Advait's Jheel || 18+

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I could never have guessed the extent of Advait's insanity. The first time was just a peek.

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The next morning, Baba was called to the office early for an emergency. He had left in a rush on the scooty. My scooty. In our home, we had a scooty and a car only. And though I knew how to drive the car, I didn't want to take the risk of driving in the heavy rush drivers of Bhopal. People drove here like crazy. Therefore, I decided to go by auto. Once I was on the road with my bag, I waited for the auto. But strangely enough, there was not a single one. Actually, the whole road and locality was empty. No vehicle was passing by. I felt immediately weird. I looked around. Nothing. I walked ahead. And there, I saw some men, maybe six or seven, wearing kurtas standing on guard. They were staring at me blankly. I had never felt so strange and confused. What was happening?

Ignoring them, I walked to the other side. And there, too, stood some kurta-wearing men, again maybe seven in number, with hands crossed across their chests. Now, I felt slightly frightened by the whole situation. On both sides, they had blocked the road. Suddenly past them, I noticed an auto approach. I sighed in relief and was about to call for it when those men stopped the auto. I flinched back in shock when one of the men dragged the auto driver out and slapped him continuously, yelling, "Didn't we inform your whole auto community not to come here?! Then, you bhosdike, what the hell are you doing here, huh?!" The auto driver fell to the road, hands joined, and pleaded, "Sorry, Sahab, I made a mistake. I will never come here." The man kicked the driver, "bhago!" The auto driver scrambled immediately into his auto and left the way he came from. I stood rooted in my place. The men, gunday, continued to stare at me. Their gazes were meaningful as if they were sending a message to me.

I turned away from them. The people who lived in my colony left on their vehicles past me and those men did not stop them. I looked at the time on my phone. I was getting late. The first class will start in about fifteen minutes. And it took ten minutes for me to reach college. God! What should I do? My mind was stuck on that gunday's words. What did he mean about no auto coming to this area?

A horn beeped loudly. I looked up. It was the city red bus. I sighed in relief. Thankfully, it came. I decided I would go on the bus for today, as it seemed like the only option. I had only walked a step towards the bus as it was about to stop when those gunday banged on the bus, ordering, "chalo, niklo!" "Aage! Aage!" "Badho be, badho!" The bus did not stop. Instead, turned to the adjacent road.

My mouth had dropped. In the similar fashion, they were diverting all the vehicles to go back or change route and were blocking them from entering the area. Fear gripped my heart as realisation dawned on me. They were purposely doing all this so that I could not catch any vehicle to college. But why? Who were they? What did I do to them? Wide-eyed, I had stepped back. Those gunday smirked at me, "ab jaake dikhao college." I gasped and immediately ran back to my house. Aai frowned as she watched me huff, breathing hard after the run, and leaned on the sofa. "Jheel? What are you doing at home? Aren't you going to college?"

I practically ran to my room, "I, I-- I t-think there's an auto strike today! I couldn't go to college!" I slammed my room door behind me with a racing heart and slumped to the floor. I was afraid. Who were they? Why did they not want me to go to college? My mind couldn't comprehend the occurrence of some minutes ago. I couldn't think of any valid reason. In the end, I didn't go to college. My second day was missed.

The whole day, I couldn't stop thinking about those gunday. My appetite was lost. I skipped lunch. Aai kept asking me what was wrong but I said nothing. I didn't dare tell her, afraid, and also, I myself didn't know what was all that. Thankfully, from tomorrow, I will go on my scooty.