Confusion

This post is written for BLOGESHWAR  and Anubhooti


“Sourav, get up dude.” Kunal kicked his roommate. “I am leaving for office. Don’t you have shift today?” he asked Sourav.

Sourav rubbed his eyes and stared at Kunal. “Why are you looking at me like this? Something is wrong?” Kunal asked him.

“Well as much as I know, you don’t have much work now days. Neither there is a party in your office today. Then why have you dressed up so well and leaving for office on time?” Sourav was confused.

“You get up and get ready. There are already 5 missed calls from your cab driver.” Kunal winked at him and left for office.

There was a spring in his steps and smile on his face. He was feeling very good today. But this was not the case till some days back. One month back the scene was entirely different.

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He was having his evening tea in cafeteria with his colleague cum best buddy Shiv. “Kunal, yaar what is life?” Shiv asked Kunal.

Based on this question, don’t judge Shiv to be a serious guy. He is a happy go lucky person. By hearing his jokes, no one can think that he was the university topper and a very studious guy. He was Kunal’s cubicle mate from last three years and seeing each other 5 days a week for more than 8 hours made them very good friends. During the hectic work in that R&D organization, Shiv’s jokes were the only relief for Kunal. He used to love his company.

“What happened dude, why such a serious question today? Everything is fine right?” Kunal patted Shiv. 

“Yaar, we have studied so hard, got admission in a reputed college. Again we studied so much, to get job in big research and development organization. But what is the end result?” Kunal was looking at Shiv with questions in his eyes. 

“Least scorer of my class is also earning well, and enjoying life. Yaar look at these call center guys, they get to spend time with beautiful girls throughout their office hours. And in our domain there are no girls.” Shiv continued.

Kunal interrupted “Dude, there are some 6 female employees in this site.” Shiv gave him shut your mouth look and said “I am talking about beautiful girls, not about Madam Prabhawati who applies so much oil in her hair that she can easily supply coconut oil to whole Germany for full one year. Or Madam Sheila, who wears soda bottle glasses on her eyes.”

“Dude, but I don’t think they use coconut oil in Germany.” Shiv stared at Kunal in response of his question and they both burst out laughing.

This used to be a common topic of discussion over their evening tea. They concluded that most of the good looking girls go for modeling and films. Some other who can study also with cute face, goes for MBA or journalism. And the rest 10% not so good looking geeky girls come to engineering colleges.

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Kunal was going through some online document, when he got a tap on his back by Shiv. “Yaar stop reading this boring document. Listen to the interesting news I have.”

Kunal: And what is that?

Shiv: There is a vacancy in Human resource department.

Shiv winked while saying that. Kunal was really puzzled that how come this is a great news.

Shiv: Yaar, remember our conclusion? MBA, Human resource….. This time for sure a girl will join.

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Yesterday, Kunal went to Shiv’s cubical to call him for tea. 

Shiv: Yaar, the selection process is over. Have you seen this mail? 

He was referring to the email opened on his computer. 

Shiv: For the vacancy in HR department some Suman has been selected.

Kunal also got excited by seeing Shiv’s excitement. Throughout their tea break Suman was the topic of discussion. 

Kunal: What was exactly written in the mail dude? She is single right?

Shiv: Yes right, they have mentioned her sandal number also in that mail.

Kunal: Are you kidding me?

Shiv: Are you out of your mind. How come they will give her relationship status in that mail? The only thing written there was candidate selected for HR post is Suman Sharma.

Kunal: That’s all?

Shiv: yes that’s all. 

He smiled and continued. “Have patience yaar, tomorrow you will get to know everything about her.”

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Today Kunal woke up early and got dressed for office before time. He did not want to miss the introduction of new employees during the quarterly meeting. 

There was a spring in his step and smile on his face. He was feeling very good today. 

He reached office and straight away went to Shiv’s place. “Dude, is this you. How come I am seeing you in office before 9’o Clock?” he asked Shiv.

Shiv: You are seeing me early for the same reason, which made you wear your best shirt today.

They both started laughing. 

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All the employees were sitting in the office auditorium and the quarterly meeting started in few minutes.

There were lines of presentations by different department heads about their progress and future goals.

Shiv: Don’t they know that no one is listening to them. Why are they boring us yaar.

Kunal smiled. 

After an hour it was turn for the HR department presentation.

Kunal: Dude, just this presentation. Then we will get to see Miss Suman. 

He had a mischievous smile on his face. Shiv showed thumbs up to him and smiled back.

After 15 minutes the presentation was over and the HR manager said “That was all form our side. And now I request all the new joinees in this quarter to introduce themselves.” 

Both Kunal and Shiv started listening to the introduction consciously. Some four introductions were over. “When Suman will come yaar.” Shiv was eager. 

And then they heard this voice “Hello everyone. I am Suman Sharma.”

