by Naitik Jain
I was back to college before my leave period had ended, which meant that I had a few days to spend just chilling, since the authorities wouldn’t really care. Unfortunately, the people of my society did care, and soon I had scores of missed calls on my phone, and my friends’, if mine was switched off(I’d often put my phone on air plane mode just to avoid them.)
After a busy week, I thought that I’d finally manage to get some sleep on Friday. Or so I thought. My dreams almost always ended with me being the hero of the entire scenario. The one I had on Friday was one of the few in which I was not.
It was probably three in the night, at least that’s what the clock read, when I sat up. The dream that I had just had shook me out of my sleep.
“Ansh?” A familiar voice said. The voice I had not heard for years. It was the voice of a little child.
“Aliya?” It had to be her. Her voice was one I could never forget. I could see her, that little girl, right in front of me. She was the same little playful girl, who was once my best friend.
“I have missed talking to you. Life back then was so much fun.”
“I have missed you too. You were my best friend!”
“Was I, really? You could have saved me from my father. You could have stopped him from dragging me all the way down into the hell I am in now! You were there, and you saw everything that was happening to me. You saw me begging and pleading to my father to let me stay. You knew that I was a good girl. Yet, you kept quiet. You didn't tell him anything, you didn't take any action, even after I was gone. You knew that I was not going to be kept safe, that I was being taken to a dangerous place. Yet, you kept quiet, like a mute. You let me go through the worst, and you still call me your best friend?”
“There was nothing I could do out there. I was a child, and was helpless too. I wanted to help you, but there was no way I could stand up to him. I had even told my parents about this, but they said that doing anything against him would not be possible. He was a very bad man, but I really couldn't do anything about him.”
She stood right there, her eyes fixed on me. She hadn't changed a bit. Her beautiful eyes were staring at me in anger. Her smooth hair was running down just up to her shoulders, gently brushing against them as she shivered in anger. Her lips placed in a quiet frown. This was her anger, coming out on me after years. The disappointment had slowly manifested itself in this anger, as she poured it all out on me, sentence by sentence, reminding me of how I was at fault in this, and I could have helped her, only that I didn't.
“Both you and I know that you are just trying to excuse yourself out of this. If you had had the will, you would have done something!”
“I tried my best! There’s not much that a four foot kid can do! My parents couldn't act at that time, and your father was not a person I could take on alone. Appealing to the community would have had no effect at all, and nobody would have cared much about my word anyway. Your dad had it all handled well Aliya. I'm sorry, but believe me, I tried.”
Her angry expression slowly changed into a grave one. She assumed a more serious look. I had never seen this face of her before, even during the most serious of our conversations (which mostly involved the colour of our school bags and different methods of riding the broken slide). She moved closer to me, her face almost against mine.
“You can do something now.”
“What can I do to save you now? Tell me where to find you, and I’ll be there first thing tomorrow!”
“You can’t save me now Ansh. But you can save someone else. Someone whose life you had promised to bring back. Someone you are giving up on without trying hard. It is time you learn to keep your word.”
“The guy I'm up against is possibly one of the most powerful, and evil men of the city! There’s no way I stand the tiniest of chances against him. Besides, I don’t even know the exact location of her captivity. All I know is that she’s kept in one of three centres that the man holds in the city. There’s no way I can track her down. My exams are approaching in a few weeks, and I haven’t even started to study. I have to maintain my own progress before I go on to save someone else! I did try hard to figure things out for her, but this is beyond my control.”
“You've become really good at making excuses nowadays. Earlier, you at least had the feeling of guilt when you couldn't do something. Have you lost the conscience that I loved so much? Your heart was the one thing that separated you from everyone else, and it seems like you've lost that too with time. It was the fact that you put others before yourself that drew me closer to you. You were my best friend because you cared Ansh, not because you were special.
I wish you were still the person who I was proud to call my best friend. It turns out that these years have changed you immensely. You’re grown up now, and have drawn a circle around yourself, inside which you keep only your loved ones. It’s time to start caring about others too.”
“But what can I do about this?! There is no way that I will be able to conquer this person!”
“For starters, stop lying to yourself. You know very well that you can do this. You have enough strength in you to take this person on. You don’t have to destroy him. Just fulfil your promise: The promise that you made to yourself, the promise of saving that girl’s life. If you can do that, it will make me happy. Consider it a fulfilment of the promise that you had made to me a long time back. Can you do just this much for me?”
I paused, and shook my head silently. There was no way I could do this.
“This was not what I was expecting of you. Ansh, you are supposed to be the saviour here, the hero for her. You can do this; have faith in yourself and your abilities. You can do wonders if you are determined enough. Please Ansh, do this for me. Please!”
I owed Aliya a lot of things, and the fulfilment of an age old promise was the highest on the list in that. This was my best chance to come clear to my conscience, to myself. I nodded slowly.
