Society - Part One

*While all three parts of this story are completely fictional , they are inspired by a news report i read in The Hindustan Times of India, New Delhi edition a few weeks back.Thought you should knows this*

For as long as I can remember she had been living along the highway, The highway of death as it was famously known, during the monsoons accidents were a common phenomenon and deaths a natural occurrence. They believed the road was cursed, Renu believed it too.

When I last met her, she was nine years old. She never knew who her parents were, from as far as her memory could go back, she knew Thakur Ji, The owner of one of the many Dhaba’s that had sprung up along the highway. He was a seventy year old man, blessed with a sturdy physique,she could remember him sitting on the money counter and screaming at his boys as they served lunch to the many people who thronged the place and waited to be fed. “Thakur Ji is my bappa shaeb” she used to exclaim every time a worker at the dhaba made fun of the fact that she did not know who her parents were.

Renu was a hardworking girl. At the age of six only with the help of swamped mud and thrown away wooden logs she had created her own adobe, her own home beside Thakur Ji’s dhaba. She was in love with her creation, she loved how sunlight used to scatter through the leaves before entering her home. “I always split the sun light” she used to say and laugh.

Every day in renu’s life had been the same since past seven years. Getting up early morning she rushed to the temple nearby and swept the floors. Thakur Ji had told once her that by doing so she would grow up fast and become a rich lady someday to marry a prince. She had always wanted a prince, she wanted to sit inside her house and teach him how she had learnt to split the sunlight. When she told her ideas to Thakur Ji for the first time, he had laughed whole heartedly, telling her that after marriage she will have to leave her house and live with his prince. She had hated the whole idea of leaving her home forcing Thakur Ji to console her with a promise that her prince would stay in her house and that Thakur Ji would force him to leave his home to come stay at her small hut.

Renu also gathered flowers from the garden nearby and sell them to the many cars stopping at the traffic signal all day. She used to laugh and hop around selling flowers to everyone who passed by in their cars. She had once admitted her guilt telling me that more than her job of selling flowers she loved taking a peek inside the cars, “They are so comfortable” she once told me. She loved the little dance the stereo’s display presented her every time she peeked in.

In the night she cleaned all the vessels in Thakur Ji’s dhaba. Sitting around the hose pump dumped in a strange smell of oil and masala, she used to clean up every speck of dirt present on those vessels. After cleaning the last plate of the day, she always stopped to see her reflection in the plate and laugh. She wanted to teach her prince the easy way to keep so many plates clean every day.

After eating her meal of leftovers from the Dhaba, she again used to run three kilometres to sweep the temple’s floor. She had not told anyone about it, she secretly wanted to grow up quickly so that she could meet her prince earlier and surprise Thakur Ji. After completing all her chores for the day she finally slept under the moon light which somehow never entered her home, her small hut. She despised the moon for this. According to her the moon was a whim and fancy of the rich, “Moon hates all of us who don’t have a huge house” she had cried.

She was turning twelve that day. It was the month of July and the rain gods had opened their floodgates. Renu was sleeping peacefully in her precious home. She loved it when it rained during the night; “It always feels good when the moon loses to the clouds and the rain” she had told me. The rain had never ceased to stop that day, due to the heavy downpour there was a serious dearth of customer’s at the Dhaba. Even Thakur Ji, who thought that feeding people all day and all night was his duty, had closed down the shutters and slept.

Renu’s sleep was disturbed by the rustling sound of leaves and footsteps of someone entering in her hut. Drowsily she opened her eyes to notice that it was a truck driver, one of regular’s at Thakur Ji’s dhaba. She had smiled thinking he wanted to take her on his truck to drive around the highway; he sometimes used to do that. As he came closer she sensed a foul smell coming from his mouth, she knew the smell, and it was from a coloured liquid people used to drink all night along the dhaba.  She also noticed that he couldn't walk properly, she looked in her eyes and they were red, she had been taught by the temple’s priest that the eyes of the devil are always red.

Renu knew something was wrong. This had once happened before too. But then Thakur Ji had saved her, he had noticed a man sneaking into her hut and had ordered his boys to beat him black and blue. Renu looked outside her hut hoping to catch a glimpse of Thakur Ji, not knowing what to do. In a fluid motion she pushed him and ran towards the highway. The man who could barely stand on his feet properly, fell down with a loud thud behind her.

