That Night (A True Story)

‘I still remember that night’.

“Papa, don’t worry I will be home soon” I said consoling him. He was a cool Dad, but I could sense his reason of apprehension.

Just a week back, near our society, a girl was molested and raped. Even though the culprits were behind the bars, yet the entire area was in terror. After the gruesome incident, cops did remain on their toes for a few days, but soon the patrolling stopped. A few of our society members also went to the police station to request the cops to stay alert; to which they just turned a deaf ear.

I am Ridhi, 23 years old and I work in a BPO. This was the first time I was going to work in a night shift till 3 am. My shift was about to start when I received a call from my father. He sounded worried, “Beta, is your mobile fully charged? Do you want me to come to the society gate to pick you up? Beta, can’t you request your boss to assign you a day shift?” He bombarded me with all such questions. “He is a father, who is worried for his only daughter and I cannot take that away from him” I thought, and just listened to him and comforted him. “Please go to sleep and don’t worry about me, I will request Bansilal to drop me at the door”. Bansilal was our cab driver, who had got recruited a week back.

My shift got over. We were seven girls in one cab and mine was the last drop. I found Bansilal’s body language a bit roguish. The way he was looking at us, with those covetous eyes, something was wrong, I was getting the vibes; but out of fear and anxiety I did not share it with any of my colleagues. Then came the drop point of the girl prior to my drop point. She got down and waved at me before leaving. Now I was alone in the cab with him. My drop point was still seven miles away from where the cab dropped that girl.

Then it all started happening. I felt as if Bansi was getting impatient. He was adjusting the driver mirror again and again to get a glimpse of me. He was getting edgy, he was driving fast and he was doing all that, which forced me to say ‘no’.

“Bhaiya, please drive slowly, I am not feeling well”. He did not answer. “Bhaiya, would you please drive slow?” Still no reply; I could see that craving on his face. Finally, I had to shout.

“Madam, don’t look back, there is a Range Rover behind us; it has been following us from the point where I dropped the first girl”. I was flabbergasted “Is he nuts? He thinks that I will believe his fake stories” I said to myself. Still out of curiosity, I looked back and to my horror there was a white Range Rover with tainted glasses driving close to the cab. In a few seconds, it came so close that it could have collided with the cab, if Bansi hadn’t accelerated timely. He was driving at a speed of 120 km/hour and the Rover was accelerating to full throttle.

In the month of January, when winter was at its peak; I was sweating profusely out of fear and anxiety. Seeing me in such a dreadful state, Bansi comforted me “Madam, you need not worry; I will drop you at your place, safe and sound”. The speed at which both the cars were being driven, only God could save me from a terrible mishap. “There must be some maniac inside the Rover” I thought and prayed to God for my safety.

Then what Bansi did was no less than an act of bravery and sensible thinking. There was a flyover few meters away. He pretended as if he is going to drive over the flyover; he gave a right signal, but took a sharp left turn to get onto the road below it. Thankfully, this little trick of his worked and the Rover drove towards the flyover. I was relieved, but he still had a job in hand.

“Madam, we will have to take a longer route, but don’t worry you will be home soon” he said in a soothing voice. In another ten minutes the cab was outside my society gate. Generally, cabs give a drop till the society gate but Bansi kept his promise and drove inside the society and dropped me in front of my house. His courtesy and valor were overwhelming. I was short of words to thank him, so I just got down and gave him a gratified smile. He just smiled back at me with folded hands and stayed there till I got into my home.

I have a firm belief in God and after that day my belief just got stronger.