Short Story Social Issue – A frenzied terrorist
Photo Credit: www.cepolina.com
“O…my god. I can’t believe is this you or am I mistaken?”
The voice was low but clear. As I looked back I could look into her hollow eyes waiting to get the justification for being there. Every thing started moving in my mind as a movie was being played. “Jana gana mana..” our national enthem, it was sung in a beautiful chorus every morning in our school premises. Our head girl, Sharanya , was also among the students to sing the anthem.
I was in class IX. Sharanya was a prodigy, doing every little things in a complete and perfect manner. Many of us were adherent to her. Her comprehensive image was not only concealed within our classroom walls but also flashed in our school staffroom and Principal’s room. I always wanted to be like her, rather my parents invariably gave me examples of her purity and quality. Her family was also present in the list of our family friends. Days went on through various ups and downs but we were always close. Eventually I attained more height than my father, and one day I realized that I am older enough to earn for my family. In the mean time I and Sharanya were apart choosing our own way of life. In the course of time her image got blurred in my mind, only few funny memories left behind.
I was always captivated by the deceptive TV world. I had a notion that being watched in the television is a great achievement. Its true but not always. There is always otherside of the coin which we ignore and make it unseen.
“ Please leave me and let me free from here.” She yelled at me. I took her hands and held them tightly, made her comfortable. I was ready with my old repeated explanations that were always there in my mind and applied to different ladies who were hijacked by me. But this time there was slight change in my accent because she was very close to me.
I was admitted to mass communication course. Sharanya opted for medical stream. She was an even tempered person who always wanted to remain attached with small children. She was very fond of them and so she wanted to be a child specialist. In the course of time we got aparted from each other. We got busy in our own lives. New contacts got added in our phonebooks, new places added in our profiles and so on and so forth. But always that name “Sharanya” was there in my phonebook.
One day my boss called on me and handed me a red file. There was a label at the top of the file “persecution of women” . As usual I was ready to open it , when again my boss called on me to his cabin. We discussed the topic for a long time. The work was not the same and easy as before. I was unaware that this red file was going to change my thought line. The whole thing was that I had to go for a sting operation. The operation was planned to happen at a place where even the ministers hesitate to go. The place was a tyranny. The person who was ruling there, was a rebellious, rude and greedy person. Every woman were treated as slaves, no originality of their own. I was given the task to bring out this truth of women harrasment to prominence so that the Government would be pressurised to take a certain step. This was only for the enpowerment of women.
I masked my originality. I had to start my journey the next morning. Next morning when I opened the door to start afresh, I was a bit nervous but as I moved on I felt little relaxed. I hired a taxi from the stand. The chosen place was 126 km from my birth place so I decided to meet my mom and start my journey.
“Why have you brought me here? I trusted you. You made me believe that you will help me out of this unpleasant situation.” I asked her to stay calm while I explain the plan.
I was loaded with lot of food which my mom had prepared at home. I did not disclose any of my plans and job to my mom because she wouldn’t let me go. The story which I had to cover was a dicey one and I was the first attendant to this place.
I reached Masur at half past 8 p.m. I was totally drained. I enquired for accomodation and soon made myself comfortable in a hotel. I had lot of plans and arrangements to do the next morning. So I took my meal and went to bed.
My first experience with a home maker was not good. Slowly as I moved forward, not a single lady out there was ready to share their pain and sufferings. I got de- moralized. I carried on with my work for several days but everytime I failed to get any information. The area was small so the process was soon going to end. I was terrified. One day I knocked at a door. I was dismayed at the glance of the lady who opened the door. She was Sharanya.
“ I will take you out of this hell and make you free to do what you you always wanted to do. The only thing you have to do is help me.”
Sharanya was a totally changed personality. She had married to a business man. She made some strange gestures. I couldn’t follow them. She again tried, and then I could understand that she was asking me to go away. I was totally choked by her behaviour. She asked me to wait for a minute at the door. After a half minute she came back with a piece of paper and gave it to me, and asked me to go away. I came outside and opened the paper. “I will meet you at the temple at the outskirts of the village at 6 a.m”
After one more sleepless night, I was there at the place at 5.30. I looked at my watch after every 10 to 15 sec. Every sec was like an hour. She came there at 6.30 a.m. At the moment she reached there she apologized for her rude behaviour. We made ourselves comfortable on a rock which was almost hidden from the front side of the temple. I was very much eager to know the truth. She explained me everything in detail.
