Ahh, what a perfect start to the weekend! No college, work or any burden. She needed this break. Not just from being physically tormented by the daily hectic schedule, but a break mentally from the unsteady roller coaster her life had become at that moment. After getting a perfect sleep, which she figured wasn't only enough but over the top, she decided to get ready and set the time ticking for her plans that day. The plan was simple, go to C.P, hang out with an old friend she never had the opportunity to meet in the last six months and watch her favourite movie, she was so excited to watch since, forever. The hitch was she had to help her room mate to get her phone unlocked. So, she contemplated the time they had in getting the work done and the movie timings. Wearing her favourite long colourful kurta with matching sandals and her lucky bag, they headed out on a cloudy day, expecting nothing to go wrong. The series of events that followed were drastically opposite to their imagination.
Late to the metro station.
Sudden cloud burst.
Rampant pushing of innumerable people in the metro which was unusually extremely crowded.
And well....LATE.
Nandini expected she'll make it in time, and all she'd have to do, was sacrifice a maximum of 10 minutes of the movie for Amily's work. Gah! she soon enough started cursing herself for being so calculative about how she'd tried to take Delhi for granted. A place where things change in the blink of an eye, including people. Rushing out of the metro gates in a direction they both were clueless to, they tried to process the puzzling complicated surroundings to whatever little they knew about the place. This shop was somewhere in the interiors of CP. These girls had always appreciated this part of the city for its convenience to reach and the option of places it offered. However, they were unaware of the dirt and filth that consumed the area underneath its colourful lights. Exploring and gushing towards their destination, they lost their path and all the glitter and familiarity disappeared as they moved into a silence struck black hole. Alarmed yet calm, Nandini kept telling Amily she knew where they were and it wasn't that big of a deal. Yes, it wasn't until water drops started falling over their heads all over again. "I hate rains!", shouted Amily, hearing the echo of her own words. Nandini, on the contrary was a big fan of monsoons. The smell, feel, sight and everything of rain pulled out the happy child in her, rebelling with her inner conscious to break free of her maturity norms and run around, dancing her way out of the messed up decisions she'd taken in the recent past. It also brought forward her memories with Aryan, how he pushed back the wet hair falling on her face and pulled her close enough to make her heart pounce as hard as a beat of a drum, and whispered in her ear, "You're beautiful, its true." Flipping through the happy images, the final scene stood vivid in her mind. She remembered how easily he'd let her walk away, not even waiting for her to turn back, if not stop her. Pushing away these thoughts which seemed worthless, she concentrated on guiding Amily in the right direction. The numbering of the shops was certainly very absurd and after brainstorming her mind to the last degree, Nandini decided to ask one of the shopkeepers to guide her in the right way. She felt a little bit of apprehension to trust any of these strangers, but it was a situation where she had no other choice. The way, as explained by one of the individuals led them to haul at a dead end.
Confused and irritated, Nandini desperately looked around to find any other way possible, till she found this kacha path, dug up with dirty water squirming out as the drizzling started to speed up with mud all over the place. Looking at their watch, the girls nodded to each other, as if telepathically conversing of choosing to walk past that path, come what may. Amily was swift, yet not entirely perfect in overcoming the obstacles imposed by the mud and the twisted ways. However, Nandini was too clumsy to make her way through. Right in the middle of the water and mud, her right sandal broke. "Yes! exactly this was needed! Thank you Delhi for showing your hatred towards me. I'm obliged!", she screamed to herself. Amily was rather helpless, as the path was too narrow to support two people simultaneously. After almost falling in the big pit and ruining her clothes, specially her feet, Nandini somehow made her way to the other side. "Shop no. 33! It's there!", both of them shouted in a chorus with enthusiasm. Running towards the shop as the rain started to become heavier by the minute, Nandini found it next to impossible to take even a single step with the broken sandal and slippery feet. With Amily's help she somehow made her way to the shop, explaining the person the problem with Amily's phone. It was 5 minutes of quarrel, till they realized nothing could be done, and all their effort went worthless. Down ridden and unhappy, they walked out of the shop, only to realize they were already 10 minutes late. Nandini tried to explain Varun why she's late and he should keep his calm for she was two minutes away from the hall. It was after a few moments she realized, she was lost and no google map or anything could help her way out of it. Amily looked more frightened, expecting a disappointing "I have no idea where we are" expression from Nandini. Following her instincts, she walked straight and Amily followed. As they continued walking, they realized they were in a locality surrounded by only men. Men, who gave those creepy stairs, who knew when someone was lost and could be their next prey, who pounced on the idea of luring innocent girls to such a place by telling them wrong directions. It was like these two girls had pushed themselves into the hands of trouble. Frightened to their wits, the two of them held onto to each other and continued walking.
Late to the metro station.
Sudden cloud burst.
Rampant pushing of innumerable people in the metro which was unusually extremely crowded.
And well....LATE.