Shiv was staring nonstop at her with his mouth open. Kunal said “Dude, She is good.”

Shiv: good? She is awesome yaar.

They both listened to Suman’s introduction very carefully. And as she finished, Shiv turned to Kunal “Yaar, after this meeting we have common lunch. There we will talk to her.”

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Both of them were keeping eye on Suman, to get a perfect chance to talk to her. 

Kunal: Dude, how we will start the conversation?

Shiv smiled and said confidently “Don’t worry, that will come there automatically. On the go.”

They saw her talking to the other ladies and they were waiting for her to move away from that group. 

They were still discussing, that who among them will talk to her first when they saw Suman talking over phone and walking towards the main gate. 

Kunal: Hey, She is going outside.

Shiv: Yes, She rushed all of a sudden. May be she will need our help. We should go behind her.

They both rushed to the main gate. And there they saw something which shattered their dreams.

They saw a little girl. Who came running to Suman, hugged her and said “Mummy….” 

Shiv and Kunal were shocked. 

Kunal: How can she be a mom? She is married?

He looked at Shiv, who was still staring at Suman. He made crying face and said “This is cheating Yaar. I am going to sue all the anti aging cream companies.”

The Call

I sipped the coffee and started typing again. In that silent room only sound was caused by my typewriter. Now a days when everyone writes on computer and laptop, I still prefer my typewriter. This typewriter was gifted to me by my father, who was a famous writer. I write stories for a magazine and my first book is ready for launch in few months. Rhythm of the typewriter’s sound broke by interruption from a phone call. Our land line phone was ringing. My wife Shina and son Aryan were out for shopping, I was the only one responsible to pick it up. I received the call “Hello”. No sound came from the other side. “Hello who is this? Hello. Can you hear me?”  But no reply came from other side and call got disconnected. I came back to my seat and I was about to type the next word when phone rang again. “Hello…. Hello. Who is this? Whom you want to talk to? Hello …” but like before this time also there was no reply. I kept the receiver and returned to my seat but phone rang again. As if someone doesn’t want me to write peacefully. I received the call but again no answer. This series of blank calls continued for some 10-15 times continuously.


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We were discussing how our day was at work, when my wife told me about the series of blank calls came on our landline phone in the evening. I told her that the same incident happened last Sunday also when I was alone at home. I thought we should buy a caller id phone set. But my wife was not much interested in doing so, in place of that she suggested removing the landline phone as we both have mobile, and landline was old fashioned according to her. But being someone who likes old things I didn’t wanted to remove landline connection and dropped my idea of buying a caller id phone.


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I pressed the doorbell. Shina opened the door and hugged me tight “thank god, you are alright”. She looked scared and her face was wet with tears and sweat. She looked terrified, and was thanking god for saving me. I made her sit comfortably, gave her water and asked her what happen. She said that when she came back from office, some blank calls came as it came last week. After few blank calls in one call someone said that I (her husband) met with an accident. Shina asked him who that person is and from where he is speaking, she asked him how I am and where I am but the person didn’t reply and disconnected the call. After that she tried calling me but my phone was switched off, which frightened her more. I checked my phone, it was off. I only switched it off when I went inside a meeting and forgot to switch it on once I came out. I had no idea about who called Shina and why someone informed her about my accident, but this one incident scared my whole family.

Next day itself I bought caller id phone. And I informed my friend Suresh, who was in police, about this incident. He told me not to panic, may be someone had played prank on us.


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I walked in the hall to take the newspaper, and I saw Shina shouting on Aryan. I asked her the reason. She said “I am so upset with your son. He never listens to me. Today he took chocolate from some stranger uncles.” I smiled and assured her that I will tell Aryan not to do this again. I made my son to sit on my lap, but he being a naughty kid was trying to get out of my grip and run around. “So you made momma angry again?” he smiled. We both started playing with each other and soon room was filled with our giggles.


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I was working in my study room when I heard Shina screaming my name. I panicked and ran towards the hall. She said that Aryan went for playing in the park but he did not come back yet. I asked her “Have you seen in his room, maybe he is back.  She cried “I checked everywhere in the house, he is not here”. I told her not to worry and decided to go myself and call Aryan from the nearby park because it was getting darker. I did not find him in the park, I asked few neighbors also but no one had any idea about where Aryan went. I came back home and my wife was in worse condition then in what I left her. She was crying nonstop. I too got tensed and worried when I came to know about the ransom call, which came sometime back. My little son was kidnapped. Till now I had seen these things only in movies or read those in news paper, but today this happened to my 6 year old kid, it made me go weak on knees. I checked the number from where call came on our phone and called there, but no one picked up.

The kidnaper warned us not to call police. Still I called my friend Suresh and told him about the incident. He asked me for the number from which ransom call came and told me to mail Aryan’s photo to him.