"That's more like my best friend. Thank you so much! You really are the best person I have seen in my entire life. Thank you so much Ansh, for doing this for me. You will always be a great person, because you have a pure heart. It's collected some dust as you've grown, but it will always be pure. You just needed some reminding from someone that you needed to do this. Thank you for taking the right decision. I'm sure you'll succeed."
She smiled at me, and those eyes changed back to the big beautiful eyes that I always loved. She was jumping up and down with excitement, as I smiled back at her. She held my hand and ran around the place, pulling me along with her. I had not been this happy in a really long time."
"I have something to ask you though."
"Go on Ansh, I'd answer any question you ask me right now!"
"Why do you still look like a kid to me? Aren't you supposed to be a grown up now?"
I sat up on my bed, and looked at the clock. It was 3 am, and I wasn't going back to sleep this time.
CHAPTER 9
I had a day left on my week long leave, and the test would be rescheduled for me anyway. There was no point staying on the campus, as I’d have to do tons of tasks I really wasn’t interested in doing. I decided to pick up from where I had left off, and go back to Kolkata early morning the next day.
All I knew were the three probable locations of her presence, but for me now, that was enough. I was putting everything at stake here, just to ensure that I save the life I had promised to save. Somehow, I now began to feel that saving this girl’s life would bring me closer to the peace of mind that I never had since that incident with Aliya, when she was dragged out in front of me. The dream had a huge effect on me, and it had changed the way I looked at things now. It wasn’t the same again, it could never be. This was more of a ‘want to do’ thing than a ‘have to do’ thing now, and I had, over time, learnt to do things that I wanted to do.
My first stop was Shyambazar. A quick Google search will tell you that Shyambazar used to be the citadel of the aristocracy of Kolkata. A blooming shopping hub, this w
as, at one point of time, the place for the people of North Kolkata to shop. I knew the place a little more than Wikipedia could tell you, since I had a few relatives living in the area. It’s both good and bad to be studying so close to where your entire family, cousins and others included, lives. This was one of the advantages.
Shyambazar, like a majority of places in the city, had become increasingly polarised in terms of the lifestyle of the people there. It included the rich, and the very poor. The rich were, of course, oblivious to the presence of the poor, except when the needed their toilets cleaned or the cars washed. The poor were content with their life, and except for the occasional abuses they hurled at the rich, with the surroundings. Both of them never interfered with each other’s activities. The rich continued to stash their black money in the house, and the poor continued to violate almost every basic law in the constitution every day.
What I didn’t know about the place was that amidst the slums and the nearly broken houses, there was a ‘training facility’, owned by none other than Gujjar. It didn’t even require a front, since the cops never dared to go there. Even the bribe paid to them was just to avoid some fuss, as the cops were too scared of the people there anyway. Gujjar had three such centers across the city, and would basically send the ‘new recruits’ here. These places would also function as prostitution centers, and these girls would generally be cheaper than most other girls, since they were less experienced.
I knew the exact location of the place, and went straight to the place.
“You look new here. Coming for the first time?” asked the man in broken Hindi.
“Yes, I’m here for the first time. I’m looking for a specific girl though.” I replied in broken Bengali.
“We don’t cater to specific demands.” He retorted, switching to Bengali now.
“But I was told a lot about her. One of my friends said that she was the best he’s been with.”
“Then your friend must’ve also told you that requesting specifics means triple the usual rate.”
“Yes, I know. I’m willing to pay that rate. Just get me to her. She’s got dark, black hair, and big eyes. Her skin isn’t that white, but it isn’t that dark either.”
“You’ve just described 70% of our girls here.”
“Can I look inside please?”
“Of course you can. Most of them are in here right now. Not much business in the morning time.”
I walked inside the tattered building, and crossed each room, one by one. All the rooms looked alike, with a single bed, one window opening outside, and a door. I didn’t have enough time to look at each room more closely. I scanned the girls in every room, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.
“She’s not here.”
“She must’ve been shifted to Rajabazar. A good quantity was shifted there last week. You should check things out there.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
I left the place, and took a cab for Rajabazar, hoping that I wouldn’t have to go to the third location.
Rajabazar, unlike Shyambazar, was not as polarised. Slums covered almost the entirety of the location. It was one of the busiest areas too, for there were tons of hawkers, occupying the pavement completely, often spilling over to the road too. The place always smelled of rotten fruit, and I used to cross it in an auto rickshaw every time I went to school. Traffic would sometimes be stuck here for hours, and it used to be a test of my patience every single time.
Gujjar had chosen a brilliant site in Rajabazar. He didn’t require a front here, since the entire area was a front for him. Most women here didn’t speak to men, and mostly kept to themselves. No one questioned these women, or disturbed their privacy, for they would then incur the wrath of the men ‘protecting’ them. This society was possibly one of the most patriarchal ones in the city, and therefore, women here were not looked at twice.
