When She Dialed 100
When She Dialed 100
Nothing had changed, once again Diwali had arrived but except its date and day nothing had changed. Paakhi was a small town girl who was brought up in a conservative family and was taught countless limits that she was never allowed to cross, but she had always seen her mother on the next shore of this river, she was not new to the idea of struggle that life may throw in her face but despite all the inclinations she succeeded to pursue her education in engineering and got admission in a good government college. She knew that if she wanted to leave this living hell she had only one way and that was going to college and then getting shifted to hostel. She never felt homesick or missed anybody because she did not know what is it like to have a family where fight never happens and what does it take to take care of each other, except her mother whom she really missed she never felt glitch about anybody else, she always felt distant from her father specially, she never understood him that why he was so moody and arrogant.
It was a trend to have a quarrel on a holy occasion to spoil it, Paakhi was so tired that she started to ignore all of the participants in the fight as this was no new, her shouting anyway did not make any point, but there is a brim of every container and hence it flowed that day.
A day before Diwali, a nice chilly dawn it was, Paakhi was deep asleep in her bed with her brother on the other side of the room, when she suddenly heard thudding sound as someone was thrashing something but she was on pills due to viral fever so she could not react actively and ignored that, may be someone is cleaning carpets, as soon as she thought to slip under the covers again she heard her mother screaming badly in the corridor and her eyes became wide opened and she jumped from her bed in a heavy head and woke up her brother. She did not have the courage to go out and stop them, both the children were listening through the door that their hardworking and ideal mother was being beaten by their father on the sayings of their grandparents but, there were feeling so numb that they could not step out, suddenly beating stopped and they listened that their father is forcing his wife out of the house and that is when her brother got chocked up and Paakhi started burning from anger, she picked up her small pink color Nokia phone and punched 100 on dial pad. She was about to call when her brother interrupted her and said this is not right and she should not complain against her family, she stared at him with her burning eyes, and dialed the number, she had no control over her shaking voice in front of the official on the other side of phone but she had her courage and she complained. She got a local police station number and she called there too and registered her complain to the officer with the assurance that he will be there in a short while and then she hung up the phone.
The minute she hung up the phone, her brother went and told his father about the complain and found out that their mother was also missing and she was nowhere near the premises of the house. She became more strong regarding her complain and decided that she will put an end to this today or she will leave the house forever. Her father came rushing towards her in a boiling anger and shouting cuss words when her grandmother also joined her father, she gave a blank stare to all the responses and said only sentence: "I did what was right and required", she left the room and started searching her mother. Her neighbor called her up and told that her mother was in their house, she went to her neighbor and explained her mother whole situation while consoling her and asked for her support during the interrogation. They were in the middle when she heard the doorbell ring on her house's main gate and went towards it. One constable and one inspector were standing at the gate, she was trembling in the situation but she had to fight for her mother, accusations started and after a harsh discussion inspector turned to her mother and asked her views and statements to make arrests of her husband and in-laws who were torturing her for last twenty years. Paakhi turned towards her with a confident look and stayed silent while waiting for her mother's words and became numb when she heard the words:"Sir, aisa kuch nahi hai, mere ghar ki halat mai apne ghar m khud sambhaal lugi, Paakhi ne galti ki h apko phone lagaake, ap maaf kar do hume!!". She stood silent for a long time in mixed feeling of anger and guilt for her mother that she thought she would support her and would bring her mother out of this situation, but that day she realized that she herself did not want to come to out of the hell even if the angels were at the door. This sudden change of situation left Paakhi completely broken and when she looked at her father he gave her the most disgusting look of loosing the fight. To prove his point he told Paakhi that he will cancel the education loan of her engineering and then will see what she would do without money, she did not respond and went again to her room with a new perspective towards life that sometimes trouble taken for somebody else is not worth that person. She packed her bag and left for the college writing a note to her mother:
"Dear Mother
It was nice to meet you this time, I took one of the biggest step for the person who is biggest for me in the world but in response that person made me realize that even the biggest person can become weak too. Though dad has given me threat to cancel my loan for the rest of the semesters. I am not scared as he cannot do as desired because I am also legally involved in process and I am not giving my consent for the same. I am going as a new person from here today, thanks to you to show the reality.
Love
Paakhi
P.S.: Happy winters"