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That was a sleepless night and early morning we got call from the kidnaper. He asked us for money and said he will call again and inform about the time and location where we should give him money. When I checked in caller id, I found out that this time the number used to call us was different. I informed the same to Suresh. Within an hour Suresh came to our home with his team. They all came in civilian dress so that no one comes to know that police came to our house. He said that his team traced the numbers and found out that both the calls came from some PCOs near the city engineering college. He asked us if anything else unusual happened in last few days. My wife told him about the blank calls we used to get some days back and about that call which gave her the wrong information about my accident.


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24 hours passed and Shina fell ill due to constant crying and tension. I gave her sleeping pills and somehow made her sleep, but I was restless. Around ten in the night Suresh called me and asked me to come to the police station immediately. He said that they arrested the kidnappers and Aryan is safe now. I reached police station in no time. My son was sitting in the police station and he started crying after seeing me. He was not beaten by the kidnappers but the whole incident scared my little boy a lot. I thanked Suresh and his team for saving my kid and asked him who the kidnapper was. I never expected even in my wildest dream that the kidnappers were some students from the city engineering college. These guys were addicted to drugs and when they ran short of money they planned this kidnapping. I was still confused that why they did this with me as I am not the richest guy of the town neither I am any industrialist. Suresh said “once you went to their college as chief guest for some function. There you shared your home phone number with few guys who were interested in writing. From there only they got your number” I came to know that these guys only used to give blank calls on my landline, to find out who used to be at home at what time. They only called Shina about my accident to check if we complain to police for such misguiding call or not. These students only visited Aryan outside his school and gave him chocolate to increase familiarity with my kid. I never thought that students from a reputed institution can do such crime. But someone rightly mentioned that addiction is always harmful. And their drug addiction turned these future engineers into criminals.

PS: This is my entry for the 'Blogeshwar 3.0' contest.

Freedom

Pain is increasing. I see my mom walking next to my stretcher. She is telling me that everything will be alright. I am not able to bear the pain and I shout.

“Aauch… Dadi ma it’s hurting” I am 8 and my grandmother is pinching my ear for playing football with boys in my colony. She thinks I should not play outdoor games, if I fall and get marks on my body then no one will marry me.

They have changed me into an open gown and now taking me to the labour room. I am crying in pain.


I am sitting in the garden and crying. I am 14. I won gold medal in the inter school dance competition, but no one except my mom is happy about it. Dadi said I should learn cooking and stitching, only that will help me in future.


I am inside the labour room. Pain is unbearable now, I am sweating. Nurse helped me to lie down properly. Doctor is telling me to push.

I push the door with anger and entered my room. I came back from college when I heard Dadi telling my dad to start looking for my marriage. When I said I am just 18 now and I want to do my graduation first, she yelled at me. I got angry and shouted that they never care about my wishes, she slapped on my face.

Nurse is wiping sweat off my face and telling me to push. I am shouting and crying with pain and the doctor telling me “Come on you can do it. Try!! ”.

“Please beta, you have to do it.”  mom is crying. I am not happy to get married at an age of 19. This is a forced marriage. I want to study and make my career but dad and dadi are against it. They feel girl should get married as early as possible and look after their family. Education and career is not important for them.

I never felt such pain ever in my life before. Nurse and doctor are telling me to push. I am exhausted.

I am feeling weak and very tired. Yesterday I had abortion. My mother in law and husband don’t want a daughter. They forced me for sonography and killed my baby girl against my wish before she can open her eyes in this world.

I am pushing with all the energy I have. Giving birth to a new life is like rebirth for a woman. From the time I conceived this baby my husband and mother in law tried many times to find the sex of my baby, but due to new strict rule from government against this they were not able to find it.

I am pregnant again and I am fed up with my mother in law’s prayers for a boy child. She curses me day and night for conceiving a girl child last time. Today even I lost my temper and told her to stop cursing me for that. She raised her hand to slap me but I stopped her. My husband saw all this and hit me ruthlessly. They told me not to enter their house if I give birth to a girl.

I am fully exhausted but all my pain vanished after seeing my child. I have never seen something so small and beautiful. Yes, she is my beautiful doll. My mom comes inside the room, I asked her about my husband and mother in law. As excepted they were very angry and left the hospital. My mom is crying, she is worrying about my future because my husband will not accept me now. But I am happy. I am happy to hold my daughter in my arms and I feel great to hug her. I look at her innocent face, she doesn't even know that her father is not happy with her birth. But that does not matter me anymore. For me this is the happiest moment of my life. Now I want to study further and get some job. I kiss my girl and I promise her a beautiful life. She won’t live a life full of compromises and adjustments like I lived. I will give her good education and make her independent. I will make sure that she gets all the rights to live a successful life and enjoy her freedom.




PS:  This is my entry for the ‘Blogeshwar 2.0’ contest. And guess what, I won it :D