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Chapter 1:
I wasn't sure what time it was. I half-heartedly woke up to the ringing phone and saw Ramya's name being displayed. Why in the world would she call me that early on a Friday morning?
"Yes Ramya!" I answered the phone.
"Keshan… I'm at the Perungulathur bus stand. Can you come here now?" she sounded worried.
"That's too far for me, Ramya. Why, what happened?"
"Oh man! There is a young girl here. Guess she has just attained puberty. There are blood stains on her dress. I have no clue on what to do with her! She doesn't know Tamil or Hindi or English for that matter. I'm not able to understand her language. I called you because you are a journalist and also work with a lot of NGOs and thought we could take her to one of those"
“Good heavens! First, buy her a sanitary pad and get her clothes changed. I will call up NGOs and check what should be done. Is there a police station nearby? You should probably hand her over to them." I uttered everything that came to my mind.
"To the cops? Are you sure?" She was skeptical.
"I guess so. Anyways, I will try to come there as soon as possible. Wait for me" I said and sprang up from my bed and got ready in a hurry.
As I was speeding up in my bike on the GST road, I kept wondering who that girl could be, how she ended up at the bus stand on that day and in that state - when she attained puberty. I was glad Ramya found her. Or was she too late? Could the girl have been molested by human monsters the previous night? I prayed nothing so should have happened. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind as I reached the Perungulathur bus stand in half an hour’s time.
Ramya was sitting on a bench along with the girl – who had probably changed her clothes and was eating Dosai. The little girl looked up to me. She should have realized I'm a friend of the woman who helped her. She put up a beautiful smile and extended her hand with the dosai trying to offer me her food. I put up a wry smile and signalled her to eat. Here was a young little girl in a city that she probably didn't know, at an age she could possibly not know what's happening to her body, unaware of the hunters that could potentially be behind her flesh – but was smiling and eating like innocent young little girls should!
"That old lady selling tea there helped us in changing her clothes, sanitary napkins and also offered her some food. There are still a lot of good people around, Keshan. You know, when I saw this girl in that condition I was really heartbroken. I didn't know what to do, whom to contact. I could only think of you! Poor girl. I'm really not sure if we should handle her to the cops. Can we take her to some home for girls?"
"Can you understand what she speaks? Did she tell anything in sign language – about her family, place, home?”
“No, Keshan. Not a word. I even tried asking her name. However, what she said didn’t sound like a name. I couldn’t exactly place her dialect.”
“That’s sad. I think we should take her to the cops – just to be on the safer side. I don’t want us to end up in any trouble"
"Really Keshan? Anyways - if you say so!" Ramya half-heartedly agreed and we waited for the little one to finish her breakfast.
Ten minutes later, Ramya got onto my bike along with the girl and we headed towards the Perungulathur police station. I parked my bike outside. The three of us got down and I held the girl’s hands as I took her inside the police station. The moment she saw some cops in and around the police station, the little bit my hand hard, pushed me away and stormed out of the police station – like her life depended on running as far away as possible. I stood in shocked silence wondering what had happened.
“Hey wait…girl wait” Ramya shouted and followed her on the busy GST road.
I got alerted and ran behind the two of them but almost froze on hearing a load scream from Ramya. The little girl was hit by a lorry and was lying down on a pool of blood in the middle of the road. |
I loved it Dani..
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