Amaanat

 “We want justice! We want justice!” I shouted in anger, with vivid banners and a thousand flames following me, depicting my thoughts as we carried forward the candle march with pride, authority and duty of being a human. ‘A 23 year old girl was raped yesterday in Delhi in a bus, by 6 demonic monsters shaped like men. She was returning with a friend at roughly 9 p.m. in the night, as a few of them commented rashly over her, he confronted them and they threw him out of the running bus and raped the girl one by one finally ramming a rod in her vagina and throwing her out of the bus naked and helpless. The dreaded situation was horrifically amplified by the facts that no one noticed the abhorrent bus as it ran through the city stopping at signals and no one came to help the girl as she lay there suffering. Really a shameful event for the whole nation’ the newspaper read and hence the idea of justice was infused in our minds. Some wanted a death penalty for the accused men while other favored to torture them ravaging their spirits to the length where they could not make out the difference between pain and any other emotion they ever knew of. Dying painfully is easier than living shamefully, and that’s exactly what I wanted to prove to those criminals against humanity. Everyone was dressed in black with anger or sadness sprawling across each face but as we marched across a shop there was a group of guys looking at our way, one of them with a cigarette in his hand laughed and commented “they pretend they are doing good for the country, such a waste of time trying to show off” his companions joined him too in his laughter, I scoffed at his petite thinking “such jerks are the reasons behind these shameful events which blot the nation’s image” I said to my girlfriend walking beside me motioning in their direction.

Rally was about to end when my cellphone rang it was my mom, “hello” I said picking up the phone, “beta, come home urgently, there is a problem come as quickly as possible” she screamed on the other edge. I realized the gravity of situation and ran to my bike “I have to go, something’s come up” I mimed to my girlfriend as I saw her confused expression. As I sped through the roads, imagining various things that could’ve happened, as I passed through Chandani Square, I heard a scream from the corner the whole market was empty because everyone had gone to the rally, for a second I thought the possibility of some potential unjustness but then I had no time to waste and moreover people were nowadays bent on trying every prank they could find to irritate the general public, so I drove on speeding faster desperate to reach home in time. As I reached home, I found my mother on the gate with cellphone in her hand and sweat on her forehead, in a worried tone she spoke “your sister called about 5 minutes ago, she was saying that there were some guys stalking her as she was returning from the coaching, she’s at Chandani Square where the…” before my mother could complete her sentence I started my bike and took off again, my heart was beating fast with each breath I took, cursing myself for not checking up on that place and how that could’ve been my sister, my head was throbbing badly with all these thoughts but still, I kept speeding.

I called my sister’s phone, I could hear it ring but she didn’t pick it up, tears were running down my cheeks as I drove madly across each and every corner I could find shouting her name like a mad dog, then she picked up my phone and in a broken and shaky voice she spoke to me “bhaiya, come on the road behind Paalki Petrol Pump” and disconnected the phone. I saw her standing as I stopped my bike and ran up to her, I looked at her for a second, she had a piece of glass tightly clenched in her hand, the glass piece had pierced her hand also and blood was flowing out, she didn’t look at me but kept staring blankly at the man lying a few meters away, he was bleeding heavily. I hugged her tightly in my arms as I thanked god again and again in my mind. She broke into sobs as she cried and pushed me apart I looked at her confused, she went forward and sat beside the man, “I don’t want him to die, bhaiya” she spoke through her tears “I’ve already called the ambulance but they are taking so much time to come, please do something bhaiya, please” she cried bitterly as tears flowed down her cheeks, I kept looking at her, trying to conclude whether this guy was the savior or the martyr and if she wanted to save him due to gratitude or the basic fear of killing a person. She turned him around and my eyes widened with rage as I realized it was the same guy from earlier who commented upon our rally as showoff and unnecessary, but then she took his head in her hands as if caringly, “do you know him?” I finally asked my sister sitting beside her as I called 108 again and again but they kept on putting me at hold. “No, there were 3 guys who were following me from the coaching, I called mom and told her about them, I tried calling you but you phone was out of reach, then my cellphone lost signal as I entered here and one of them grabbed my hand, I screamed but no one came instead of him, he tried talking but they weren’t ready to listen and they had cricket bats in their hands, they warned him to leave but he didn’t. He stood for my honor and so they beat him to the ground again and again as he stood up against them each time, he injured badly one of them, so scared by this, they ran off and he wasn’t able to pick himself again” I looked at his face and realized how much right he was, he didn’t have any expression of pain on his face just remorse that he couldn’t stand up more long.

As we were taking him to the hospital in ambulance, he was fighting with death and life while doctors tried to save him with various equipment they had. His cellphone in his pocket rang I took it out ‘MOM’ the letters flashed on the screen, I picked it up but before I could say anything the woman on the other edge blurted “Beta, I called you half an hour ago, you said you were on your way back. Don’t you realize how serious this is? Your dad had a stroke and we’re now Pragati Hospital, please come as soon as possible beta, why aren’t you saying anything?” her voice was broken and I could tell she was crying I was shocked as I realized how much of a great man this person, she needed an answer quick but I didn’t know how to speak…

This story is dedicated to that unfortunate girl. Hope she gets well soon.

Written By:

Atul Shrotriya