Esoterica

Like other days today also I fought with my mother, reason being she wants me to work regularly, get settled in life and lead a decent life. Only if she understands getting a routine job is not an easy thing for an alcoholic like me. I got out of the dingy house and walked wildly in the streets then something caught my attention. It was the flashing lights and red-painted door of the whorehouse. I walked inside and enquired the owner “What is the best you can provide?” “Everything is best here, that’s why you come”. She announced proudly “Okay then exhibit something new.” I said brazenly. “There is a new item a widow, would you like to …” “A widow? Huh!” I stopped her halfway. “Does your mother know about your whereabouts?” she said irately moving away from me. “Can you provide me what I want or shall I look at some other place? It should not bother you until I am paying for what I want.” I shouted furiously.

“Calm down sweetheart, choose from one of them.” The lady pointed her index finger to a room where five-six young girls barely in their early twenties were sitting and talking in stifled giggles. My eyes skittered from one girl to others, all of them had applied loud lipsticks on lips and talcum powder on face and were clad in dazzling attires. My eyes came to an abrupt halt on a girl, who was fully clad in a grungy yellow cotton sari and continually wiping tears from her eyes. “She is the widow, I was talking about”. The lady remarked noticing my eyes focused on the messy girl.

 “All right then I will pay what I regularly pay. But by the way, why is she looking so melancholic?” My eyes were still propelling the intricacies of the girl’s body, her protruding eyes were red and her face swollen from non-stop crying, she was lean with a slender neck and her complexion a delicate shade of ginger, her plaited thick black hair reached her waist.

 “Why should a philandering person like you worry about her? She is new to the flesh trade, abandoned by her poor family and sold by her in-laws and these girls are acclimatized to the surroundings and have balanced their lives.” She shifted her glance from the girl to other girls and then to me as she finished.

“Why is this place looking so clean and fresh today, unlike other days?” I inquired. “Sir we too are humans and want to live in a healthy and happy atmosphere, but grapple between our desires and needs. We purge our emotions to feed our belly. Only if people can understand, we sell our body not our soul still we are exiled from society.” She lamented.

“That is your karma, send that girl in.” having nothing else to reply I stubbornly said and moved to one of the rooms.

“Yes sir, God meticulously keeps records of each person’s karma and we do believe in divine justice. What cannot be altered has to be endured, and we decide to endure gracefully with courage and faith……..”  I heard her voice faint as I entered the door of the room.