Mercy

I: 30.10.2009

It was his third round of walking through that compartment. Only one man has boarded the train, and he was sleeping.

Bhola has pointed him out from the window and Guddu started his operation. He went past the man three times to assure he was asleep. He even pulled out his broom and cleaned the compartment clean but the man never stirred.

One of his hands covered his eyes and he was stretched on the lower birth.

While he was cleaning the compartment Guddu checked his luggage, there was a big suitcase and a small bag. Bhola has seen some costly things inside that bag when that guy was putting the bottle of mineral water in the bag.

Guddu softly reached out his hands and grabbed the handle of the bag.

A chill ran down Guddu’s spine when he felt that his hand was caught by an iron grip. He blankly stared at the rigid face of the owner of the bag he was expertly fumbling, he did not even imagined that the guy was studying his every movement.
He was one of the dozens small boys hanging around the station in rags, he did not knew who his parent were, the older boys of his group told him that they have found him crying on the platform and have taken him in their gang.

All these small ones, their ages ranging from five to sixteen or seventeen year olds spent their days and nights in the platform, begging and stealing. Sometimes the railway police used to pick them up and after some boxing of ears they were let off again.
The older boys taught him the skills of begging and stealing. He has become an expert thief, but today his luck just betrayed.

Their eyes were interlocked. The guy was looking at him calmly and his eyes were filled up with horror.

“Give him a solid thrashing. Dirty thieves. Why do their parents breed them if they cant feed them.” a guy growled, he has just entered the compartment with his luggage.

Guddu shivered with fear. He knew very well what happens after being thrashed by public. A few months back one of their older boys was caught stealing, he did not even made it to the hospital.


II

The guy caught his hand and took him out of the train compartment. He started to walk toward the RPF office holding his hand firmly.

“Hi! I am Major R. Bose. This boy was trying to snatch my bag. Would you mind if I take him along with me? If his parents come searching for him send them to me.” He handed the inspector his card.

“I know him. he is an orphan. So his parents wont come looking for him.” The inspector said. “Do you want me to register a case?”

“No. if it can be avoided. I am taking him with me then.” The man smiled and left the office.

A few hours later Guddu was sitting with him in his drawing room. His wife and daughter were sitting in another sofa.

“I brought him home Kamalika, I just could not leave him there. So many times I have seen these urchins shrivelling up before their time.” The man was saying.

“You did the right thing darling.” She smiled.

Another hour later Guddu was wearing a clean set of dress and eating his lunch with them.

Thus he became a part of Major Raktim Bose’s family. Major Bose adopted him after an year. He started to bring him up with deep affection.

Major Bose’s daughter Chaiti was a few years younger than him.

Guddu was christened as Kamalesh, he was a very intelligent boy and shined like a diamond under Raktim and Kamalika’s care.

Years flew by. Kamalesh became a doctor and started his career in army. He lived with his parents, whereas Chaiti was married off to a NRI settled in New York.


III

Kamalesh fell in love with Reva, they got married soon. She was the only child of another army officer. A free willed girl.

A few months later frictions started to crop up, Reva was born and brought up in a reckless environment, both her parents were busy with themselves, she just grew up, without any guidance from them. she was absolutely habituated of having her ways whereas her inlaws were quite disciplined.

Her parents kept on insisting her to shift with them, they were feeling lonely without her.

She controlled her parents and thought she will be able to control Kamalesh too, well she was wrong. She tried all the weapons, even tried to brainwash him using his past but failed.

To Kamalesh they were his true parents, actually greater than them. So he made his stands clear to Reva and she too stopped banging her head on wall.

After trying for a few years she resigned. Then she did not had much choice either because their love has borne its fruit, a little angel was illuminating their world, their daughter tiyasa.

She was the sweetheart of the whole family and neighbours. A child beautiful like a doll. Talkative as a small brook rushing down a hill. Always talking, always running like her.

Every thing was perfect in that home; the disharmony crept in from blue sky. One morning they received a phone call from Chaiti’s in-laws.

Chaiti’s husband Dinesh has passed away in a horrible accident which has left Chaiti permanently disabled. She is in Mumbai with them.

They rushed to Mumbai and brought back Chaiti with them. Her in-laws gave in after seeing the devastated look on Kamalika’s face.

IIII

Chaiti started her therapies at army hospital but the therapist was not much optimist. He told Major Bose in discretion that chances were almost zero.

The girl who was full of happiness and joy transformed into a petulant woman. Kamalesh remembered her last visit, she and Tiasa have driven every one crazy. They used to sleep together at night; Tiasa has absolutely forgotten her own parents during her stay.

She tried to warm up to her pishimoni the moment she saw Chaiti but met cold refusal.

