Accept People For Who They Are

“Did you meet your new roommate?” the landlord asked.

“No, I did not. I just got back from work.” I responded as I parked my bike.

“He moved in today. He is a Japanese translator from Mumbai.”

“That’s cool. I will see him when I see him. Good night, sir.”

-----

It was a duplex owned by an old couple. They lived on the second floor. They had two sons, both settled in the UK, who visited them every couple of years. It was loneliness more than the prospect of making money that they decided to rent the hall on the first floor.

The hall was re-engineered into two rooms separated by a paper-thin wall. Both the rooms had separate entries that led to a roadside front gate. Each room had a second door exiting into a small gallery and a washroom.

“You will have to share the bathroom with the second tenant,” said the landlady when I moved in two months back.

Since then, they had been looking for another stag to lease the second room.

-----

The new neighbor was not in when I got back from work that day. I waited for him throughout the evening. At the stroke of midnight, the approaching engine sound of a cab broke the silence of the night.

I peeped through the window to confirm my suspicion. It was him. A lean figure, around six feet, stepped out of the car and paid the cab driver. As he turned towards the house, I sprung from my bed, turned off the lights and TV, and used my acting prowess to lay dead in my bed.

It happened far too often for me to notice it — I was an introvert. The idea of having face time with another human shuddered my core like a shivering skyscraper in a massive earthquake.

I heard him enter his room, throw his stuff around, and summon an English band on his boom box. As he opened the gallery door of his room, a thin beam of light underneath the door brightened my room. He was probably checking to see if I was still awake.

Disappointed, he went back into his room. After about fifteen minutes, he called it a day, and darkness occupied the little gap underneath the door once again.

Because I was living alone, I never realized how thin those walls were, until now. I could hear him tossing and turning on his bed as I lay still in mine. Did I mention that I was holding off on nature’s call all this time? It had turned into an emergency.

-----

As I emerged back from the washroom, I saw two cat-eyes popping out of a corner of a door in absolute darkness. Before I could scream on top of my lungs, a shriek pierced through my eardrums.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.”

“Why? What’s wrong with you, dude?” I barked like a rottweiler.

“Sorry, Sorry, Sorry! I am just so excited to meet you since the landlord told me about you,” he explained, “Hi! I am Amit. I am so happy to meet you.”

“Sorry, man. You just took me by surprise. Pleased to meet you too. I am Gaurav.”

What followed was an awkward silence. I moved back into my room, turned on the lights, and that was the first time I laid my eyes on him — Lush black hairs, a chiseled face, and a dimpled smile greeted me.

At that moment, I knew this arrangement was either headed to something special or a complete disaster. The universe had conspired to bring together two strangers with contrasting personalities. One an introverted soul, and the other an exuberant free spirit.

But that wasn’t all.

“If you have any issues, I will be gone first thing in the morning,” Amit said, “I am gay, and I don’t want you to feel awkward.” The honesty in those eyes is something I have never seen before.

“Why would you move out? If I have a problem, shouldn’t I be the one that must go?” I responded.

Mutual respect built; an unspoken pact formed to speak no more of this — neither that night nor for the next three years that we shared that apartment. The wall propped our backs, and I listened and laughed at his never-ending tales until the break of dawn.

To be continued…