Once upon a time...

There she stood at the door.
I was high, so had to think hard to remember
that she was supposed to come over for the night.

I still remember when I first saw her few days back
she didn't look like someone who had gone through a lot in life.
Untill of course she shed tears over the thought
of being sent back to her husband and her verbalise her trauma.

There she was in front of me running away from somebody
who must resemble a demon or may be there was more it.
I think she was running away from the demons
in her past, running away from herself.

I asked her to come in. She looked tried.
I'm sure she was.
Walking out of the house one fine morning
and making a journey from Patna to Mumbai
was not something she did every other day!
She had landed here last Saturday.

She took a train and a flight
selling her jewellry to reach her destination, Mumbai.
Leaving her only child behind too!
that must have been tough I thought.
Once here she would get excited by little things.
The sea, the moon, the night life...
and other little things were enough to evoke the
feeling of a bird set free from the cage after years.

We spent one whole night out in Mumbai showing her
the flavour of the city because she didn't know
how long her freedom would last.
And we had a blast.
We drove from shooters to U Turn
to Juhu beach to versova rock beach
and even all the way to lonavla.
It is one night I will never forget.
Through out the night she laughed at
almost anything, she was soaking in
the life and beauty around her.

I gave her the bed sheet and pillow
asking her to relax.
I was groggy as it was past midnight.
I just imagined what the police might be thinking
at this moment.
Will they get hold of all of us and take her away?
They had landed at Janvi, Rahul and Deepak's
place in that evening.
That was why she was compelled to come
over to my place.
She couldn't possibly go back to Janvi's where
she had been living since she came,
the police could be on the look out.

I picked up my book, I was coming to the end
of the interesting tale.
She didn't sleep. Her eyes were sore.
She must have been weeping since she found out
that the police were after her and the people who
were helping her hide.
At that point I didn't even think that anything
would go wrong.

I woke up next morning, was just finishing
my elaborate breakfast when Janvi called.
"The cops had called up Rahul.
He's gone to meet them," she said.
Ok. Now what?
I was off without even considering
taking a bath.
We went down to Chembur police station
with the purpose of filing an NC.
Purna's brother-in-law had contacted
a social worker.
We had everything set. We'll file an NC
against her husband, get the support of an NGO
and then go to the police.

But when we reached nothing of that sort happened.
We couldn't file an NC and
the social worker didn't come down.
We wondered what to do, and at the same time
worried about Rahul and Deepak who had gone
missing since the cop's called them.
Their cell phones were swicthed off
and it had been hours since they last contacted us.

We walked to Kamat, a restaurant at Chembur Naka.
Janvi's mom decided to come there, with a
bag of clothes for the absconding girl, and also to see us.
Aunty was worried like hell.
Then came the much awaited call.
Rahul was on the line as relief replaced worry.
He asked us where we were and we told him.
He asked us to meet him at Cine Planet
and then he would tell us what the state of affairs was.

We decided to leave immediately.
Janvi's sis and brother-in-law came too.
So Janvi and I got into one rik,
and she, Janvi's sis and bro-in-law into another.
On the way I thought over things and told Janvi
that the cops wouldn't probably set them free
after hours of interrogation.
I sensed that something was fishy.
We decided to let her and others wait back in
a restaurant in Sion itslef while we meet rahul
and find out if everything's ok and we're safe.
Before we could think further we had reached.
We got down and walked towards a dead looking rahul.
He walked up to us and said, "It's all over. These
guys are crime branch people."
I looked and saw cops dressed in civil uniform
making their way towards us.
It was straight out of the movies!

I felt like shit. After all this, it's just over.
In minutes things were turned around.
We led the cops to her.
I couldn't stop the tears as I thought
what would happen to her now.
Janvi, I and she
sat into the police vehicle that
was to take us to the crime branch office.
The police told us that we need not go with
them to the police station.
Janvi too asked me to leave and
said that she could manage.
But I wanted to go.
In the beginning I wondered why Janvi did all this
for a stranger. Why didn't she just lead her own life?
I felt she had a big heart but still...whatever.
Today I couldn't explain why I had been caring for
a stranger since the day I met her.
I went.

Rahul and Deepak had been beaten.
Deepak had become unconscious and had been waiting
inside the police station for all this while.
Rahul's hands were stiff as the electric current
had passed through them.
These boys were fighting for her.

I was nervous as hell, so was everyone and of course
she was real jittery.
She didn't want to go back to a wife beating
husband, a sick and near death mother-in-law and
breathe the choking air that she had been taking in,
in the confines of the walls of what could in the least
be called home.
I'm sure that the picture of her little daughter
did flash in front of her eyes evey now and then.

Since we set foot in the crime branch office
everything started falling into place.
The police cooperated and listened to the story
behind the missing girl.
We had to sit for hours though, waiting
for things to be done and formalities to be completed.

We were worried about Deepak too.
I had met him just once before I think
and couldn't even recollect how he looked.
Yet I was worried.
He walked out of the room where they
keep the criminals as the formalities went on.
He looked like a wounded soldier, trying to
smile as he approached us.
Rahul and he had fought but had to tell the
truth at some point.
The pain must have been unimaginable.

Anyway the DCP had heard her out
and declared that she had come here
on her own will and that she couldn't
be taken away by anyone as she was an adult
and had the right to go wherever she chose.
That was it?
The police had made a fair decision I thought.
It kind of made me gain some faith in our crumbling system.
It's a democracy out here!
Though our dear social worker had to pull some strings
and speak to some top people to get the matter over
in a day's time.
The whole episode raises a lot of personal,
social and polictical issues in my head.
But can't get into all that right now.

Her husband? What about him?
Yes, she spoke to her husband in front of the DCP
and told him straight out that she didn't want to get back.
I had kind of tried to see the 40-year-old man
from the corner of the eye all the while.
For the first time I saw him properly as he walked out
of the DCP's office.
He and his sis tried to gain our sympathy and
convince her to get back with him.
He acted well I thought.
We just told him it was her decision and walked out.

As we drove out of the police station
at close to 9 pm, I thought to myself.
The fight has just begun for her.
My head was spinning by then, from the sleepless
night and the constant activity through out the day.
I don't want to think about how I reached home,
but I remember that I thought about a lot of things
through the long journey despite my
half drunk, half sleepy mind being tired.

P.S: One doesn't understand the importance of freedom
unless one has limits to overcome.