This time, I had to work a little harder to locate the area. There wasn’t enough space to walk, and the constant pushing and shoving didn’t really help me much either. I finally came to one small two-storied building. The paint was wearing off, and it almost looked like it could collapse any time. The building wasn’t really the main attraction though.
In front of the building were standing two muscular men, staring straight into space. That was an immediate giveaway. I was surprised that nobody ever questioned the activities there, but then I thought that they probably knew about it already. Some of them may even be customers.
I walked up to the guards and tried to go past them.
“What’s your business here?” asked one, in nearly flawless Hindi.
“My business is the same as everyone else’s.” I replied, happy to shift back to Hindi.
“I’ve never seen you around here. How did you know about this place?”
Things were getting weird here. The guard at Shyambazar let me in without even much of a query. This was probably a high profile centre, I thought.
“A friend of mine told me. He said he had the best time over here.” I replied, taking out a hundred rupees from my wallet.
“Okay, go in”, said the guard, as he pocketed the money without the slightest change of expression.
I was greeted by another man inside. He seemed more pleasant.
“Do you want the regular stuff or extra?”
“Regular, but I want someone specific.”
“All our girls are the same quality. You won’t need specific.”
“I want only her. I won’t go for anyone else.” My tone of conversation and choice of words surprised even me. I didn’t know that I could ever talk this way about someone.
“No. You can’t have specifics.”
“Then I won’t have anyone.”
“Get out of here then. We don’t need such people here.”
I knew I had to do something quickly, or I would be thrown out in no time.
“Let me be with her!” I shouted at the top of my voice.
“Stop raising your voice, and get the hell out of here!” he hushed back.
The trick worked. Soon, the women and girls came out of the rooms to see what was happening. A crowd was gathering.
“Pappu! Come here now, and throw this man out!”
“Why can’t you let me have her?!”
The guards were here, with the same expression that they had when I came in.
“Get out of here”, one of them said to me. I assumed he was Pappu.
The girls were all out, but I couldn’t see her in the crowd. I needed some more time inside. “Let me be with the girl I want to be!”
“That’s it”, he said, and pulled out a knife. He then tried to grab my arm, but I made a dash in the opposite direction. He ran after me, and managed to grab my arm, slashing my forearm slightly with his knife.
In the commotion, I saw the one face I needed to see. The girl was there. I didn’t know what I had to do next, but I did know where I had to do it.
The guards dragged me out by my arms and threw me on the road. Most people didn’t even care to turn and look at me. Apparently, people were often thrown out of this building.
“Come when you can adjust to our rules, or don’t come at all”, said the guard to me.
I stood up, dusted my clothes, and walked back to the main road. I took a cab, reached the station, and took the next train back to Kharagpur. My leave period was ending today, and my day’s job was done.
CHAPTER 10
“What did you do this time?” Niki was furious. She had just seen the cut on my hand, and assumed that there was something wrong.
“I haven’t done anything! My hand just got scratched against the railing of the stairs when I was running down today. Chill, things like these keep happening!”
“He must’ve cut his hand again,” added Ayu, equally furious. Sitting and studying with these two people, while often helpful, put me in a terrible situation at that point of time. They knew nothing about what I was up to, and I intended to keep it that way.
“
When did he cut it the first time?” That was why I hated such situations. I knew I had had it now. There was no way I was getting out of this. It was best to go with the flow.
“Niki. I’m sorry. I just got too frustrated with the academic pressure, along with the work that I do in my society. It’s just a lot of hard work. I got irritated with all of that, and in my frustration, ended up cutting my hand.”
Silence from both of them. What was about to come next would definitely be bad.
“It’s such a small cut,” I said, pointing to the two inch long gash. “It’ll go away soon. I won’t do it again, I promise.”
Niki and Ayu both slammed their laptop screens down, as if my head was under them. Both of them got up and left, giving me angry stares in the process. The noise attracted the attention of every person sitting in Hall 4 of the library. I was sitting there, a little shocked.
“Just what I needed right now,” I said to myself. “I run around between Kolkata and Kharagpur, get thrown out of houses, visit brothels, get slashed on the hand by people, just to save her, and these people think I’m going around slashing my hand out of frustration. I can’t even tell them the truth! I have no idea of how I’m going to handle them. I hope they cool down soon.”
I picked up my stuff and left quietly. I cycled around for a while, and then went to the Nescafe of my hostel. I really needed a cup of coffee, so that I could stay up at night and study for the class test that was coming up the next day.
“So, I hear you’re going home way too often nowadays.”
I turned around to see Chas and Surya walking up to me.
“Yeah man. Got some work to do back home. How’s the midsem preparation going?”
“Don’t ask about that. I’m failing in SigNet and Introduction to Electronics. Even studying this stuff doesn’t help me understand. It doesn’t matter though; I’ll probably do an MBA later.”
“Don’t worry bro, you’ll do just fine. What about you, Surya? Finished the syllabus?”