She said “every single wife, girl or a girl child are ill- treated here. I was appointed here for my doctor’s training for a period of 2 years. During my training period I got attached with Mahesh ,my husband who was a businessman. Slowly we got close to each other and decided to get married. Our parents met and the marriage procedure was done. I had no repentance that I had to stay in this small place. In the mean time I attained my degree and started practising. All my wishes as if they were coming true. I was greatly respected by the people.
One day The Panchayat called on the villagers and introduced a large ugly man, Mohan, to us. He was just a businessman then. The Panchayat said, he will look after the jobless people, and engage them in good work and also pay them a good amount. Slowly and steadily Mohan won confidence of the people and started ruling their lives. The scene was the same as shown in movies. He was a devious witty man. My husband also got tangled in his words and made him his business partner. Mohan then started torturing the innocent people and now the situation is out of control of the Government and any other expected helping agents. He did not even spare women and girls, made them victim of wrong doings. So the male persons in any house started fearing more and coerced themselves to subjugation in order to protect their ladies and girls.”
I heard everything and kept quiet for a moment.Then I asked her to go back commenting nothing about the whole story. I came back and decided to start afresh. I noted down every single thing I experienced there from the first day . The next morning I parcelled it to my boss and decided to stay back. I wanted to do something for the people out there.
“I have nothing more to say about the village. I shared everything with you that I knew, why I don’t know? I felt as if you have come to the village to rescue us from the savagery, torture, but you started torturing us more. Where did you take women from our village? Have you converted yourself to a terrorist?” while she said this she was holding my hands as tightly as she could.
I started motivating people towards truth of life. I made them realize their own strength and courage to fight against evil. I tried my best to collect few persons from the village and made a group. All my activities were marked by the cruel Mohan. He attempted several times to loosem my fortitude but I became more stronger. He also tried to bribe the men who were helping me, by intimidation. Firstly they got terrified by his behaviour but their determination did not let them down enough to leave my hand.
We went to police, Government offices to get some help, returned with despondency in our hearts. The people started feeling downcast for failure. Everyone then depended completely on me for my actions and plans. They had no chance to step back. I, then made up my mind to try for a different way to save the women and children. I rang up my one of school friend who had owned an ashram for such ill-treated girls and women.I said everything about the village and the plan that I was going to work on. He agreed to me.
Then I went up to the local police and asked him to accompany me. Soon they agreed with my plan. I knew it was not safe and right way to go for, but I opted for it. I started kidnapping women who were under barbarism. I sent them to my friend. The ashram had many facilities for the women to work with. The villagers who were with me swore not to disclose this to the rest of others. In the other hand they raised a rumour of terrorism in the village. Everyone were in a panic. My wish was to apprehend Mohan. One day, to my surprise I heard that Mahesh was also helping Mohan in carrying out cruel activities. So I added Mahesh in my target list.
Every week we conducted one kidnapping. One day we decided to kidnap Mohan’s wife and son and we did it. We persuaded his wife to be with us, because it was for a good cause. Mohan got annoyed by the activities. He planned to kill Mahesh and put the charge on me so that Sharanya will believe him and he will get my address. His plan was also executed on that night but somehow I got the news and successfully manoeuvered to save Mahesh. With this Mahesh felt guilty and committed to help me. But this was not a permanent solution so we made our master plan. Sharanya was told that I had killed Mahesh so I did not allow Mahesh to go back.
Sharanya was stunned after listening to my whole story.
I arranged a plot were Mohan was going to admit his own conspiracies in front of police. I let Sharanya leave. She directly went to Mohan and asked for help.
She said “I will help you arrest The person you in search of, but you have to tell me the truth. Otherwise everything will continue as it is.”
Mohan was already very upset with the kidnapping so he decided to accept everything. He believed Sharanya and accepted his offence. As it was our plan Police arrested him.
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