The First Trillionaire

Trapped in Nightmare

Dragging her forcibly down the worn-out path leading to the thatched house, one of the henchmen threw her on the floor, which was the last thing she wished for. The lanky, bidi-smoking fellow bound her feet together tightly with an iron chain, making sure to check it twice so that she could not escape again. They could not afford to repeat the same mistake, and another escape attempt would cost them their life next.

"Fek sasuri ko iha! Sasuri, marathon bhagegi!" (Throw this bitch here! The bitch will run the marathon!) The hairy giant snapped the words out and left, followed by the other minions, and the last one closed the door tightly, leaving her alone with her misery inside. Shail was tired, wet and despairing inside the same room from which she had escaped just a few hours ago.

They had been the most exciting and exhilarating hours of her life and she had felt certain that she could escape! Unfortunately, as exhilarating as it was, it didn't last long.

A few hours earlier, Shail was running through the barren fields with no sign of people around her. The night was too dark to help her in any way, but it did conceal her and the dangers lurking around her. She had been running continuously for more than one hour, trying to get as far as possible from the place where she had been held captive. She ran barefoot over the uneven ground, sharp stones and rough dirt scraping her skin, hardly aware of the place that she had explored once in the daytime. The hard ground and the unfriendly surrounding seemed to be a part of the place where they had held her captive, but she had to run — outrun her captors who would slaughter her at the first instance.

She scrambled over the hard terrain; she could smell the stench that was part of the air in this eerie place. That's when she remembered the numerous buffaloes that were grazed and kept at the place when the goons had taken her first. She did not see that her feet were taking her to the edge of the land, and closer to the water. But she did sense that running had become a lot easier and that she was not as tired as she had been in the beginning.

She ran into the sand and across the gently sloping land, coming to an abrupt stop when her feet touched the water. She hesitated, taking a step back, trying to think clearly.

Yes, there was water. The place is an island and I'll have to cross the river to get out of this godforsaken place, she thought.

She remembered that there was a boat that was used to ferry people and goods across the river, but in the dead of the night, she could not be sure of the direction.

The river runs deep, as the boatman had said it himself, can I cross it? I can't even swim. I may drown while crossing it, she thought, and her despair grew insurmountably with each second.

She looked back once, peering hard into the darkness and she thought she could hear voices. She was not sure; it might as well have been fear and stress playing tricks on her. She turned, dipped her toes in the ice-cold water and looked ahead where the gentle swish of the river could be heard softly in the quiet night.

Dead? Was I alive all this while that I was kept tied up in a corner? Can it be called living? No, I cannot let myself die even as I see death taunting me. It is better to be dead in the quest for life and freedom, rather than getting slaughtered by those wretched murderers.

She had made her decision; resolutely she moved into the water that promised her freedom. Wading into the water, feeling her way with her feet, she was high on hope, shallow on chances, and all that she had was faith. She had reached a point in the river where the water reached up to her knees, and that was when she began to feel the strain of making her way through the water, making her legs feel like dead weight. She began to feel tired, drowsy and the whole ordeal was getting exhausting with each step she took in the water. Her ears picked up a voice behind her; she turned and saw torchlights flickering in the distance. Her kidnappers, no doubt, she thought with renewed fear.

She dragged herself further into the river, fighting the current until she could not force her feet to move and the water was thigh high. Sending a prayer to Maa Durga, she took a deep breath and plunged in headfirst and tried to swim. She flapped her arms wildly in making effort to swim and moved toward the opposite shore, while water rushed in through her mouth and nose. She had not managed to progress much further from where she started to swim when she heard someone swimming behind her, an expert swimmer at her heels. 

"Woh dekho, woh sali bhag rahi hai! (Hey!See, there is the bitch escaping!) Pakad Sali ko warna Baccha Bhaiya hume nahi chodenge!(Grab that bitch, otherwise Bachha Bhaiya will not spare us).

Pakad usko! Pakad! (Grab her! Grab her!)"

Her pursuer was catching up dangerously fast and was almost behind her, and with another stroke, reached her with alarming speed. She could either give up trying to swim or wait until her kidnappers took her back or make her a captive again. She gathered her energy and tried swimming again, but this time two people caught up with her, one on each side. She was trapped, caught like a lamb between a family of unfed lions, and just like a little wild animal she could only scratch them and fight for release while her captors hauled her out of the water and carried her back to dry land.

Back at the hut, the leader of the pack came barging inside the room wearing a murderous expression that seemed to fill the others with fear. He came towards the limp captive and slapped her cheek hard. His hand knocked the breath out of her and her lip started bleeding. Next, he turned his attention to his gang members, slapping hard the first one he came across. He hurled abuses at them, threatening to kill them if she escaped again.

Bristling with fury, he turned back to Shail who was shaking with cold as much as with anger at being caught again. He said, "Tujhe to Bachha bhaiya tabhi sabak sikha dete jab tu Begusarai me thi, sukar kar Director General of Police (D.G.P.) ne bacha liya tujhe. Doobara mauka mat de Baccha bhaiya ko warna jis jaan ko hatheli par lekar bhag rahi, wo bhi nahi rahegi. (Baccha Bhaiya could have taught you a lesson when you were in Begusarai. But praise your luck that the D.G.P rescued you. Do not expect Bachha bhaiya to give you another chance; otherwise, the life for which you are escaping, will no longer be yours. You will be dead). The malice in his voice was all too clear as were his threatening words.

Then, looking around for a while standing at the center of the room he thundered pointing a grubby finger at one of his minions, "Band kar isse aur aj khana mat dena. Jyada Shakti hai isme." (Hey, you, lock her and do not feed her tonight. She has too much power to run!)

He left the room. The strong smell in there still bothered Shail. Tears welled up in her eyes and softly she started to sob; she cursed her kidnappers and in her mind, she recalled the words spoken by the giant who left the room few minutes before. So, Bachchu Singh was behind her kidnapping, but the reason for her kidnapping was not clear to her. Would they ask a hefty ransom from her poor mother who was all-alone and could not deal with her kidnappers? Would they kill her if her mother could not pay the ransom amount?

She tried to think clearly to analyse and wrap her head around the sign of the trouble that lay in front of her. Lying on the floor of the deserted house, she tried to remember the events exactly as they happened, hoping it would trigger something in her memory that would throw light on the situation that led to her kidnapping.

It would definitely have to be the time when she had joined the Begusarai branch of the East India Bank, the place that was brought into her life by fate and faith. She did not choose it, nor did she dream about it just as she had never dreamed about an eventful life when she was a simple and naïve girl in her village. Naïve, because she had never set foot in the outside world except for a few kilometers from her village. Even her schooling had been through correspondence. Despite these circumstances, she got selected for a prestigious bank job after passing the Indian Banking Personnel Selection Exam. The East India Bank was the place where the first brick of her story was laid, the story of her life that was intertwined with the stories of many others who would shape her future for the world to see. She wistfully thought about the day she had set out for Mumbai, eagerly looking forward to the new journey in store for her.