SHORT STORIES

A STORY WITH TWISTS

After months of struggle, Anjali was able to get a job at a big MNC.

She was very happy. Now, her poor & ill parents would not have to borrow money from others in order to make the family survive. Their daughter was now the sole bread earner of the family, who was going to improve their standard of living.

After going to office for a week, Anjali noticed that a man is stalking her, and follows her from home to office. And, whenever she used to enter bus or metro, middle aged uncles used to stare at her, enough to make her uncomfortable.

At office, the lift man would deliberately try to touch her body in some way or the other. Because of this, she started using stairs, for going to the 10th floor.

Inside her cabin, her boss would sexually harass her on almost regular basis.

Telling all this to her parents, would make her lose her job, which she couldn’t afford. Whenever she thought of making complaint to the police, she was reminded of the mental harassment one of her relative (girl) had faced at the police station.

She thought of using social media in order to share her ordeal, but was scared because of the presently existing mentality. One false accusation on a man would boil the blood of whole male gender, but they wouldn’t give a damn about the harassment/ oppression women have been facing for centuries, under this umbrella of patriarchy. They would paint the whole female gender with the same brush of crying “False accusation”, in order to save the ethics of their gender. They would start giving lessons on gender equality if the female gender tried to feel a little more privileged, forgetting that the female gender wasn’t allowed to speak anything, when their male gender used to be ultra privileged. Now, even if, there was any talk on Women Empowerment, the male gender would show their patriarchy by teaching, what counts in women empowerment and what doesn’t. Women empowerment only means letting women do what they want to, without judging them in any way.

“Stay at home”, “Wear full clothes”, “Get off social media”, “Don’t dare to go out at night”, were the only probable (expected) replies, because the female has to compromise, always. No one thought of, punishing or converting those monsters into human, or changing the mentality, or speaking against such issues. All were slave of their upbringing.

So, Anjali continued going to her job, while facing all this. By now, the stalker tried to have some conversation with her, she ignored. The middle aged uncle in the metro tried touching her, she shouted at him, but he acted as if nothing happened (just like other passengers). The boss called her in the cabin, and tried to touch her private parts. This time, she started crying loudly and went back to her home. The boss acted as if nothing happened.

She woke up from her sleep !!!

Sad and depressed and totally broken from inside.

Now, Anjali stopped coming to her office. Her boss didn’t tried to inquire about it. Also, she had no friends in the office as she was a shy and reserved girl.

After exactly one week, Anjali came out of her house, with a rebellious look on her face. As she was walking towards the metro station, the stalker held her hand from behind. Anjali resisted, but he wasn’t ready to leave her. So, she took out a pointed compass from her bag, and attacked his hand with it. The stalker cried in pain while she prepared for her next attack, which was kicking at his private part. The stalker fell on the ground.

She walked towards the metro as if nothing happened. After boarding the metro, she waited for her next target, the middle aged uncle. At the next station, the uncle came inside and sat besides Anjali. Soon, he started doing his thing, that was touching Anjali. She gave him an angry stare, to which he replied, “Sorry, by mistake”. Then, she took out a thermos from her purse, which had hot tea in it. Her stop came, she stood up from her place, waiting for the metro to jerk, while pretending to drink the tea. As soon as the jerk happened, she dropped her ‘hot’ tea on uncle and reacted, “Sorry, by mistake”. Uncle kept on crying out of pain, and the passengers kept on looking.

After getting off metro, she went to the public washroom. There she changed her get up to some extent. After coming out of the washroom, she went towards her office building.

As it was Saturday, most of the employees had left or were on the verge of leaving. She took the lift for going to 10 th floor (where her office was situated). After seeing her, the lift man (who was drunk) started masturbating while sitting on the chair. Anjali grabbed the lift man from behind, pressed the 8th floor button (as that floor is empty on weekends). She punched him repeatedly to make him weak, then she quickly tied his hands and covered his mouth, while he struggled to get himself free. Then, she took out a sharp knife and cut off his penis. After reaching the 8th floor, she threw him out of the lift.

Then the lift stopped at 10 th floor. Luck was on her side as the boss was alone in the office and the guard wasn’t around. It seemed that the boss was checking some documents on computer. Anjali entered the office by swiping her card. Without making any noise, she went behind the boss and threw red chilly masala on his face. The boss cried out of pain and was unable to see anything. Then, Anjali stabbed him with a pair of scissors. He kept on crying out of pain, and shouted for the guard. He kept on hurting himself by falling here and here. Soon, the guard entered the office, but, by now, Anjali had left.

Next morning, the police reached Anjali’s house.

“Your daughter, Anjali is under arrest for the attempt of murder on 2 people at a MNC,” the police man said.

“How can you say that?,” asked the worried father.

“Your daughter name has been entered in the office entry at the time of the attack, and the boss of the MNC is presently, very critical,” said the policeman.

“Mr. Rajan (the policeman), my daughter, Anjali, committed suicide a week ago, by consuming poison. Her office card was stolen from her office desk, a day before she committed suicide. One of your policeman also visited the hospital where my daughter died. She didn’t leave any suicide note,” the old man said, before breaking down.

After seeing the death certificate, and police report, the policeman and his team of women officers, left Anjali’s house.

“Don’t cry dad”, said Gitanjali, “Anjali would feel bad after seeing you like this from the sky”.

Background story-

After coming home crying, Anjali wrote a suicide letter, sharing everything she had faced on daily basis. Her twin sister, Gitanjali, who was doing her higher study (on scholarship), was at home because of holidays. When Anjali died in the hospital, her parents thought she committed suicide out of pressure of earning for everyone. After reaching home, Gitanjali found the suicide letter, which Anjali had kept on her table. Then, she went through it and destroyed it. Soon, she made a plan for taking the revenge. As she was trained in karate and martial arts, the plan took off.