Fair Enough?? (A short story)

Fair Enough??

Sitting on the floor cross-legged, with her hair ruffled like a cuckoo’s nest, her black-tee drenched in sweat and her denim shorts stained with blood, Anwesha stared at the floor like a baby in front of a sea. All these years, she lived in a world of coherence. She had parents, siblings, friends, neighbours, people with human traits, predictable and laughable. On that day, in those moments, her world turned upside down. A cave inhibiting a blood-thirsty beast came alive. She thought it to be just another fun-filled day in her life, another memorable day with her loved ones. Another outing to the unknown, another adventurous day! A teenage girl who could drive a car like a pro at the age of 12 through the busy streets of Connaught Place in the capital city of New Delhi, on a weekend, on her debut driving experience, nothing seemed unfamiliar, unknown or impossible. But a decade is just not enough to unearth the filthy face of a civilized society. In spite of being regarded as the bravest kid in the block, Anwesha succumbed to her worst fear in a matter of few seconds. Trapped, dragged, stripped, raped and beaten, the 17-year-old braveheart gave up on her belief in humanity. Being traumatised by her own kin was the last thing that could have happened to a person who regarded them to be her greatest strength.

Ankit Chaturvedi always wanted a daughter. On 14^th February, 1998, his wife Anisha Chaturvedi, gave birth to a seven pound miracle, whom they named Anwesha. To be straightaway categorized in the lower-middle class template of the Indian society, can be the greatest and funniest experience for a family. Mediocrity being a persistent quality in Ankit’s life, excellence was no less than a kilo of the American apple breed in a Wednesday market of a dingy and congested bylane of the capital city. Born and brought up amidst a chaotic, yet admirable survival platter of New Delhi, Anwesha grew up to be a wonder kid.

She was five years old when she walked up to the stage and hummed ‘Ek tu hi bharosa’, sung by India’s nightingale Lata Mangeshkar from the Anil Kapoor starrer ‘PUKAR’. She sang it so well that Mr. Gupta, the principal of her school was in tears. Mr. Gupta suggested Mr. And Mrs. Chaturvedi that she should learn singing.

A dry and sunny day near the India gate, Mr. Chaturvedi and his little princess were enjoying bhelpuri under the humungous shade of a Banyan tree, near the historic tourist attraction of India’s capital city. Anwesha brought with her a drawing book and some colour pencils before she came to her favourite place with her father. Just after they finished their street food session, she sat down and poured in her magical canvas of the day on the papyrus. Mr. Chaturvedi was stunned to see her drawing skills. His thought – ‘How can a nine-year-old do that?’ However, he was puffed with pride about her little angel’s abilities.

At the age of 16, she had won all major competitions in her school, 5 national-level debate championships, 8 national-level quiz competitions and was on the verge of creating history on a singing reality show on national television.

A week before the finale of the singing reality show, she arrived at her hometown. She was given a hero’s welcome, with people roaring ‘We love Anwesha’ and ‘Anwesha, you are amazing, fantastic’, the chaotic and mad love exhibition for her was somehow unbelievable for her. With more than 3000 people gathered at the Terminus 1 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the Delhi Police was witnessing the toughest job of their life – controlling a maniac crowd. Amidst the fanfare and needless cacophony, Mr. Chaturvedi saw her little girl getting intimidated by the love, or rather the alien love that she witnessed, thrust towards her. He opened his arms to her and asked her to run towards him, blindly. She almost stumbled before reaching the most peaceful corner of her life.

Back at Karol Bagh, Her mother was busy making her favourite Palak Paneer, Butter chicken and Baingan ka bharta, eagerly waiting for her little girl and to see those bright eyes, filled with pride and love. As Anwesha stepped inside the now-20-year-old 2-BHK apartment in Karol Bagh, she was smitten by the smell of her favourite dishes. After receiving and returning the hugs and kisses, Anwesha and her family sat down and devoured on their lunch.

