In a spacious alley, the clock struck 11:30pm, the shift got over and everybody started moving towards their respective destinations. There was a cheerful group of men, who waited for the elevator to get down to the ground floor. They were eagerly waiting for the after-shift team outing to Murthal. The other group was walking down the stairs. The tapping sound of the footwear was clearly audible, along with various melodious mobile phone ringtones.
On one side of the hallway, there was a vending machine, where two girls were waiting to have a fresh bottle of soft drink. Shyna said, "I wish this vending machine were loaded with some dark chocolates, I so want to have it". Ruhi was surprised and replied, "Hey, why do you want chocolates when we have better options than having chocolate like a baby, grow up dude". She disagreed, made a face and moved out of the hallway. They moved out and Ruhi stopped for a while to rummage inside her bag. Shyna was walking continuously and when she looked back for a nod from Ruhi, she saw that Ruhi had a cigarette on one hand and a lighter on the other hand. Within seconds, she started making the swirling smoky rings. Shyna was startled and said, "You smoke"? To this, Ruhi proudly said, "Yes I have been doing this for more than a year now, I feel so relaxed and happy inside, the worldly stress doesn't hurt me and the best part is, no one in my family knows about this". While talking about her habit of smoking, her eyes displayed the discontentment her heart had. Shyna got a hint of some hidden pain in her heart hugged her and said, let's go, tomorrow we have an off, we have this weekend to enjoy.
In the other car parking zone, there was a cab which was waiting for all other members to join. This was the only cab at the waiting zone. Inside the cab, there were two women and one man sitting and waiting for the fourth member to hop in. The driver had already made two calls to the fourth member, but to no avail. The number could not be connected. The call was meant for Sonam.
Sonam was only 23, when she had come to Delhi a few years back. To begin her journey in a new city, she started working at an MNC in Gurugram. Leaving the golden dream of modeling behind, she came to provide sustenance to her family that was living in Panisagar in Tripura. Sonam was an introvert and had only a few friends in her PG. However, she was a career-oriented lady, but she was stuck in the conundrum of her daily life. Many times, she felt herself in the whirlpool and felt like quitting her high paying job, yet the thought of her family made her work wholeheartedly.
Inside the cab, Harman and Kavya were busy talking about her. They didn't know her but the girls started gossiping about Sonam being late to get into the cab. After 10-15 minutes, they heard the footsteps, and suddenly there appeared Sonam, who was beautifully dressed in a light blue blazer and dark blue pencil skirt. Her shining footwear perfectly matched her outfit and gave her an absolute corporate look. Both the girls were astonished to see her stature. She smiled at both of them and signaled the driver to move the cab. Sitting in the front seat was Rahul. To break the silence in the cab, he struck the communication. He asked Sonam, "Hey Sonam, are you in the Quality team"? To this, she replied calmly "No, no I am in another process, my zone is on the third floor". Fortunately, Rahul said oh! I am also on the same floor, never had an opportunity to know about you".
While this conversation was going on, these two girls were amazed to see the smooth communication going on between the two. Harman said, "Ahan! I see something cooking". Rahul said, "No way Harman. I am married and my wife knows I have female friends at the workplace, she is fine with this". Harman understood the taunting tone and replied, Oho Rahul... why did you take this to heart, I was just joking".
After this exchange of words, there was a brief silence. All of them were engrossed in their phones, some playing games, some chit-heavily with their mates. Suddenly it started raining very heavily". Harman and Kavya were terrified by his sudden news. One said, "No, I don't like to be drenched in rain, to this, the other girl added, I am not carrying an umbrella either, what to do now"? The driver politely suggested, "Madam, if you all are fine, can I stop driving at the moment for few minutes"? He continued, "Within this duration, the rain may stop and it will be easy for me to drive all of you home and ensure your safety". They nodded and agreed to his advice. They stopped near 24X7 because that area was properly lit and they could eat/drink if they wanted. Rahul turned back and said, can I get down and get a coffee for you ladies?" Harman and Kavya quickly said, "Yes", as if they were waiting for coffee. There was no reply from Sonam. So, he asked, “Sonam, do you want something"? She didn’t say anything for she was on a call. Rahul thought that she too agreed to a cup of coffee. He got down entered the store and ordered four cups of coffee. While the three sipped coffee, Sonam said only a few words, "You both are cribbing for not having an umbrella, my area gets severely waterlogged with knee-deep water, that feels horrible. It is extremely difficult to walk". She continued, "You girls are lucky to be living with your parents, you have all the facilities, no responsibility". While saying this, she kept the coffee mug untouched under the seat. It felt that she wanted to counter them with her words, but she maintained her silence.
