Safe Haven

I open the brown wooden door, unlocked as always, welcome to anyone who comes here, and turn left. Right next to the small kitchen I turn into another door and enter Karu’s world. The two old scribbled t-shirts hang on the wall with different handwritings and colours of pens seeping through. Somehow they still seem almost as fresh as the day they were written on. Sometimes I see the scribbles fighting each other to occupy more space, almost as if a bigger para written gets to occupy a bigger piece of his heart. The bright red catches my attention always, the Manchester United flag hanging next to them was a gift from his cousin on his fifteenth birthday. Beside it is mounted a poster of the last supper with football players from all clubs having a rare moment of truce over dinner. Their shiny white framing is almost as bright as his smile when he first saw them. Although he may have never become a professional football player, with all these wallpieces he is still one amongst them.

The bed is unmade with some fresh laundry kept on the side. Always late to office in the morning, the clothes wait for another day to be folded, their creases long for another day to be kept inside the cupboard. A big green and yellow blanket sits in the middle, with its thick fur providing endless rest after long office hours. All his worries are kept hidden under it. He refuses to part with this blanket even in the summer months. I wonder what the blanket thinks, having to toil all year around, having to show up every single day. In one corner of the room, a damp maroon towel still clings from the tiny but revolving study table chair. The chair serves better as a clothes rack than a lumbar support for his back. One thing can have varied uses after all. The study table is full of dusty books that rustle gently, waiting for the day they might be opened. Then there sits stubbornly in the corner, an old white board with its edges sticking out. One day, one goal, one email, one pass at a time till we make it there. He rarely remembers this himself. The big blanket occupying the bed, and the old t-shirts hanging on the wall share a knowing smile, promising to show up for him each day in this new city till he feels one with himself again.