the night.
Harry and Ewe, Judas’ parents were typical blood-suckers in this mean world, living off others, but that did not hamper the couple’s efforts to provide for two square meals a day for the two kids while they grew.
A late bloomer, Judas was always the smallest and the least noticed among his peers, but h managed to get over this by sheer determination. I recall it being a Wednesday afternoon when Judas finally made his mark, following which, all his buddies, his cronies watched him with awe, fully coming to respecting this young lad who had barely managed to survive his own birth.
Calling himself the Emperor of Feel Good, Judas was the king of the world in his own little way. He did, by his words and his charisma, induce such an effect that could make people do anything for him. Those who used to buzz around him in those days said that when he asked something of you, it would be you who would feel that you were actually returning some favour.
On a Friday evening, just as dusk was setting in the meadows when he first saw her, her brightness undettered by the oncoming of night. Her aura lighting up the entire world and beyond. She was a mesmerizing sight of gold, of grandeur and spledour. And as if this wasn’t enough, she aslways seemed to be happy, carefree, dancing to her own tune.
Judas returned home late that night. He had watched her from an inconspicuous distance, until she had decided against the blowing wind and had retired for the night. There was a muted silence around him. Even more odd was that his sister was home, odd since she had eloped and then married a local soldier, but ever so he was happy to see her.
In the Phantom comic strip, there usually occurred this one idiom, “There is an old jungle saying that when someone is too happy, even the God’s become jealous of him.” Judas’ sister’s eyes told of great mourning and at that instant he reallised that someone has wrenched his heart out of his chest and is crushing it under the hammer. He ran to his parent’s room and found them, happy, in each other’s arms and gone forever to the eternal sleep’s beckoning.
Their death brought back the child Judas actually was. All his strength, all his will, determination and that endless spasm of charisma could not bring him back his parents. He spent the next day arranging a funeral befitting his parents’ life, in love, a grand embrace to life and what lies beyond.
That night, Judas, in the utter depths of his loneliness, went back to his usual jaunt, and then again, there she was,dancing, shining, laughing. At that flicker of the moment, that very instant, the loneliness pushing behind him, the butterflies from his stomach gone, Judas got up and went straight to embrace that enchanting vision, hoping tp hug her, hold her, love her.
His feet in the air, Judas flew to her, aiming to sweep her off his feet, when he felt stiflingly hot and yet he still went on to her, embraced her with all her warmth burning him inside and outside. But he didn’t care about this trivial pain, and then at that breathtaking moment of love and warmth, he burnt to his ashes.
Today, years later, they still talk about Judas, the mosquito who fell in love with a candle’s flame, living and dying all in 7 days.