Rahul was listening to the entire conversation but he didn’t interrupt them. In the meantime, the driver suggested that they must start moving, though slowly. "It may be difficult later to drive on the waterlogged road," he further added.
Finally, twenty minutes later, the driver dropped Harman. She signed the sheet and entered the gate of her society. As and when the driver was moving ahead to drop Sonam, he started becoming skeptical of the water-logged area. He started narrating the stories of his previous rides, which were horrible. Kavya said, "Raghubir ji, let's not talk ominous, we shall keep our fingers crossed". To this, the driver gave a sly smile and continued, Madam ji, keeping your fingers crossed won't help you cross the road. I have been through this road many times, especially during monsoon, it is terrible. I have seen hooligans vandalizing public property and teasing women. "Last year, I was made to drive forcefully till Dwarka at gunpoint", he continued. Within 5-10 minutes of this conversation, they had reached the drop-off point for Sonam. They were shocked to see the road with knee-deep water. The driver said, "See Madam ji, I told you, this area. It feels like I am ferrying a boat, not a car, it is difficult to move beyond this point". Sonam understood that she had to get down, but before getting down, she requested Rahul if he could accompany her a little further. His expression made it clear that he was reluctant, but considering her safety he agreed to her request.
They got down and started walking. A distance of fifteen meters looked like walking a marathon. Kavya and the driver looked at them struggling while walking. The large ripples as they were moving ahead made a sloshing sound, which was clearly audible. It was difficult. It was horrible. It was a night to remember.
While they were walking, the dogs seated on the cars' terraces started barking at them. Rahul said, "These dogs are really dangerous, but today they can't come down, so we are safe". Sonam said, "Don't worry, they are friendly and they probably know me so well, maybe they are sending greetings to you, she said, smilingly. With some jokes and mild conversation, they continued to walk. The plight of the road was extremely filthy and the buildings appeared green due to overgrowth of moss. On the left-hand side, there was an under-construction building's wall, against which a cycle was rested. It seemed that Mr. Rust had eaten half of the cycle, there were two street lights, where the age-old bulbs were hardly working. They seemed so tired of working all these years, so they were just flickering.
After some time, Sonam said, I am used to all these things. "You don't need to come beyond this point, be careful as you go back". She said, now I will go myself. Before going, she rummaged inside her bag and gave a pepper spray to him to guard himself. He laughed and said, "I don't need it, I will go, I am okay". To this, Sonam said, "No you can keep it, you may return it on Monday, in the office". When she insisted, he thought of keeping it rather than wasting time in discussing the matter further in knee-deep water. She waved and took a left turn, and walked the dark passage of the street, where there was no streetlight visible.
Rahul came back with the same struggle, his trousers below the knee were too wet, they got stuck to his legs and gave a hint of his muscular physique. He could feel that the weight of his shoes had doubled. The driver had arranged a plastic sheet to shield the seats. He pretended to be comfortable, but he wasn't. The driver said, "Shall we go sir"? "Yes", said Rahul and they moved ahead to another drop point. The driver could feel he was a little irritated at his plight, so he played slow music to lighten the mood. Within ten minutes of drive, the driver realized that the sheet was not signed by Sonam. He was tensed, and said "Now I will have to bear the consequences, what could have I done in that situation, I could hardly drive and in the middle of the confusion, I forgot everything". Rahul said, "It's ok, I will call her right now and ask her to sign the sheet on Monday". He also said, “Let me call and ask the transport department to consider this case”. He continued and said, "Let me call her, give me her number". He denied having her number. So did Kavya.
To find a solution, he called Samarth on his number. Samarth was his friend who worked in the Transport Department. Rahul said, "Samarth, can you share Sonam's number route no. 0132"? He replied, "Please wait let me check my database". Within seconds he replied, Rahul, on your route there were two other girls, Kavya and Harman. Total three members including you. To which Rahul said, "No, no we had the fourth member, we just dropped her, but we couldn't get her signature on the sheet, so I wanted her number to inform about the same". Samarth was occupied with other tasks coordinating with other teams and said, Rahul don't talk rubbish. You already know this is the busiest hour for us to work, I already said, there were three people, please let's drop the topic here, I repeat there was no fourth member on your route". With this, he disconnected the call. Rahul was disturbed, his condition was terrible for a while. The driver was listening to their conversation, "Ah! Samarth is a good friend, maybe he will look into this matter again", said Rahul reassuringly, but the driver being an experienced man could feel that something was wrong. After fifteen minutes, they both got dropped off safely and the driver waved, increased the volume of the music system, and went off.
