It was a weekend and Covid had just begun to subside. After a long gap of a year and a half, both the college friends were excited to continue with their weekend jog together. After finishing the first round of 30 minutes, both of them sat on a bench, taking deeper breaths.
"Gimme a sip," Reena said. Neha picked up her bag and it felt lighter. She looked inside, but the bottle was missing. She looked around, but couldn't find it. Her towel and other stuff were still in her bag, though.
"There it is," Reena quirped as she pointed at the bottle of water that had slipped out and rolled over towards a heap of trash. Damn, what do we do now? My throat has gone dry too, "Neha said as she pulled out her cell phone. Wait here, I'll get a bottle from Kumar uncle's shop. He opens his shop at this time. I'll be back in 5 minutes". Reena just nodded as she leaned against the backrest of the bench and closed her eyes, murmuring, "Come soon, please." Neha left, and within seconds, Reena heard a male voice. The sound of someone humming a tune and the voice sounded familiar. She turned around and saw Hariya, the man who had insulted her a couple of months ago during lock-down in front of a crowd. Though she was tired, she kept staring at him. He was on the opposite side of the street that divided the public garden and the small shop that he owned. As she stood, his voice angered her. She closed her fist and stormed out of the gate, walking up to the man. When she stood in front of him, she saw nobody on the street except for vehicles passing by. Without saying a word, she walked up to him and began talking to him. Hariya recognized her but didn't bring up that incident.
While they spoke, Reena saw an opportunity. A chance that she had been waiting for a long time. She cursed herself for not having thought about it before. She knew Neha would be back any minute, so in the heat of the moment, she just walked further and held his hand and yelled for help. The mature 45-year old man wasn't expecting this, and Neha appeared from the other street just at the right moment. When she heard Reena asking for help, she ran towards both of them, and without knowing what had happened, she landed a tight slap on Hariya's cheek.
"How dare you stare at me, huh?" Reena yelled as she held Neha's hand and thanked her for coming at the right time. "Look at this man's audacity. He ran away and pretended as if nothing had happened. I questioned him and he held my hand". Hearing this, Neha landed another tight slap on Hariya's face. Reena yelled for help when she saw some cars passing by. They stopped at the scene, and soon there was a crowd hurling abuse at Hariya. Some even got aggressive with him.
Soon, a cop joined when he was stopped by the bystanders. He held Hariya by his collar and dragged him towards the cop station. Reena was terrified now as she never thought this would get so far. She never wanted to involve the cops in this, but she had no choice. She kept telling Neha to bury the matter, but Neha wasn't in the mood to let Hariya walk away. She filed a complaint, and they both returned home. She narrated the incident to her parents. Her father was very proud of her, but her mom got worried. She called up Reena's mom to talk about this incident. Reena apparently hadn't spoken a word about this to her parents. During their talk, Reena's mother suddenly remembered something and she told Neha's mom that she would call her back again. After a few minutes, Reena and her mom were at Neha's doorstep. Reena's mom was raging with anger. What she disclosed shook Neha and her mom to the core.
Reena's mom said: "During this last lock-down phase, Reena had gotten into bad company. Hariya worked in our building as a security guard at night as his shop was closed due to lock-down. He was the one who informed us that Reena and her friends would sneak onto the terrace for drinks and smoke. We couldn't believe our ears when he told us about it, but he had recorded their video as evidence and a group of parents then caught them red-handed. Reena has been vocal about harming Hariya. She has been revengeful against him since that day. I thought after 2 months, she must have forgotten about it."
Neha and her mom were stunned when Reena admitted that she just wanted to teach Hariya a lesson that he would never forget in his life time. Neha cursed herself for not letting the man speak when he was trying to tell her something. In fact, she slapped him again when he tried to speak up. And within a matter of seconds, things had turned bad to worse. Neha asked Reena's mom to go home while she stormed out of the house, almost dragging Reena to the cop station. She freed the man of all charges, but Hariya was now a broken man. That short stint behind bars transformed his thought process. He was devastated when he reached his shop. His bicycles, the only source of income he had been damaged beyond repair.
That evening when Neha was passing by his shop, she saw the damaged bicycles. She knew the mob had done it in a fit of rage, but deep down she felt it was all her fault. She inquired about him and learned that he stayed in a slum nearby. Without giving a second thought, she walked towards the slums and finally got to his place. Hariya had returned home just about an hour ago. As he sat on his bed, he wondered how he would survive now. All sorts of thoughts crossed his mind and now the soft-spoken man within him had begun to turn into the aggressor. While his mind clogged with all sorts of thoughts, he heard a knock on the door. He didn't budge as he thought it might be hallucinating, but there was a second knock and this time even louder than the first one. He got up slowly and opened the door. To his surprise, he found Neha standing at the door with her gaze lowered.
"Ab kya lene aayi ho yahan? Bas jaan baaki hain. Woh bhi le lo chaho toh".
Those words pierced the strong willed girl and she somehow controlled her tears and mumbled. "Mujhe pata chala ki bheed ne aapki dukaan aur cycles tod di. Mein aapki madad karna chahti hoon. Kya aap please kal mere ghar aa sakte hain subah 9 baje?"
Hariya just slammed the door on her face saying, "Chali jao yahan se. Aayi badi madad karne wali"