Pens and Pages

This story was published in an e-magazine Word Splash in its issue of July 2012, http://www.wordsplash.in/the-whiskey-lullaby-2/ We watched him drink his pain away, A little at a time, But he never could get drunk enough, To get her off his mind … Pain or love wasn’t the reason why Prakash was the town drunk. “It’s my passion,” he would quote while listening to the Whiskey Lullaby,” It depicts my freedom.” *   It was two years ago, in Swindon during his working years, when Prakash was first introduced to liquor. He became a lover ever since. Gin was the drink he chose as his first love, Tequila came second. His decision of never marrying or rather being away from women was well-known by all his chums. He would recite it every time someone asks him to settle down and get married.  A year went by quite peacefully with his “principles”- be drunk, spend all the money, come home after midnight, and never tie the knot. It was a call from the City Hospital, Dehradun