The next day, Rahul was disturbed. Some words in his mind were troubling him. He was terrified at the thought of not having the fourth member in the cab. He gave it a second thought. He thought to himself that he shouldn't be bothered about such things, but his conscience allowed him to go on and on with those thoughts. He wasn’t able to get rid of what had happened the last night. He grabbed a cup of tea and after his daily morning rituals, he sat for mentally analyzing all the details that he had. His mind started splitting the fragments in various ways. First, nobody knew or saw her working on the third floor. Second, the girls and the driver didn't have her contact number. The next fragment of the story was that Samarth also didn't have any contact details in the office database. Finally, he realised that something was suspicious.
Rahul was shocked, he thought to himself, if all these things are real, what would he do? He started palpitating. He checked his bag, to look for the pepper spray ‘Knock-out’. Upon checking it thoroughly, he got another bolt from the blue. He checked the expiry date of the spray which was mentioned 9.9.2015. He thought why would a girl carry an expired product to protect herself? He became curious to know the truth. He rode his bike and moved in the same direction where Sonam was dropped last night. He started turning his bike towards that gloomy street, where he was not allowed by her. When he reached it, he saw tall green grass covering the entire area. Hardly anyone could be seen. It seemed exactly like an untamed dense backyard of Hollywood movies.
He didn't know what to do. He didn't know where did she go? There was no building, there was no sign of human presence. He realised Sonam was not real. He realised he didn't come to this place last night. He said, here I close this unfortunate chapter of my life. He was panting and thought to himself, "Nothing happened, I don't know anything, I don't know anyone, no one came here last night, I am going back, I will never take this route again". He had tears in his eyes. He sadly turned towards his bike, one elderly lady who was passing by, said, "Beta you look good and innocent, but why are you crying? Why are you standing at this place, don't you see the graveyard in the middle of this grassy land? Go home beta, go home".
He ran towards his bike and drove towards his home. He was deeply touched and saddened to know about the loss. He felt as if someone close to him had left him forever. He couldn't believe what he saw, he couldn't believe what he heard. He promised himself to find out the reality
The next day he went to the office and without entering into his work zone, he directly went to the HR room. In the HR room, Rosie was busy sorting hard copies of some old files. Suddenly, his eyes grabbed the attention of a file named "Deceased". He asked Rosie, what file is this and why is it so mucky"? Rosie said we are trying to contact the family members of the employees who are no longer with us. We need the family members to be part of the commemoration to honor their contribution to the growth of our company.
Quickly, he grabbed the file and flipped through the sheets. He was petrified to see Sonam's picture. He asked, "How did Sonam..."? before he could complete the sentence, Rosie said, "Who? Who Sonam? "There is no Sonam in the list. Now, will you please excuse me I have to meet the Vice President to discuss something urgent", said, Rosie. Rahul said, pointing to the picture and affirming that she was Sonam. To this, Rosie said, "See this picture Rahul, the name is written under her picture and it says Daisy. Daisy died long back. Rosie started telling him everything. One dreadful night, it was raining cats and dogs. It was her drop-off point. The driver couldn't drive beyond a certain point because the street was waterlogged. She insisted that she would go, as she had a pepper spray, we had distributed that year to all the female staff members. She was walking home, on the way home, she was molested by some goons and was brutally raped and murdered. Her body was abandoned in a bad shape, it was discovered by an old lady. Post-investigation, the only thing that helped us to identify her was the ‘knock-out’ pepper spray. He realised that night it was Daisy who wanted to tell him her story, it wasn't Sonam. He felt devastated to know about the cause of her sad demise. He couldn't believe that he met a gentle lady who had met such a dreadful end. He sat on the chair in Rosie's room and kept thinking why he couldn't meet her when she was alive. He felt more connected to her after knowing more. On the commemoration day, he met Daisy's ailing parents, he touched their feet and promised that he would visit them whenever possible. He also promised that he would never let the spirit to help women, die.
Though he lives alone in the city, away from his family, he is not lonely, he has an extended family called 'Daisy Foundation' where he helps elderly people and single women. Through this foundation, he is trying to restore his faith in humanity which has completely been shattered. He is broken inside out, but this work helps him devote his time to keep him calm. Despite this, his heart is still buried under the graveyard of emotions.
Ms. Kshama Bhatt holds a Major in English Literature and Language from the University of Delhi. She has an experience of over eight years of teaching in reputed schools in Delhi. Apart from teaching, she headed many writing projects at the school level including skits/ drama on various themes. She has been instrumental in mentoring students for district-level debate competitions. Her penchant for writing developed when she was a school student. Ever since then, she has been composing poems and writing stories. She won the 'Author of the Week' title for the second week of August 2022 (StoryMirror, an online writing platform). Her story "She Married Her" secured third position under Best Story Reader's Choice. Within three years, she has contributed nine stories and ten poems to StoryMirror till now. She has been nominated for 'Author of The Year' 2022. She aspires to write more and delve deeper into the world of words.
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