The day after was special for Anwesha. She was invited by her maternal uncle and aunty to their C-67 duplex apartment in Noida, Sector – 13. Anwesha’s uncle, Mr. Dinkar Sharma, was an ardent admirer of her. He was the one who gifted Anwesha her first keyboard, knowing very well that she will be a ‘Rockstar’, as he used to call her, someday. Mr. Sharma was the one who urged Mr. Chaturvedi to allow Anwesha to participate in the auditions of the singing reality show. Mr. Sharma himself was a musician, trained in Indian classical and semi-classical from Lucknow’s Bhatkhande University. Anwesha’s love for music was first identified by him and since then, both Mr. Sharma and Anwesha shared an amazing chemistry – something which was pretty alien to Mr. And Mrs. Chaturvedi. Mr. And Mrs. Sharma lost their daughter in a horrifying car accident. Their daughter, Maahi, was also a gifted musician. However, her gift was valued by those who always wanted a price for it. Months before she breathed her last, Mr. And Mrs. Sharma tried their level best to understand their little star’s woe, but she never spoke about anything. Maahi, slowly and gradually, turned out to be a complete failure in studies as well as in her singing classes. Just when they found a way out to figure out Maahi’s issues, tragedy struck Sharma family. One fine day, lost in her thoughts, Maahi opened the gate of their duplex apartment, walked straight to the middle of the road and before she could come to her senses, a black SUV hit her and threw her on the barbed wire fencing of Mr. Sharma’s apartment. The musical sensation was spiked from her head to toe, leaving the wall beside Mr. Sharma’s study, blood red.

Although it’s been a decade now, Mr. Sharma has fought hard to forget the incident, but Anwesha and her innocence brings back all the memories of Maahi in front of his eyes. He is elated, but equally grief-stricken, whenever Anwesha takes a leap to hug Mr. Sharma’s 6 ft 5 inches persona. The love is reciprocated by him, but with an unspoken envy, which has no measures. With a grown-up girl like Anwesha, it was hard for him to behave in a way that he used to when she was a 5-year-old kid. He was careful enough to be cordial and friendly with the future singing superstar. Moments after Anwesha arrived with her parents and her family had the usual family chat with the Sharmas, lunch was served. It was lavish and delicious; each member of both the families enjoyed the mouth-watering dishes displayed in front of them. A rare family reunion every Indian girl or boy dies to be a part of.

Mrs. Chaturvedi’s anxiety suddenly rose to an unprecedented level when she could not find her daughter in her room. Mr. Chaturvedi gave a call to Mr. Sharma, without wasting any time. But it was of no use as Mr. Sharma’s phone was repeating the same banter again and again, ‘Is samay upbhokta ka mobile switched off hai, kripya thodi der baad dial karein’. At 6 in the morning, Mr. Chaturvedi remembered that Dinkar usually goes for a jog in the nearby park of his house, but not without his phone. Mr. Chaturvedi was not convinced, and so he drove to Mr. Sharma’s place. To his surprise, the apartment was locked. The neighbours had no clue and the guards were absolutely oblivious about the fact that there was a Sharma family residing in this apartment. Probably the guards were new, Mr. Chaturvedi thought. But then he wondered that how can a family travelling in a black SUV sneak away from the colony unnoticed. A police investigation was an inevitable scenario at this point. They searched the house, inch by inch, brick by brick, even the probable areas near the house. There was no trace of Anwesha anywhere, not even a clue that would suggest something.

Desserts have always been Anwesha’s weakness and Mrs. Sharma knew this pretty well. She prepared five different desserts, just to make sure that the other members of both the families don’t run out of options! Family get-togethers like these were incomplete without Anwesha’s performance. Both the families were spellbound with her magical voice. While Anwesha sang her favourite Lata Mangeshkar song, ‘Tu Jahan Jahan Chalega, Mera Saya Saath Hoga’, Mr. Sharma was transported to those fun-filled singing sessions that he used to have with his daughter.

