A Night To Remember

It was a rainy night in a small town in Bihar and Vyom was on his way to the station to catch his train to Delhi where he had bagged an executive banking job. His family had given him lots of wishes to succeed and especially his mother, who told him to stand for a woman no matter what the situation is. They all wanted him to be a successful man.

He was nervous as he was going for the first time alone to a place outside his town and away from family. But right now his focus was to reach the station and he was running late so that he did not miss his train.

Finally, he reached the station, he went inside and checked at the enquiry and found out that train was delayed by almost 4 hours. It was 8 PM now and he did not want to go back home and disturb them while sleeping.

He came out and by now rain had stopped, he lit a cigarette and sat near a roadside dhaba and ordered something to eat. While eating he noticed that a girl was standing nearby and she looked nervous.

Vyom tried to catch a full glimpse of her and he noticed that she was very beautiful. After a while, he realised maybe he should check with her if she was fine and let him know if there was any trouble.

The girl did not reply anything when Vyom asked her and moved a bit further and avoided eye contact with Vyom as well. When he asked again she said that she was with her husband and her husband was coming.

Vyom was fine with this and he sat again on his seat with his cigarette, he noticed that a man came to that woman and they were to move ahead but suddenly he noticed that the woman turned towards him. There was something in her eyes which Vyom could not avoid at first. The couple went away towards a street and lost in its darkness.

He was still thinking about the woman and why she looked at him. All kind of thoughts started to come to his mind, maybe it was just a look, maybe she wanted to say something or maybe she was in trouble.

He lit another cigarette and ignored the incident and while thinking a thought came to him that the man who was the woman’s husband was too old for the lady and also the man’s expression was not as if he was indeed her husband.

Now for a while a thought came , what if the lady was in trouble, He thought may be tell police but then if she was indeed in trouble then it would be too late. Vyom’s mother was a teacher and she always taught him to respect females and stand for him and had said the same while he was leaving.

So he decided to look into this matter on his own no matter what. He quickly moved to the street and himself got lost in its darkness. He was scared as well but the idea to stand for someone kept him going.

There was complete silence in the street, suddenly he heard a scream from a house some hundred meters away from him. He silently moved towards the house and looked through a window and saw that girl in the corner with her hands tied and bruises marks on her face. The woman too saw him and it seemed she was asking Vyom to go away from there but Vyom decided to do what he could do.

He initially thought to do something on his own but realising it is not a Bollywood movie but a real life moment decided against it. He quickly turned around and started to move towards railway station so that he could inform railway police and rescue the girl. But suddenly that man who pretended to be the husband saw her and raised an alarm, His partners started to run towards Vyom and he started to run as fast he could. He finally was able to reach the station police and told them about it. The police were quick in action and went to the spot and when they barged in, they could see almost half a dozen ladies packed in a room with bruises all over their body.

On interrogation, it was found out that the ladies there were to be moved to Delhi and Mumbai by morning as part of flesh trade. Vyom was shocked to see something like this in front of him, a harsh his town reality which he had heard of but never seen. He went to the woman he saw at the station first, her name was ‘Latika’ and she was from a village nearby. She told that she was lured into this on pretext of a dream of bright future ahead and not only her but all the other ladies in there. All the ladies in here mostly were helpless and the criminals took advantage of this.

Police filed a charge sheet against the culprit and all the ladies were sent back to their home, they all looked towards Vyom with tears full of gratitude.

Vyom was suddenly the point of conversation in the town and he realised that he needed to stay back and fight this evil prevalent in the society. His family supported him as well. He was determined to change the status of the town so that no more Latika is forced to be doing something like this.

A few months later, again such rainy night, Vyom was sitting in the same dhaba where his life had changed and just thinking how one night made him the man he is today and more determined towards the cause to save more such victims in his life and give them a better life.