"What do you mean you got yourself a job?" asked a confused Neera.
"On yahoo chat! I chatted with this guy, his name is Sanjay Bhora. He said he runs an office at Creamtons road and wants an administrator. He said I would be perfect for the job and he asked me to come by his office early tomorrow for an interview. And he also said, the interview was just a formality and the job is mine! YAYYYYY!!"
"Wow! that is soo cool girl! I am happy for you. Damn! you are lucky. I still haven't found anything yet." Neera shook hands with Prema and gave her a hug.
19 yr old Prema couldn't believe her luck. Fresh out of college and she already has a job. Oh! how proud her parents are going to be when they find out. She planned to surprise them with her appointment letter. Until then it was going to be hard for her to keep it a secret.
'I'll work for a year, save all the money I earn, get married to a nice man and have children.' She thought. 'So if I am married by 20, I can wait for 5 years before I have children, isn't that what Sushma akka did? She had so much fun alone with her husband before they decided to have children. So I'll do that.' She blushed at the thought.
She couldn't sleep, she was excited. A new day, a new job, a new life. It was all so exhilarating. She didn't have to deal with the drudgeries of studying ever again and she didn't have to beg her parents for money anymore. She was going to be all on her own. She mentally prepared for her interview tomorrow and still dreaming about her future fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning.
At exactly 10.00 am, she arrived at the stipulated place. It was a huge building and his office was on the 5th floor. She knocked on the door, bracing herself to meet him. It was opened by an immaculately dressed man. He must have been more than 50 years old, bald with a prominent paunch.
"Mr.Sanjay? I'm Prema. We chatted yesterday."
"Ah! yes, come in please. You are punctual I see." He led her inside.
Prema smiled. 'One brownie point' she thought. As they walked in further, she noticed that the office was empty and the place looked unused. Her smile crinkled at the ends.
As if sensing her feeling Sanjay said "We shifted our base from Rahatnagar. This is a new office. We are still setting it up."
That seemed to reassure her, her smile brightened again. She followed him into a large room which she guessed was the conference room. Sanjay offered her a seat and went out of the room to get her something to drink.
Prema looked around and was quite satisfied with the office. 'Looks posh enough, I'll probably get a handsome salary too' she mused.
Sanjay came back with a drink and offered it to Prema, who accepted it politely. She took a sip and asked him if he would be interviewing her soon. He told her to finish her drink and feel comfortable after which he would start with the interview. Prema gulped down her drink and looked up at him eagerly. All of a sudden, she felt light-headed and everything around her seemed hazy. She tried to get up but her knees felt wobbly and she sank back in her chair. Through blurry eyes, her last vision before she completely passed out was that of Sanjay smiling.
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When Prema came around, she was in pain. She was lying spreadeagled on the conference table, naked from waist down. She saw the blood and cried out both from the realisation of what happened to her and the shooting pain in her groin. Sanjay was nowhere in sight. The office was as empty as it was when she first entered it.
Prema will never forget the ordeal of having to go out of the office building with her clothes stained with blood, the curious onlookers passing crude remarks and snickering behind her back. She was in shock. She walked like a zombie, hired an autorickshaw and went straight home. She bled for three days continously, had nightmares of being raped by her own father. Although shock overrode pain, she thought her life was over, her dreams shattered. Her virginity torn to shreds by a rapist whom she knew nothing about. She contemplated suicide.
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On the side of the devil..
'Naive' he thought. 'Fresh and young, everything Seema is not. Seema my old hag wife.'
'It is not a crime. These young girls do it all the time. They prefer to lose their virginity to young studs. So why not me??' he argued with himself.
'She won't go to the police. Infact she will be grateful to me for paving the way for more fun."
'I am an old man who can't get as much fun as I want. This is my only chance.
I need.........'
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8 years later..
"Suicide was on my mind. The trauma lasted for three months. Every single night I would stand up on my bed and think 'tonight I will hang' but my hands would tremble and my heart would beat fast. And when I closed my eyes, I saw my family , my mom beating her chest and wailing out loud, father holding his chest as if suffering a heart attack and my eyes would fly open and I would plop on the bed and cry. I didn't want to sleep, I didn't want those horrible nightmares recurring again to torment me."
"I confronted him on the road one day."
"You have to oblige me or else......" he threatened.
"I don't know what came over me but I said to him, "Or else what??? I am not scared of you! I will go to the police and tell them the truth. Be ready to face the consequences!" my voice quivered with anger and hurt. But I showed him my bravest face. He left and I never heard from him ever again. After that incident, I grew stronger, I gave up thoughts of suicide and decided to give life a chance and see where it would take me."
Neera hugged her. " You are a brave girl and you know that Prema. Don't you?"
"Yes, but if it wasn't for him, I would have been married with children by now Neera. It's my fate and I accept it. If there is one thing I regret, I regret not punching him in the face and scratching his eyeballs out."
"Suppose you got a chance to meet him now, what would you do?" Neera asked.
"He was driven by need, you should hear the devil's side of the story too. Need maketh a man a beast and a beast knows no love. I was a naive victim, more like a fly trapped in a spider's web. A stupid fly that flew on its own accord to land on the spider's web. If only I had used some common sense to not trust a man whom I knew for not more than 12 hours. Alas! Need took over me too. The need for a job.
Since time has healed the monstrosity of that incident, I would.........."
"You would...what?" Neera coaxed.
"Forgive him"
Copyright © 2007 Jyothi Samarthi
All rights reserved.
All rights reserved.
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