Nandini expected she'll make it in time, and all she'd have to do, was sacrifice a maximum of 10 minutes of the movie for Amily's work. Gah! she soon enough started cursing herself for being so calculative about how she'd tried to take Delhi for granted. A place where things change in the blink of an eye, including people. Rushing out of the metro gates in a direction they both were clueless to, they tried to process the puzzling complicated surroundings to whatever little they knew about the place. This shop was somewhere in the interiors of CP. These girls had always appreciated this part of the city for its convenience to reach and the option of places it offered. However, they were unaware of the dirt and filth that consumed the area underneath its colourful lights. Exploring and gushing towards their destination, they lost their path and all the glitter and familiarity disappeared as they moved into a silence struck black hole. Alarmed yet calm, Nandini kept telling Amily she knew where they were and it wasn't that big of a deal. Yes, it wasn't until water drops started falling over their heads all over again. "I hate rains!", shouted Amily, hearing the echo of her own words. Nandini, on the contrary was a big fan of monsoons. The smell, feel, sight and everything of rain pulled out the happy child in her, rebelling with her inner conscious to break free of her maturity norms and run around, dancing her way out of the messed up decisions she'd taken in the recent past. It also brought forward her memories with Aryan, how he pushed back the wet hair falling on her face and pulled her close enough to make her heart pounce as hard as a beat of a drum, and whispered in her ear, "You're beautiful, its true." Flipping through the happy images, the final scene stood vivid in her mind. She remembered how easily he'd let her walk away, not even waiting for her to turn back, if not stop her. Pushing away these thoughts which seemed worthless, she concentrated on guiding Amily in the right direction. The numbering of the shops was certainly very absurd and after brainstorming her mind to the last degree, Nandini decided to ask one of the shopkeepers to guide her in the right way. She felt a little bit of apprehension to trust any of these strangers, but it was a situation where she had no other choice. The way, as explained by one of the individuals led them to haul at a dead end.
Confused and irritated, Nandini desperately looked around to find any other way possible, till she found this kacha path, dug up with dirty water squirming out as the drizzling started to speed up with mud all over the place. Looking at their watch, the girls nodded to each other, as if telepathically conversing of choosing to walk past that path, come what may. Amily was swift, yet not entirely perfect in overcoming the obstacles imposed by the mud and the twisted ways. However, Nandini was too clumsy to make her way through. Right in the middle of the water and mud, her right sandal broke. "Yes! exactly this was needed! Thank you Delhi for showing your hatred towards me. I'm obliged!", she screamed to herself. Amily was rather helpless, as the path was too narrow to support two people simultaneously. After almost falling in the big pit and ruining her clothes, specially her feet, Nandini somehow made her way to the other side. "Shop no. 33! It's there!", both of them shouted in a chorus with enthusiasm. Running towards the shop as the rain started to become heavier by the minute, Nandini found it next to impossible to take even a single step with the broken sandal and slippery feet. With Amily's help she somehow made her way to the shop, explaining the person the problem with Amily's phone. It was 5 minutes of quarrel, till they realized nothing could be done, and all their effort went worthless. Down ridden and unhappy, they walked out of the shop, only to realize they were already 10 minutes late. Nandini tried to explain Varun why she's late and he should keep his calm for she was two minutes away from the hall. It was after a few moments she realized, she was lost and no google map or anything could help her way out of it. Amily looked more frightened, expecting a disappointing "I have no idea where we are" expression from Nandini. Following her instincts, she walked straight and Amily followed. As they continued walking, they realized they were in a locality surrounded by only men. Men, who gave those creepy stairs, who knew when someone was lost and could be their next prey, who pounced on the idea of luring innocent girls to such a place by telling them wrong directions. It was like these two girls had pushed themselves into the hands of trouble. Frightened to their wits, the two of them held onto to each other and continued walking.
One from the odd lot started humming, "Oh, lal dupatte wali tera naam toh bata!". Ofcourse, Amily couldn't understand what these men were saying, so she innocently looked into Nandini's direction for she had surrendered to whatever orders her friend would give, to escape this situation. Back home, Nandini was always called the coward; too pampered and well not even close to being a tough girl. But, today everything depended on her expressions. She had to keep her calm, to deceive everybody and to save her's and Amily's life.Crushing the unremitting emotions that sputter in her head, she kept her calm and kept pushing her way ahead, walking strangely and tripping after every five or seven steps, thanks to the broken sandal. "Arrey! humein dedo sandal, hum theek kar dete hai", another playful voice whooped, followed by the laughter and excitement of about three or four men , which she ignored for obvious reasons. Her body was gleaming with the prospective to run, but her mind processed the fact that it'll only push the girls into further mess, and give the men a heads up of them being lost and alone. They couldn't afford to look back, but were they headed outside this black hole or further into it? Were there some quite footsteps that kept pace right behind them waiting for the opportunity to lean forward and strangle them into its sleazy arms? They kept walking, praying every millisecond to the best of their abilities to their respective gods to shield them and get them out of this place. After having walked 10 minutes, they found a way through. It was as if they had found life back in their knees, which felt giddy after having surpassed an incident which could almost have made headlines in the next days newspaper as 'Another rape incident shocks the capital, targeting two young students'.
Having reached the outskirts of A block, luckily Nandini found a cobbler to fix her sandal and tissues to clean her feet. Varun had sent her a million texts, boiling with anger and frustration of having waited outside the cinema for straight 35 minutes! After taking a deep breath and getting herself together, Nandini apologized to him and requested him to ditch the movie plan and meet the girls near the popular CCD. She could really use a cup of coffee to come in terms with what had just happened. Walking towards CCD, she kept telling Amily to calm down for it was over, and they were safe.
Was it only Amily who needed a continuous assurance that it was really over, or was it a repeated voice inside Nandini, en grafting her to believe the fact that she had safeguarded themselves. The question is, was it really over, or was it just the beginning?
