Yes! A little ambitious girl she is!
Uber and Ola were taking parallel slots on her mobile phone. Time not being very late into the night and it was just around 10 minutes past 8 p.m., and just then two of her friends left in a cab just because the vehicle they booked did not get canceled and arrived on time, unfortunately. Nothing had happened unexpectedly. And it was actually unpredicted that her cab got canceled the minute her friends left the place. On an extremely bustling road, with numerous people running behind the fully loaded buses, with the number of auto drivers roaming, convincing the passengers to take his ride was more than one could count, a lot of voices screaming to the unarrived cabs, a lot of sending off voice notes to their loveable ones, was she standing amidst. In the middle of all these numerous bustling, rushing and running, she could find no hand for her to hold. She was extremely restless and helpless for no reason. Somehow, one had accepted her ride request. No slower than this an application could refresh and could get updated. Every second was crawling like an hour for her. That five-minute wait was like the most terrible part of her life. Finally, She saw the creature with the awaited registration number being dragged towards her through the million heads. She got into it and it was just a minute since she sat relaxed. That relief didn’t want to sit close to her for so long. Some sort of insecurity again started murmuring into her ears. Not every woman out here is Rani Lakshmi Bai to step over all the inhumane practices forced over her. And she was not an exception as well. For no reason, she shouted with a jerk within herself. She did know that her mom would be awaiting her call of reached home safely. She did know her friends who had just left would be waiting for her ‘reached home’ message. And she knew her brother and her friends who lived states away and who did not even know she had gone to meet her friends not more than some ten kilometers away would be praying unknowingly for her reaching home safely as well. None of them had yet received a response from her. Neither her parents nor her friends could she add to that queue. All she could hear was Nirbhaya and Asifa sitting next to her and screaming endlessly none of which she could decode. The driver kept on receiving calls over his phone none of those talks she could understand as well. Though there was heavy traffic on the road she was travelling, and there were a lot of traffic signals with more than bearable waiting time, she was undergoing a nightmare. Neither did the three-wheeled creature nor the three neighbours within the dial crawl fast. Anything and everything in her vicinity intensified her insecurity and fear. She could neither come out of her composed, darkened, frightening world nor could she stay calm. Everybody crossing her vehicle created a sort of suspicion and fear within her. Suddenly it started raining heavily. It had already been more than fifteen minutes since she started. It was getting darker and darker outside as the power went off in almost all the buildings lying on the way. Adding to her adversity, the mobile network was also poor and she was not even able to track where she was. Though the area and the route were not new to her, she felt like a fish out of water. It is not new seeing people being unaware of the usual routes and landmarks. And She never wanted to be an exception at all. Amidst everything, she suddenly saw some strands over her network bar becoming bright. All of a sudden, she sent her live location to her most recent chat on WhatsApp without even recognizing who that was with a message ’In trouble. Keep tracing me if possible’. And in no time, all those brightened sticks went asleep. She got completely drenched despite sitting inside the vehicle. She was able to prevent neither herself nor her belongings from getting wet. She was shivering badly because of rain and of course because of the constantly increasing fear. However, she could see some familiar landmarks on her sides. Slowly she felt herself coming back alive. In not more than two minutes, they found that the road is blocked due to overflowing water, and the driver had to take a diversion. Ans she was rolled back to her darkness again. She was not even confident enough that She was travelling towards her home. After the diversion, the way the driver chose was the one chosen by everybody else got diverted from every other blocked road. And that made them wait unbearably and in turn increased her fear. She couldn’t stay calm. She searched for some familiar landmarks, trustable faces, bright strands over her network bar none of which wanted to bring a smile on her face. She was totally out of the happenings and she created her own imaginative newspaper dated the next day with the head title ‘Young Girl in a midnight auto - Is Humanity still alive in the society?’. And somehow the road was free from the jam, and the auto managed to make a move. The vehicle was literally sailing rather than being driven. There were vehicles around, people around but nobody was in a situation to stop, see and recognize what was happening around them. A can’t-be-blamed situation though. She managed to close her eyes, silenced the terrifying cries around her, and sat calmly amidst everything and everybody around, praying to whatever God she could think of. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the auto stopped and the driver was unable to turn on the engine again. Probably because of the overflowing water on the roads, the engine would have got stuck. She could be of no help to herself. She would have taken another vehicle if she was able to connect her mobile to the network. She would have got down and requested for some lifts at least if it was not raining. Neither her inner self nor the fate favoured her in getting out of the puzzling maze. The driver tried as hard as he could, but all his efforts were in vain. All the vehicles behind could not wait and they were screaming through their horns. Finally, the driver got down and pushed the auto to the side of the road. He looked very worried and he was continuously lamenting none of which she could get through. Out of fortune, he was able to bring back the auto alive. And she was back alive as well. And the rain started slowing down gradually. And they were able to see the buildings getting brightened up one after the other. And suddenly she was getting a call on her mobile. She bounced and then found that to be an advertising call. And that’s when she recognized her network was back. She just looked aside and she could see her familiar landmarks and slowly the name boards of the streets through which she roamed daily. She was getting life gradually. And she could see a lot of messages from all the expected people topping her list. And finally, she heard her mobile whispering, “Your destination is on your right”. She jumped out of the auto as fast as she could and ran into her apartment. She could hear the driver telling her, “Take care”. And when she was waiting for the lift, she was listening to the conversation between the driver and the apartment security. The driver was telling him that he was much worried about everything happened. He was mentioning that with a girl inside the auto at night, he had faced all sorts of problems nobody should face. He did mention that he could feel the uneasiness she was going through throughout the travel. She was totally confused about the things happened and the one happening then. Before she could sort out the situation, she got a call from her brother.
“Where were you? We were not able to reach you through the phone for the past hour. What were you doing? Do you know what the time is? Mom is much worried.”
“Calm down. I was on another call through the other sim-card. So, you would have got a ‘not reachable’ notification. Nothing to worry. I am bolder enough and grown up to face day-to-day problems. Don’t complicate little things. I am hungry. Will call you later. Bye”
Mom was calling.
The call ended in less than a minute with the same reply.
She deleted the ’In trouble. Keep tracing me if possible’ message which had not been sent fortunately.
And the situation became as normal as it is always like nothing had happened in the past one hour.
This is how the society wants her to think, imagine and create her own pictures of it and its people.
And this is how the society nails over her head in dumping the limits in projecting her problems and opening herself up.
The boy on the stage finished narrating the story which brought up fears and tears among the audience with standing ovations all over the hall.
And he called the writer upon to honour and appreciate.
Only she knew how long it took for her to summarise everything that happened in that one hour into a single-page story within a night.
Standing with the mic on the stage, she told her brother, “It took one whole night for me that day to satisfy my hunger. And that’s why I called you the next morning. Sorry”
And he murmured with teary eyes, ‘My little ambitious girl!’
After a silence, She continued.
“Anyway, Pray for your sister’s justice. She is still within her black blankets soaking her own beloved pillow.”.
“All my dear brothers, She can be a sister of one among you. Don’t take a girl just as a girl. She is supposed to be taken a lot more than how you see and portray her. Though she may not be your mother, sister or friend, she may become your wife or sister-in-law or even your daughter”
The story has been taken as a story by everybody and her brother was not an exception as well. She was appreciated for her deep thoughts and creativity.
Society continues to look through, get attracted to and feel happy about the colours amidst the unnoticed omnipresent blacks and whites.
Yes, we all do exist in this well-portrayed society but just as the blurred images roaming around the bright photographs.