Shelter

Pabak was returning home from Kashmir, he usually preferred traveling in plain clothes, with civilians. He was sitting on the window seat, no one has entered his first class compartment as yet, and the remaining berth was reserved from a station after Kanpur, his home. The train has barely started to move when someone entered his compartment and bolted the door from inside.

He jumped up from his seat; it was a woman in burqa. One of his hands gripped the automatic in his pocket firmly, “Who are you?” his voice became harsh unwillingly. “It’s a reserved compartment.”

The intruder uncovered her face, Pabak stared at her face. He has never seen such a beautiful girl in his whole life. She dropped down on her knees and folded her hands, “Bhaiya please save me. Only God knows how I fooled them and slipped out of their clutches.”

“Sit down.” He said. He handed her over a glass of water. The train has started to move in a nice speed.

“Bhaisaab, please, will you draw the curtains of the window?” she begged.

There was something in her voice which made Pabak listen to her. She had her reasons. She herself voluntarily blabbered out her horrible story to him. She was studying in class tenth, in a small town of Madhya Pradesh when her own mother took her to a trip, a one way trip to Kashmir. She ended up in a brothel and her mother vanished.

It’s been more than four years since that nightmarish journey; she was being taken to Bihar for a dance program. Her escorts being confident that she does not have any where to go have gone slack and she has escaped. She just hopped in the train on the opposite platform when it started to move and barged into the first compartment.

The TT knocked the door; Pabak opened the door and reserved her ticket till Kanpur. They descended in Kanpur and left for the army barracks. Her name was Chandni, Pabak rechristened her as Sugandh.

When he reached his home his wife, small daughter and brother were waiting for him in the verandah. He hugged his wife and understanding her surprise told her they will talk later. “Give her something to wear honey, will you?”

Shraddha was quite comfortable with his husband’s huge heart that was the reason she married him in the first case. So she took Sugandh to the guest room and gave her a set of her clothes, showed her the toilet and asked her to change.

A shiver ran down her spines when she heard her story. She softly clasped Pabak’s hand and said that he did the right thing.



Pabak was one of those human beings who knew true meaning of humanity. She still remembered their first meeting, her friend and he were in love with each other, she asked Shraddha to tell him that the relationship was off because he did not wanted to walk away from his autistic brother and she was not interested to carry his burden for whole life.

She was quite interested to see the man who could let go a dazzling creature like Leena to look after his brother. She saw him and it was love at first sight. He took more than four years to propose.

She was born and brought up in a family which knew to share, so taking Shamik under her wings was nothing special to her, to her he was her first born, her second born was her daughter Pausha, who was brought to life by her.

She had a deep hope that Pausha will love Shamik enough to take care of him when they are no longer around because Shamik was ten years junior to Pabak. He was not severely autistic but he needed someone to save him from cunning people and guide him.

Sugandh slipped into their family gratefully. Pabak and Shraddha told her to become mum about her past. She was introduced as Shraddha’s distant cousin whose parents have passed away.

Months passed into almost a year when Shraddha noted a strange thing, she has noted that Sugandh liked Pabak and Shraddha was suspicious that she has started to love Shamik. She had very serious reasons to stay away from men, she did, Pabak and Shamik were the only exceptions of that rigid rule. She bluntly refused every marriage proposal which was offered to her because of her divine beauty. She told Shraddha that she did not wanted to be touched by any man ever again. But now, Shraddha has seen her more than half a dozen time playing with Shamik’s hair, or hands while he slept or sat with her.

She told Pabak about it and he said, “Lets see! Nothing better can happen for those two, but give Sugandh time.”

“After the hell she has been through, a person as pure and innocent as Shamik must be irresistible to her. But she is a woman of normal intelligence and needs; she may soon wear out of his innocent, childish nature.”

“I have become quite fond of Sugandh, she is a lovely girl but I dote after Shamik.” He said thoughtfully, “And he is my responsibility too.”

“Let’s start some small business for them so they can take care of themselves in case they marry.” Shraddha smiled.

So they just kept observing them, a few years later when Shraddha popped up the question to Sugandh she shyly agreed.