(Please keep an open mind while reading it. This story is a scream for help, respect to women and request to women to become empowered.)
Part 1
I was travelling from Mumbai to Kolkata because of some work that I didn't want to do but still had to. As I was travelling alone the journey was boring and I was having a hard time. We had only been travelling for 2 hours and I started to get hungry because of boredom. It was 2:00 a.m when the train stopped at station. I stepped out get something to eat. I got some samosas and chutney.
After having eaten i decided to sleep but sleep escaped me. My stomach was queasy. I needed fresh air so i went and stood by the door. And then I saw her. She was an average looking girl but there was something in her eyes that captivated me. Her wandering eyes as if she was looking for someone or something.
We kept standing side by side for a while and she commented about how humid the night was. My heart beat skipped and I thanked the stars for making her talk to me. We struck a conversation about our interests, places we had visited, wanted to visit, politics and poetry. She asked as if in a deep thought, "Do you write?"
I replied," I write short stories but I am not very good."
"I used to write too but not anymore. Its been a few years since I wrote something", she said, "do you want to hear a story?"
I got excited and asked to tell me a story for her voice was music to my ears. All the while I was having difficulty in preventing myself from staring at her and now I could look at her to all my content as she would tell me the story just like the princess in Arabian nights.
Part 2
This story is about a girl who was very soft hearted and cared for everyone. She loved the entire world and tried to see beauty in everything. It doesn't mean she didn't have darker side. She was impulsive and headstrong and did exactly what she felt like. One day she decided to travel to the southern most tip of India. Now there was a family of three travelling with her, a woman and her two children, boy and girl.
She loved children so in order to reduce boredom she started talking and playing with them. The woman not being very educated didn't talk much. She had marks on her face as if she had been beaten up. She seemed to cringe and disappear in the corner of the compartment. The children however, were quite playful, least bothered about tattered condition of their clothes or dirt in their hair and hands.
As the journey went on the woman started to open up with the girl. The girl listened to her patiently and asked questions in order to help her open more. The woman told her," I was married at a young age to a man who was 20 years older than me. He works as a locksmith and is as cold and cruel as the tools he works with. He would beat me up everyday at the slightest or sometimes even no provocation at all. There are days I want to kill myself. No matter how much I care for him or try to please, he just goes on beating me and my children."
"Its difficult to live with such a man. Does your family know what you are undergoing," girl asks.
"Yes, they know", she says , "but we are poor and my family can't take the take the responsibility of me and my children."
The girl persists, " but have you ever thought of leaving him."
The woman seemed to have given up all hope in life and refused to do believe or acknowledge she could do something about it.
They kept talking and time flew by. A station came where the woman and her children were supposed to get off. It was small obscure station where the train stops for hardly few minutes.
The girl turned her back still thinking about how much ugliness the woman and her children saw in everyday life. As she was thinking she heard a man shouting and woman crying. When she looked outside she saw that the man was dragging away the woman and pulling the boy through the platform. They were shouting in pain and the man was hurling abuses at her as the train was running late.
The train started to move and she could still hear their wailing. It was night and not many people were on the station. The man swore he would kill the woman and children. She couldn't take any more and as the man raised his hand with iron rod towards the boy, she jumped off the train to save the little boy. She ran towards them, threatening to call the police if he did anything to them.
The man completely lost it and as if in a fit of madness ran towards her leaving his wife and children. He caught her and dragged to a near by house where they lived and pushed her inside the room. The woman and children tried to stop him but being scared they didn't do much.
He threatened his wife with dire consequences if they dared tell anyone about the girl. He went inside the room and raped her again and again till his madness subsided.
Part 3
My throat started to get dry. Why would anybody write such a dark story. I looked at her face to find some sign of emotion but she didn't. She smiled and said ," we don't want to see the dark and ugly right. We want to brush everything under the carpet or close our eyes whenever we hear about injustice or cruelty. I don't think you can handle this story. Forget it."
I so wanted to please her. Show her that I had the depth to understand that she was looking for. I encouraged her to go on.
"Are you sure that you can handle it?" , she asked with a smirk.
I nodded my head.
Part 4
The man kept her captive for many days. All the days the girl kept wondering why the woman or children were not helping her. How can the humanity stoop so low. She could hear the woman move and the man work on his tools. She was not given anything to eat. Every time he entered the room, it was to rape her. She felt anger at herself for wanting to help people. May be this was finally the time when she believed there was no God and humanity had ceased to be humane. She just wanted death to come and release her.
The girl was near death when the woman opened the door. There was blood everywhere in the room and in the far corner lay the man's body. The boy was holding the iron rod with which he had beaten up the man to death. The man had come after drinking and was about to hit the woman. The boy couldn't take it anymore and hit the man and then kept hitting him.
The woman asked the girl to leave as soon as possible. She told her the train was about to come and it came only once in 2 days at that particular time only for few min. They all ran towards the station and the train had come. The girl finally managed to get to the train feeling relieved. She asked for help from people but nobody acknowledged her presence. And....... That's when she saw her body lying just near the entry.
Part 5
"So that was the story", she said.
I was speechless. My stomach felt queasy again and I wanted to throw up. I finally found my voice and said, "its a pretty scary story."
She said, "life is scary, reality is scary but death releases us. But I am glad I was finally able to tell this story to someone."
"Someone?" , I asked.
"Yeah", she said, " you are the first one who saw me since I died......"
