Made In Heaven

Sheela’s father went out of the country to Dubai, and she had to shift to her maternal uncle’s home in a village, along with her mother and siblings. She lived in the city till she was in class 8th, now she took admission in class 9^th in a school around 2 km away from the home in the village. She had to use a dusty road passing through farms, an orchard, and nearby village Ghanshyampur to reach the school. This village, Ghanshyampur, was at crossroads, people from other neighboring villages had to pass through this village for commutation to the nearby small market and to the city, so Ghanshyampur dominated over all surrounding villages. People from neighboring villages avoided getting into any kind of trouble with belligerent people of Ghanshyampur, they had to pass through their territory on a regular basis after all.

A few boys from Ghanshyampur took notice of this new girl in the school. Once they realized that she is from the neighboring village, they assumed that her family will not be able to cause much trouble for them, and harassment began. It started with passing lewd comments and reached till attempts to touch and grope her, sometimes in school, or sometimes when they found her alone on the way.

Sometimes boys used to bunk school and come home early. They used to be present in the orchard lying between these two villages, playing kabaddi or cards or simply sitting idly and chatting. One day, by sheer bad luck, Sheela was passing by when the boys were in the orchard. Mostly, there used to be other girls with her, but she was alone that day. There was no other soul in sight. After seeing her regular harassers, she tried to simply pass through the farms, avoiding the orchard, and hiding by ducking slightly among the farms while walking.

But, soon, one boy noticed her. Boys also realized that no one else is in sight and the girl is alone. One guy started running towards her, herd mentality kicked-in and others also followed. They surrounded her. She was paralyzed with fear and was unable to move or shout, she just started crying weakly.

Boys were also indecisive for some time, then one of them, the harasser-in-chief, Umang, moved ahead and gripped her by her waist. At this point, few boys were completely overwhelmed by lust, few others were ambivalent, rest were scared and just wanted to run away but they were not able to do so as everything was happening so quickly.

Umang was from the wealthiest and the most powerful family in the village. Other boys did not like him much, but they feared him, also sometimes they needed his help. So, he was the de-facto leader of the group.

Samar was also there. He had never harassed anyone, whenever he saw others doing it, he felt bad about it, but he could never do anything about. Samar had a sense of idealism and morality that no one around him shared. He was continuously tortured by this, but he was also aware that he could not do much about this. He was a brooding person, who mostly tried to confine himself to reading, whatever he could get his hands on, books, newspapers, textbooks, anything. He joined groups, for passing time, without truly being part of them. He did not belong to the dominant caste of the village, like the rest of the boys in the group. He was also not from a well-off family, so he had to always be diplomatic and calculating about his actions and speech.

But, that day, Samar understood that if he didn’t do anything, something horrible might happen. He gathered courage and asked Umang in a trembling and angry voice to leave her and let her go. Abuses came flowing from Umang immediately and also threats of beating him. Two more boys joined Umang, and hurled invectives at Samar about being a coward and a eunuch. But, Samar was not going to bow down, he picked a broken branch of a tree that was lying nearby and became ready to fight. By then, two other guys sided with Samar and asked Umang to leave the girl and let her go, their conscience was also awakened. Within a few seconds, there was a split and the majority sided with Samar. After a tense few seconds stand-off, Umang released the girl. Trembling, unable to think much, she quickly paced away towards her village.

Sheela did not come to school for many days. She did not tell anyone about the incident. Samar was also fearful of Umang’s retaliation, he also confined himself to his home for a few days. Gradually, within a few days, things went back to normal. Boys also never talked about the incident, everyone wanted to forget it and pretended that it never happened. Sheela was never harassed again.

Sheela and Samar’s eyes met sometimes, in school or in passing by each other on the way. Sometimes Sheela passed slight smiles, without consciously intending it, but Samar was too afraid and shy to respond. Though, while alone at home, many times, he daydreamed about their romantic escapades based on Bollywood movies. They both did. They wanted to talk, but they never could. There was no space for a boy and a girl to interact without a very solid reason in the village area, even briefly.

Sheela completed her 12^th class and moved back to the city, her father had returned from Dubai. She joined college there, completed graduation and joined a different college for post-graduation. Samar had also moved to the city, for higher studies, he was living in a rented house. They were in the same college and it was there that they met.  

Here they were able to talk the first time, something that they wanted to do for years. They liked each other since the school days, but they never had an opportunity to express it. The city provided some freedom and space, and their love blossomed. They sneaked for movies and restaurants. During college time, they tried to be together as much as possible, even by bunking classes. But, other than handholding in the dark of the cinema hall, they never dared to do anything else. 

Most cities in India are just an extension of villages, same power structure, same corruption, and the same mindsets. Some neighbors saw them together getting out of a cinema theatre and the news reached her home. Gossip spread and soon entire neighborhood and all relatives became aware of this.

Sheela’s father had earned good money in Dubai and had established a good business in the city. He had also joined politics. Because of his caste, he was made district deputy head of the party in power in the state, even though he did not have the talent to speak even a single line from a stage. His daughter having an affair itself was egregious, being aware that the guy belonged to a different caste made him fume with anger, it had potential to jeopardize his entire political career.

Sheela’s father reached Samar’s flat with ten other guys, few of them were brandishing guns. Samar was not beaten, but he was plainly made aware of dangerous consequences for him and his entire family if he didn’t stop the relationship immediately.

Sheela was not allowed to attend the college and was confined to her home. She was told that now she will be married as soon as possible, and she will not have any say in this matter. She had lost any respect of her family and also any rights. Her mother cursed that she should have died before being born, and after her scandalous conduct, she should consider herself lucky that someone good even agreed to marry her. She was good at studies but now she was not going to be allowed to pursue further studies or jobs.

Samar’s father ran a small general store from which there was a small income. There was also some income from their small landholding. He had a younger sister to be married. Getting a job and improving the financial situation of his family was on his mind all the time since he was a teenager. For a few days, he was completely despondent, he cried himself to sleep. But above all, he was a realist, since his childhood, who understood the reality of his situation and reality of society. He pulled himself together, tried to forget Sheela completely and put his full focus on completing his studies and getting a job.

Sheela went through a similar phase, from despondency to realism, and also tried to forget him and do whatever her family wanted her to do. After a few months, she took the final exams. She was allowed to come to college only for exams. Only once in college, they saw each other, their eyes met, they stared into each other, full of sadness and tears, for a duration that felt like an eternity, but soon they averted their eyes and went away. They did not talk. Sheela was being escorted by her brothers daily, they knew that they must be lurking somewhere nearby. Samar left for Delhi for a job soon, which some relatives had got him.

Umang had managed to pass 12^th class board exams after multiple attempts. Soon after this, he joined the college in the city. There he became a student politician. He made a name for himself by breaking heads and limbs of multiple people. Impressed by his credentials, and also because of his caste and family background, he was given a ticket for college student body election by the party in power. He won the election. He had a bright future ahead of him.

Sheela’s father met Umang’s family and the marriage was fixed. Sheela tried to protest and begged to be married to anyone else but Umang, but it was of no avail. It was talked about in the entire area for many days. Two rich and powerful families, joining hands. This alliance was going to make both families more powerful. There was even gossip about how Umang and Sheela liked each other since school days. Many said it was a match made in heaven.