Renu ran on the highway barefoot, her eyes bustling with tears, she was very scared; she wanted to get to the temple and stay there for the night. She always felt safe and secure in its premises. It was raining still and her tears were swept away in the dark night. As she stopped and took a turn she slipped, it was very muddy, there was a high speeding car approaching her from behind. It was known as the highway of death during the monsoons, and Renu’s death was the last of that season.

Society – Part Two

She grabbed one of the many chocolate bars lying on her bed and started nibbling on it. She noticed she had been sitting and crying in her room since the last one hour. Her persistent tears had now dried leaving a watery scar across her cheeks. Very quietly she picked a dress from her wardrobe and started dressing up.

Down by the swimming pool the party was now brimming with new faces. Many affluent faces of the society could be seen. She thought she saw a movie star, but she noticed not to pay attention. Her mood was sour and ugly, as it had been since the past nineteen years. Renu had been born exactly nineteen years ago in this very house which was now bustling with cheers and noises of the many people who had gathered to congratulate her father on his business accomplishments.

Renu had learnt not to interfere or draw attention in her father’s parties. As far as she knew, she had let her father down in every chance she felt she had to make her presence felt in this dead house of hers. It was during such parties, in such over affectionate displays of affection that she missed her mother. Her parents were divorced, and she could see her mother once a month as was explained to her by her father’s lawyer seven years ago.

She had stuck to her promise, but as she grew up, she realized she needed her mother more than ever before. Slowly she had learnt to lie, sneak out, and find chances to meet her mom. But she had been caught and had witnessed a scrounge in her father's eyes.

Not that Renu despised her father. She loved him immensely; “He is a great dad” was something she used to utter to herself every now and then. All her whims and fancies had been taken care off every since she threw her first tantrum as a kid. Raising her on his own, Renu knew his father had done a very good job all by himself.

But she hated him. She hated him for not understanding the fact that she needed her mother by her side. She hated the fact that he allowed the bitter animosity between them as a married couple to affect her life. She grabbed a beer quietly from the waiter passing by and gulped it down. She knew a few drinks would help her in getting over this big fiesta of unknown faces her father had arranged to let her know that she was alone, very lonely.

Renu was feeling light headed after a few drinks. She thought she could use a cigarette to clobber out all the thoughts stuck in her dead brain. She puffed in the smoke and allowed it to settle in her lungs. That is when she heard the familiar scream of her father’s voice screeching in her ears “Renu, Renu? Where are you?" She did not want her father to know that she smoked, she also did not want to meet any of his false companions, pretty faces and big smiles, but all dead inside.

She slid behind the doorway inhaling the smoke, waiting them to pass by. But her father’s voice kept coming closer, she could hear him saying “After all I have done for her; she just won’t listen to me. She has failed all my expectations , she is not the daughter I wanted, after providing her with all that I could , she still runs away to her mother and unknown places. And her friends? I wouldn’t even let them enter my house if it wasn’t for her. I brought up this house alive with this party and she ran away again, i am disgusted to be her father, she is nothing but a nuisance creator”

Renu noticed beads of water forming in her eyes. She was crying. She sat down and let the water soak her makeup clawed fake face. She sat there for what seemed like an eternity. When she thought she couldn’t cry more, she got up and rinsed her face in the washroom. Her face was soiled, her eyes dead like black holes and her breath dry as a funeral drum. She hated the face in the mirror staring back at her.

She grabbed her car keys and a few beers on the way out. She knew she had to get out of here. All this while she had wanted to be the daughter her father wanted her to be. And she had failed; she had failed miserably in eyes of her father. She felt sick, she was tired. Her own existence had been drowned in the mystical lies she had created to fulfill her persona as her father’s wishes. And even that had failed. She was nobody.

She ignited the car engine to notice it was raining heavily. It had been raining all day and all night. She gulped two more beers and put her foot on the accelerator. She knew had to get out of it, the tyres moved in sync with her fast paced thoughts leaving horrid marks all over the road.  She lit another cigarette and let her thoughts flood her mind.