She was drowning in her misery and every one else was slowly giving in to her sorrow. The worst sufferer was Tiasa.

All of a sudden all her actions were under censored. She was forbidden from talking, running, playing….. the home became a cage for that little bird.

Reva was writing some letters in the front porch, Tiasa was running around in the lawn, screaming, shouting.

She turned her face at a sound and saw Chaiti passing by her in her wheel chair, her lips were firmly sealed together, resembling a thin line. She looked at Tiasa with irritation and wheeled toward the kitchen.

Reva got up and entered the lawn. Tiasa rushed towards her and hugged her tightly. “Ma catch a butterfly for me!!!! Please ma!!”

“Titi, you have to do one thing for me, will you do it darling?” she asked her.

“What ma?” she asked back, sitting firmly on her lap, wrapping her small arms around her neck.

“You used to sleep with pishimoni when she came here last year, you remember?” she asked. “Can you sleep with her again?”

“No ma! Pishimoni does not love me any more.” Tiasa said.

“She does titi, but she is sad that is why she does not plays with you anymore. You remember Moshai? A naughty ghost took him away and he comes to scare pishimoni at night.”

“If you sleep with her at the night the ghost will be scared to scare her and she will play with you again. But you have to promise me another thing; you will not tell pishimoni any thing. Promise?”

“Okay ma!!!” She answered wisely.

Reva went back to the house, Chaiti was sitting in her room. She was surprised to see Reva making arrangements of Tiasa’s sleeping in her room.

“Tiasa was begging to sleep with you like she did before.” Reva said and left the room before she could say any thing.

Next morning when Kamalika entered Chaiti’s room she was not there. She went out to the porch and saw her sitting on the lawn, Tiasa on her lap, both inspecting something which Tiasa was holding in her hand. She tiptoed back to the kitchen.

Truth

Mrs Gupta first observed Swarna sitting alone on the bench, she stopped in front of her and asked if she can join her for a while. Swarna nodded with a sweet smile, which was her second nature but Mrs. Gupta was a little surprised this time. She knew Swarna was a very brave girl but has not expected this much mental strength either.

She was in love with a person very deeply. That person Tushar lived in Mumbai, they have met only twice, and their friendship was completely through internet and phone calls, which lasted for hours. He came down to her city and they met only twice. Swarna fell in love with him when she first saw him because she found every thing in him which she was looking for in life and spouse. But unfortunately he felt the other way round and became cold and distant after returning back to his place.

His calls stopped, and mails became infrequent, in her blind obsession she failed to notice these things. Then he picked up a quarrel and disappeared for three months.

She tried to patch up and when he responded after three months she observed that his way of talking, voice has changed a little, when she queried he told her he has changed the handset.

Their friendship resumed a little bit of old pace but he remained aloof when it came to next step. The person who was obsessed with her all of a sudden started to act like a flirt.

A year went by like that, then she came to know from a person of that town, who has accidentally joined her office and knew Tushar, she came to know from him that the guy who introduced himself was not Tushar, he was his cousin from Swarna’s town. Tushar liked Swarna a lot but he was married, and he has hidden that fact from her.

He was married to a woman with huge bank balance but evil temper, he had two children. He loved her but used to hide his friends from her because she was over possessive and made a fuss about these things, even if the friends lived in far away places like USA or England.

He asked his cousin to meet her and certified her as a good girl, he did not liked her much so he talked with Tushar and backed off. Unfortunately Tushar’s wife got the hint of the entire episode and forced his husband to hand over the sim card to her. She promptly gave it away to her family telling them the entire story. Her father gave the card to his chauffer branding swarna as a corrupt woman chasing a married man.

He impersonated as Tushar, which was not very tough for him, and incidentally his voice resembled his quite a lot, and kept on making fun of her with his friends for all these months.

Her colleague spilled the beans to Tushar and he retrieved and blocked the SIM card after apologising to Swarna, but their friendship ended then and there. His cousin also called her up and apologised for the entire episode and offered his help if needed.

Swarna smiled at Mrs. Gupta and said, “You know aunty, every coin has its flip side and flop side, its true I loved Tushar with all my heart, but I am happy that I have been brought up with strong values.”

“If I had lost my values during that meeting with his cousin I would have lost every thing. I don’t believe that if you lose one love your life is stopped there.”

“Love varies from people to people, there are people who love only once, there are people who cant love at all, and there are people who keep on loving till they meet their ideal match and settle down with that person. I think I belong to the last category.”

“As for feeling humilliated for this episode, I think Tushar’s family acted as per their taste. Tushar did only one thing wrong he would have told me that he is married. But this episode did not splattered a single drop of ink on my soul. Because I always keep my conscience clean and keep my faith on God and his justice. Do wrong and you will be soon reaping what you sowed. You cant hide three things for long time sun, moon and truth.”