And as I was trying to get my senses back, she disappeared.
Part 1
I was travelling from Mumbai to Kolkata because of some work that I didn't want to do but still had to. As I was travelling alone the journey was boring and I was having a hard time. We had only been travelling for 2 hours and I started to get hungry because of boredom. It was 2:00 a.m when the train stopped at station. I stepped out get something to eat. I got some samosas and chutney.
After having eaten i decided to sleep but sleep escaped me. My stomach was queasy. I needed fresh air so i went and stood by the door. And then I saw her. She was an average looking girl but there was something in her eyes that captivated me. Her wandering eyes as if she was looking for someone or something.
We kept standing side by side for a while and she commented about how humid the night was. My heart beat skipped and I thanked the stars for making her talk to me. We struck a conversation about our interests, places we had visited, wanted to visit, politics and poetry. She asked as if in a deep thought, "Do you write?"
I replied," I write short stories but I am not very good."
"I used to write too but not anymore. Its been a few years since I wrote something", she said, "do you want to hear a story?"
I got excited and asked to tell me a story for her voice was music to my ears. All the while I was having difficulty in preventing myself from staring at her and now I could look at her to all my content as she would tell me the story just like the princess in Arabian nights.
Part 2
This story is about a girl who was very soft hearted and cared for everyone. She loved the entire world and tried to see beauty in everything. It doesn't mean she didn't have darker side. She was impulsive and headstrong and did exactly what she felt like. One day she decided to travel to the southern most tip of India. Now there was a family of three travelling with her, a woman and her two children, boy and girl.
She loved children so in order to reduce boredom she started talking and playing with them. The woman not being very educated didn't talk much. She had marks on her face as if she had been beaten up. She seemed to cringe and disappear in the corner of the compartment. The children however, were quite playful, least bothered about tattered condition of their clothes or dirt in their hair and hands.
As the journey went on the woman started to open up with the girl. The girl listened to her patiently and asked questions in order to help her open more. The woman told her," I was married at a young age to a man who was 20 years older than me. He works as a locksmith and is as cold and cruel as the tools he works with. He would beat me up everyday at the slightest or sometimes even no provocation at all. There are days I want to kill myself. No matter how much I care for him or try to please, he just goes on beating me and my children."
"Its difficult to live with such a man. Does your family know what you are undergoing," girl asks.
"Yes, they know", she says , "but we are poor and my family can't take the take the responsibility of me and my children."
The girl persists, " but have you ever thought of leaving him."
The woman seemed to have given up all hope in life and refused to do believe or acknowledge she could do something about it.
They kept talking and time flew by. A station came where the woman and her children were supposed to get off. It was small obscure station where the train stops for hardly few minutes.
The girl turned her back still thinking about how much ugliness the woman and her children saw in everyday life. As she was thinking she heard a man shouting and woman crying. When she looked outside she saw that the man was dragging away the woman and pulling the boy through the platform. They were shouting in pain and the man was hurling abuses at her as the train was running late.
The train started to move and she could still hear their wailing. It was night and not many people were on the station. The man swore he would kill the woman and children. She couldn't take any more and as the man raised his hand with iron rod towards the boy, she jumped off the train to save the little boy. She ran towards them, threatening to call the police if he did anything to them.
The man completely lost it and as if in a fit of madness ran towards her leaving his wife and children. He caught her and dragged to a near by house where they lived and pushed her inside the room. The woman and children tried to stop him but being scared they didn't do much.
He threatened his wife with dire consequences if they dared tell anyone about the girl. He went inside the room and raped her again and again till his madness subsided.
Part 3
My throat started to get dry. Why would anybody write such a dark story. I looked at her face to find some sign of emotion but she didn't. She smiled and said ," we don't want to see the dark and ugly right. We want to brush everything under the carpet or close our eyes whenever we hear about injustice or cruelty. I don't think you can handle this story. Forget it."
I so wanted to please her. Show her that I had the depth to understand that she was looking for. I encouraged her to go on.
"Are you sure that you can handle it?" , she asked with a smirk.
I nodded my head.
Part 4
The man kept her captive for many days. All the days the girl kept wondering why the woman or children were not helping her. How can the humanity stoop so low. She could hear the woman move and the man work on his tools. She was not given anything to eat. Every time he entered the room, it was to rape her. She felt anger at herself for wanting to help people. May be this was finally the time when she believed there was no God and humanity had ceased to be humane. She just wanted death to come and release her.
The girl was near death when the woman opened the door. There was blood everywhere in the room and in the far corner lay the man's body. The boy was holding the iron rod with which he had beaten up the man to death. The man had come after drinking and was about to hit the woman. The boy couldn't take it anymore and hit the man and then kept hitting him.
The woman asked the girl to leave as soon as possible. She told her the train was about to come and it came only once in 2 days at that particular time only for few min. They all ran towards the station and the train had come. The girl finally managed to get to the train feeling relieved. She asked for help from people but nobody acknowledged her presence. And....... That's when she saw her body lying just near the entry.
Part 5
"So that was the story", she said.
I was speechless. My stomach felt queasy again and I wanted to throw up. I finally found my voice and said, "its a pretty scary story."
She said, "life is scary, reality is scary but death releases us. But I am glad I was finally able to tell this story to someone."
"Someone?" , I asked.
"Yeah", she said, " you are the first one who saw me since I died......"
And as I was trying to get my senses back, she disappeared.
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