The witness

When Jayati accepted that job in that small hill station she never imagined that she was inviting her own doom. She joined the school as a computer operator cum clerk and was offered a room in the teacher’s hostel.

She fell in love with the school at the very first week, it was for students upto class 12th. She was an average small town girl, bubbly, happy and eager to mix with all. Almost all of her colleagues were married. A few of them were local, but the teacher’s hostel was also full.

She observed within a few weeks that the attrition rate of the school was too high, some of the teachers lasted only two or three months. There were a few teachers who have been working for more than ten years or so but the remaining just came and went. Some left due to justified reason like marriage some without explanation.

She observed with dismay that no matter how much she tried to mix with the teachers they always maintained a cold distance, especially the senior ones, they had only one alibi that the managing committee does not likes their inter-mixing. Strange thing was they used to act the same way in the hostel too, here their alibi was whatever happens in hostel is reported to the managing committee. And strange enough Jayati too started to develop the hunch that whatever happens is word to word relayed to the managing committee. Hence she too developed the habit of keeping silent.

A couple of months have hardly passed when Jayati observed that the moment she used to walk out of hostel to go to school or vice versa a car used to stalk her. She ignored it initially but later she informed her colleagues, who said it must be some one who has fallen in love with her. Jayati outwardly laughed away the matter but became tensed inside because she knew that she was too ordinary looking to be stalked like that.

She had a very close friend there, actually the only friend, Lata, she was a local resident, Jayati often used to go to her home and talk with her. Lata used to sometimes say things which Jayati used to find pretty odd, she often used to talk about women who has in harsh word become mistresses of rich old people and are happy or similar things. She sometimes used to ask Jayati’s opinion on such things, who used to express her point of view. One day the discussion went to call girls and prostitutes and being brought up in a typical old-fashioned environment Jayati uttered some derogatory words about them.

She felt it offended Lata. After a few minutes Lata asked what would have she done if she was forced into such a net and Jayati told the truth she would have killed herself or killed the person who would have trapped her into that even after thousand years. And she meant it.

It seemed some thing went awry from that very day, the moment she used to walk out of her hostel or school a group of extremely dirty people started to stalk her, their behaviour, the language they used towards her scared the living daylight out of her. She has never seen such filthy human beings. She made up her mind about escaping from there, because she became suspicious that there is some thing going on behind the façade of school. Hence she made an excuse of attending a marriage and escaped from there. She went back to her town and told them that she cant come back due to medical reasons, and requested them to accept her resignation.

A few years passed and Jayati became very certain that there was some thing wrong with that school after all, because she was constantly stalked by a group of strangers wherever she went. It appeared as if they used to get some information about her whereabouts the moment she used to walk out of the home. No matter where she joined the jobs used to terminate within a few weeks, or at the maximum few months mostly without salary. As if some strong and powerful group was determined to crush her.

They scandalized her that she had an affair with one of the managing committee member of the school, and once his wife found out she ran away from there, and is still in touch with that guy in discreet. No matter how much she tried her abusers made it certain that they are trusted, as they were too many in numbers people easily believed them, Jayati’s being orphan helped them even more.

They forced her to move out of her home, her town, her family and live on her own. She did not dared to marry because she knew that they will harm the family she gets related to. So she became strong and firm and started to live on her own. Completely ignoring all the abusive behaviour, because she knew that they will have to be content with only that, and she cant fight them because they are too filthy, too well organized, too powerful and too many in numbers.

Finally she found her answer in a shocking manner, she joined a firm run by the wife of a tycoon of the state in which she resided.

A few days passed and she was mystified because she thought that she has seen her boss before, for days, but used to shrug it off as deja vu. Then one day, the truth struck her, even though her boss was using the name of Nina, and she was married to some one else, daughter of some one else, she was most probably Lata, or her lookalike, but that was hardly possible, because not only did they had exactly same looks, they had the same voice, even the same mannerisms.

That very instant the truth dawned on her, why was she being hounded after so many years. Because she was at the wrong place in the wrong time. And her survival may cause some strong heads roll. She resigned from the job after getting another job, which she knew will be snatched away from her soon.

That evening she came back from office and was just about to relax when her phone rang, she picked up and beamed after noting the name, it was her only friend from that school, reshmi, she was the one who has been hinting her to leave the joh and has maintained the friendship after so many years, never failing to call her up atleast once a week, sharing all her problems and suggesting her way out.

She pressed the reply button, a chill of recognition ran down her spine when she felt that Reshmi’s voice was too similar to the voice of Nina’s husband Bharat Singh, the tycoon, he used to call up for Nina often.

A big industrialist, who ran multiple web based consultancy businesses starting from job to matrimony and outsourcing, and has stricken gold in ten years (just after the time Jayati left that school). Reshmi was the only person who knew her every move, and she was the one who suggested her to seek discharge from the school on pretext of psychological problems, and asked her to contact her trusted psychiatrist who will give her the false certificate.

She got answers to all her questions in an instant. How she was framed, her reputation and life ruined and monitored. She vowed to herself to be more intelligent on friends and face her cheap enemies with courage and strength.