A Lunatic Man

Every city and town seems to have at least one lunatic or a maniac running around from one corner of the street to another. It is no different in my town. There is one man whose mental balance seems to me unstable. I see him almost every day.

He is young, skinny and dark-skinned fellow living a carefree life. Like all other vagabonds, he is filthy. He perhaps has not taken a bath for years. His waist-length hair is tangled and coiled. He wears what is left of a shirt, threadbare and with many holes.

One can only guess what the shirt’s original colour was. It is the same with his shorts. One can notice filth spread on his body. It makes him look much darker. He is just a walking piece of filth and dirt. People give him a wide space wherever he goes. Some nearby people show fear of being suddenly attacked by him.

While his appearance is unhealthy, the body odour is eviler. One can notice his stink from feats. He never ever finds people crowding around him. He will have ample of personal space wherever he goes. However, he does not get to go into buses, trains, shops and other public places. He is shooed away from everywhere, for understandable reasons.

Despite his unpleasant appearance and smell, he is a harmless fellow to me. He goes happily in his own mood walking around the streets every day. gaging sun or lashing rain does not seem to bother him. He could be dry as a leaf on one day and wet as a drowned rat on another. A normal person would have suffered a heat stroke or caught pneumonia, but this lunatic seems immune to diseases. Rain or shine, he can be seen walking on the streets, bare footed. He mumbles to himself or talks with some invisible person.

I suppose it would be a matter of time before the local authorities get hold of him and put him away somewhere. Meantime he just goes around town reminding clean, normal and harried people what it means to be unpleasantly dirty and filthy.