She was nothing less than his prized treasure. But one fine day, when she returned from Mr. Chaturvedi’s place, after enjoying Anwesha’s birthday party, Maahi looked all weared out. It was as if someone had sucked the life out of her right in front of her eyes. Being a father, Mr. Sharma noticed Maahi’s face and asked her about what was wrong with her. Maahi’s face was bereft of all kinds of emotion at that point of time. She called out her mother immediately, with a voice that was fiercely fear-stricken. Mrs. Sharma took her to the bathroom, asked her to undress. As she was untying the waist belt of her denims, Mrs. Sharma started to sense the wrong. As Maahi was standing with her undergarment, Mrs. Sharma could not believe her eyes. She was devastated. She wanted to scream, but somehow held herself. She pulled down Maahi’s panty, washed her properly, and asked her to keep her mouth shut about this. But Mrs. Sharma knew that at that moment, she was speaking to a lifeless Maahi. Maahi was unable to grasp the incidents that she witnessed. It was only her mother who knew what the consequences will be after this day. Mr. Sharma was worried to his heart and bone about his little superstar. However, Mrs. Sharma somehow picked herself together and succeeded in convincing Mr. Sharma that it was just a game played amongst the children in Anwesha’s birthday party. Maahi lost the game pretty badly and so she was upset. Later on, when both of them were about to take a nap, Mrs. Sharma told Mr. Sharma that their kid’s innocence has been tampered with, that she was sexually abused and that she is in shock and trauma; a trauma which  might wither away the best in her. Mr. Sharma was desperate to take the legal way, but his wife begged of him to not make it a public affair. She wanted her family to gulp in this treacherous event of their life and move on, because such incidents are bound to happen in families like theirs. However, the next morning, when they saw their kid’s body spiked on their barbed wire fencing wall, avenging her death became an inevitable truth of their life.

After leaving the Sharma and Chaturvedi audience spellbound, Anwesha urged to stay back at Mr. Sharma’s. Anwesha’s parents considered the Sharmas as the second home for her. They agreed and asked her to be early at home. Mr. Sharma knew that this was the moment that he was waiting for since a decade. As the Sharmas bid adieu to the Chaturvedis, Anwesha ran towards Maahi’s room. Mr. Sharma followed her. In the meantime, he asked his wife to shut all the lights and go to sleep, as the decisive moment of their lives was just here.

As Anwesha sat on the cozy little bed of Maahi, Mr. Sharma approached her with a fatherly affection and planted a kiss on her forehead. He told Anwesha about things that Maahi loved in this room – the huge Barbie poster that was stuck on the wall just beside the bed, the framed masterpieces that Maahi created with her own little, magical hands, the toy guitar, lying on the floor like an orphan, the cute little teddies that exhibited an innocent stare, the floral bed cover, which was no more fragrant with her smell, the slippers that she often wore to take a walk with her father – all of them seemed to miss Maahi, just like her father.

Suddenly, Mr. Sharma lost his usual calmness and started to sound like a maniac. Anwesha was a little surprised to see such a transformation of her beloved uncle. The moment she wanted to ask him as to what went wrong with him, she received a tight slap on her soft and supple cheeks, making them blood red, instantly. Terrified, she started to cry out loud for help. But Mr. And Mrs. Sharma had planned for this far too long and they just could not let things falter their plans now. Mr. Sharma grabbed Anwesha’s tenderly grown neck, squeezed it so hard that she started to cough out blood. Anwesha was then laid out forcibly on Maahi’s bed, stripped to her undergarments and left to scream and cry for some time. Why was he doing this? What’s her fault? Why can’t she go home? She was terrified and was desperate enough to go home, but somehow she knew that she could not. She was again grabbed by her hair, and was thrown to the floor. She was beaten and kicked, repeatedly. Mr. Sharma unleashed the beast inside him. As Anwesha was lying down on the floor, helpless, wounded and traumatised, Mr. Sharma dropped his trousers, held Anwesha by her midriff, turned her around and tore apart Anwesha’s virginity. A 20-minute ordeal came to an end when Mr. Sharma was assured that she was now dipped in the marsh of shame, shock and trauma. Just when she thought that she was on the brink of death, Mrs. Sharma stepped in. She brought along a black tee that Maahi wore, when she was in a similar situation. The Sharmas left the room for a while, only to return, tie Anwesha’s hands by the back, tie her mouth and tell her that they are leaving this house, forever and that Anwesha will stay in Maahi’s room from now, forever. Flabbergasted, it was as if Anwesha lost her vocal chords. She could see everything, but her senses, her emotion were put to sleep. A day later, she saw someone in uniform approach her, but he too seemed to be part of the ploy.

At last, Anwesha had to stay in the desolate house with Maahi’s grief-stricken spirit, forever.