She could see her mother and father fighting , the divorce , she thought she also saw the many nights she had spent alone at the dining table waiting for her father , she saw her dreams that were killed by her own soul for her father, she was crying again and inconsolably. Suddenly she felt a loud bump against her car, she thought she hit something. Startled and alarmed she stormed out in the heavy rain.

She saw a little girl lying on the road with blood oozing out of her head. Renu was calm; she checked the body for pulse, there was none. She knew there had been two deaths that night. While the little girl in front of her died in a second, quick and painless, her own death had been merciless, and had lasted every second of the nineteen years she knew her father.

Society – Part three

She was happy to finally end her working shift and drive the final few blocks back home. She switched on the car radio to confirm her fears; it was indeed going to rain cats and dogs all night. She decided to take the highway and not the canny small lanes which in her view were without a doubt submerged in water.

Renu was happy, after working so hard for a law degree; she had finally completed the course and joined her husband’s office as an apprentice. She had been married for the last twenty years and very happily. After her son was old enough to take care of himself, she had finally begun her journey towards her long never fulfilled dream, becoming a lawyer. Her husband while a lawyer himself had been supportive in all her endeavors. She knew she was lucky. She knew lack of understanding between partners was the main cause of failed marriages, while others tried to work on understanding their partners, Renu had been blessed with a soul mate. The cell phone beeping in furiously caught her attention; it was her husband calling to check her whereabouts and if she was okay. Renu parked her car on side of the road and started chatting over her phone. She had never ignored her call, she never could.

After five minutes of conversation, Renu felt content. She triggered the ignition of her car once again to notice a car approaching the highway with a horrifying speed. She ignored the headlights flashing as she put her foot on the accelerator. That was when she heard a loud noise and a scream. Startled as she was, she peeked out in the rain to notice a nineteen year old crying with her eyes full of tears near a body that lay senseless. Within a second she also witnessed the murderer spying off and fleeing by. She wanted to stand upfront and confront the stranger, asking her the reason for this calamity but she was numbed. It was the first time she had been witness to an accident, let alone a death.

Renu was crying bitterly sitting in one corner of her bedroom as her son watched closed by. She did not want him to see his mother weeping, crying so wildly. She felt helpless, she wanted to stand up, rinse her face but the tears kept flowing in, she couldn’t prevent them. Her son came closer and wiped the tears off her face” It’s all going to be okay , Mom” was all he said and left.

Renu was upset because her marriage was crumbling. She was torn between choices, from the time she had witnessed a horrifying accident, a gruesome murder by her accounts and had chosen to be witness in the death of a little kid, only to know it was his husband’s boss’s daughter. Renu knew what was right , she could very well recite the pledge she had undergone the day she decided to become a lawyer, the pledge which asked her always to abide by the truth, the pledge which she had undertaken to support those in need. Her pledge was now her command.

From constant arguments to bitter fights, everything had happened between the closed vicinity of her bedroom. A memento of her privacy , a place which she chose to share with his husband knowing he would understand her thoughts , respect her privacy but he chose not to.

It was a Friday, two days before she was to file an affidavit in the court releasing her statement. She had quietly eaten her dinner and was lying lazily in her bed. She knew if he could talk to her husband one last time, maybe he would understand, May be he would respect her point of view. Strolling in her own thoughts, she waited for him to arrive, waiting to talk to her soul mate.

Renu was woken by a surging pain across her cheeks. Next thing she noticed was her husband screaming obscenities at her “After all I have done for you and the family, cant I expect this? Why do you want to ruin everything I have constructed over all these years” he said and cried lying in her arms. He smelled of liquor, Renu did not know what to do or say.

She signed across the affidavit and passed it on to her husband, who weakly smiled at her." It would all be fine now, Boss. There is no case being filed against your daughter, just tell her to be safe on the road henceforth”, his husband kept repeating sentences after sentences till the point Renu couldn’t take it anymore.

She stormed out, dead inside, knowing two people had killed the little girl down the road. While one was on a car, causing an accident, Renu had murdered the soul; her soul was hers no more. It belonged to the little girl, the one who was dead lying on the highway of death three months ago.