Wrong Turn

It was back in 2010 January when I was just 21 years old and I started working as a lecturer after my graduation. The college in which I'm working is in an isolated area and almost 31/2 hours from my home. So, I choose to stay in college hostel along with few other female lecturers. We had so many restrictions to go out of college hostel. One day one of our colleague invited me and other female colleague to his house which is located in nearby village as his sister had given birth recently and they are celebrating her naming ceremony. I was not interested to go out of college hostel as he called us for dinner and it might become very late at nightau as we have less frequency of bus and we cannot trust auto drivers. I was forced by my colleague so I couldn't say no . We took permission and left hostel after completing our classes.

Even though we left early we couldn't reach his house till seven thirty as we had to go shopping to buy something for the newborn. As soon as we went there we were served dinner and we ate without uttering a word. I just want to leave early as we could miss the last bus.

As I feared we missed our last bus , we don't have choice we had to travel in a share auto. We got one and even though I had some fear in my mind but I somehow told myself one more girl is with me so don't worry. Auto driver was playing some music we totally immersed in those songs such that we didn't notice which turn he took. Here I had to say something there are two colleges in same area, if we take right and travel for 5 kilometers our college will come, if we go straight we will go to another college which doesn't have college hostel and ahead of that college there is a thick forest.

I got doubt so I was just looking outside as I couldn't see any light as road is surrounded by agricultural lands. I thought we were going on a right path but I can see college from far without lights and without any compound wall unlike our college which has compound wall. One of our co-passenger a boy (really I should thank this guy ) pointed out that your stop has come. We both got confused and got out we can see some fear in auto driver's eyes and took the change whatever we gave and immediately left from that place.

We just looked at each other's face as he took half of the amount and then we noticed that we took wrong turn. I started shivering and she started crying ,we don't know what to do? We were left on a road without lights and not even a trace of human being at night 9′o clock. Even now if think of that situation I will not get sleep. To my horror there was no balance in my phone back then we don't have WhatsApp or any other resource.

We thought our life was finished but then we could hear some auto approaching. We stopped that and told about our situation. Then he asked 10 times of the amount what we normally pay. We just begged him we will give how much you want but please take us to our place. We reached to our college within 30 minutes and gave his amount and thanked him again and again.

Immediately after entering into our room we both burst in tears. Other female lecturers who were staying with us consoled us and told that we are lucky to escape as they were told that there are so many incidents where these auto drivers took innocent girls to that forest and rape them. They either kills those girls or sells them. These incidents happen mostly in nights. After hearing those words I stopped crying and told myself that I will always stay alert whenever I travel alone.

This incident taught me a lot and made me a strong woman