Mrs. Gupta softly placed her hand on hers, and thought inside, how we can learn from some one so younger in age, if only we keep our mind open.
A gentle breeze started to blow in the park, bringing with it fragrance of flowers and ripe fruits.

evil python

The infamous trio were sitting on the park bench facing the lake, watching the boaters rowing their boats, sometimes alone, sometimes a loving couple, or family members and friends, all type of them enjoying the fresh air which was blowing and the cool serene water after a scorching summer day.

Mrs. Gupta first noticed Jane sitting in a bench little far away from them, she was sitting there with her laptop as usual, and a sketch book and bag. The typical artistic jhola.

Mrs Gupta muttered, “I have never seen such beautiful eyes as hers, even though you cant call them dove eye, or doe eyes but the purity that drops from them makes it so divine that one will love to sit beside her and see them.”

Mrs Sinha chimed in, “That’s why she is bothered so much in life, one look at that face and every one will know that she doesnot have venom enough to hit back when hurt.”

Mrs. Ghosh joined them a little bitterly, “In this world of crows, and vultures the gentle souls suffer immensely, after all, virtue is more persecuted by evil than it is adored by good people.”

Then she added, “In this world of shoving and pushing, and bullying no wonder that people like her are a treasure, who know how to love life and how to let others live.”

Mrs Gupta slowly commented, “How could people like Ron Shah had the audacity of thinking that she will cast a single glance at them is a wonder, they just made that poor soul miserable. Don’t they know they are as different as black is from white, as mud from chandan?”

“its good to see that she recovered from the entire thing without losing her heart or peace of mind.”, Mrs. Sinha softly commented.

Jane was unmarried, she never thought marriage as essence but was ready to settle down with a person she could love, trust and respect. She has been friends with a guy from Indore for years through internet. They have often talked on phone, exchanged mails and smses but never met face to face. Deepak often showed his affection to her but she could not reciprocate, because falling in love with some one without seeing him was impossible for her.

Then Deepak came to Kolkata on a tour and they met, she instantly fell in love with him because he had an out of the world innocence and purity in him. He returned to Indore and slowly disappeared in the background. She tried a lot to revive that friendship but could not. It subsided into casual friendship.

Then suddenly a new friend popped up, Mahesh, he has been her friends ever since Deepak became her friend but maintained a low profile, he used to exchange only mails, all of a sudden, he became over friendly, but she maintained a distance because he was married. He was also from the same community which made Deepak her friend.

All the while she was friends with Deepak who used to act in a strange manner, as if he was hell bent to ruin even the friendship they had, all of a sudden he became very abusive, she consoled herself by thinking that he has stopped liking her after seeing her.

Then slowly things were blasted because Deepak came to visit her again, the person who has been faking as Deepak was not actually Deepak, he was Ron, one of her colleagues from Indore, a guy who has stalked her to the limit of her disgust, she utterly despised him because there was nothing in him which she could toler, forget about like, who in return was obsessed with her and snooped on her without her knowledge. He used to visit Jane’s office more than once a month and was quite popular among some of her colleagues. What Jane did not knew was he used to work in Deepak’s office as a part timer. Two hours each day.

He easily discovered about Deepak, who got married after Ron convinced her that Jane is flirt. Ron has often eaves dropped her conversation with him, and from the other end too and used it in impersonating him, and installed some spyware in her office p.c. which used to send a copy of her mails to his computer, so he could keep a track of her mails and could not get caught.

He was simply settling his scores by hitting her impersonating as her loved one. Every time she refused her as Ron he used to immediately insult her faking as Deepak. With ruthlessness and glee.

It was Ron who impersonated as Mahesh and befriended her, to tarnish her image in Deepak’s eyes. He used to disconnect the phone after talking with her for a while and used to talk sweet nothings into the dead phone, so that Deepak becomes confident that she was having an affair with him and walks away from her, so he could have his way. But when she rudely refused him with utter hatred and disgust he showed his real nature and character.

Mrs. Gupta added, “If only that dirty scoundrel Ron had seen his own face in mirror, and seen Deepak’s he would have known why a person who likes Deepak cant like him, forget about loving him.

His face, behaviour is so reflective of his dirty character that people like us will shrink back from him with hatred, forget about spiritual women like Jane. And he did ultimately showed his real face and proved that she was right in loathing her. The level to which he went he should be shot like a mad dog.”

Mrs. Sinha added, “What a repulsive creature, its really ridiculous that a filthy beast like him could dream about a girl like her. These people are tarnish to humanity, trust and love. They try to show off their dirty obsession as love, where as it is lust in its crudest form, even the thought of him and his ways makes me want to puke.“