Across Boundaries-2

Rahul

“She has been kidnapped”, were the first words that I heard when I called Priya on her cell.

It was her cousin Aanchal.

“Stop joking and give the phone to Priya. Its 55 bucks per minute.  Quickly!” taking it as a joke, obviously.

“No,  damnit! She has been kidnapped I am not joking!”, I could hear her sobs.
And then she told me the whole story...how they had gone for shopping, how the cab driver did something, and how two of them woke up to be found near the mall, except Priya.

The phone fell through my hands. Priya’s innocent face flashed before my eyes. Her baby-like smile. No! This could not happen.  A dull vibration shook me.  There was somebody knocking on the floor. I just kept looking at the door, hoping for them to go away. I wish I could just close my eyes and find Priya right beside me. Kidnapped. Obviously this had implications way more serious than what it seemed to be. Why would the kidnappers kidnap an outside girl, and that too only one of the three?

Where was she right now? And in what state? Was she alright? Was she still in Nepal..or?

Priya

There were sounds near me as I slipped away from the dark mist that surrounded my mind. It was as if I had been drugged. It was difficult to move my fingers.  I could hear two voices floating by.

“..yeah and tomorrow most probably is the last night. I am not coming back. It’s better there than here. We already have the documents...”, one was saying to another.

“Yeah, maybe. How are we moving the girls?, the second one asked.

My heart skipped  a beat. Was this what i was thinking?

“Normal. Chloroform and burqa. Indian movies are very original. But we are not”, and I could here both of them laughing.

I opened my eyes and saw a body lying near me. It was hazy at first, but even before I could recognize I knew it would be a girl.

How could this happen? Weren’t these things supposed to happen in movies? I always thought that I was far away from these things. How could this happen? Wasn’t I supposed to be a normal girl with just usual stuff of problems? What will happen to me? Where would they take me? And I felt a gut wrenching pain as I recalled all the stories I had heard about it. But is this my destiny? Isn’t it better to die than go through all that pain and shame? I looked around. It was a small room with no windows. The door was closed, and locked too, most probably.

Tears came from my eyes, and I felt them slide across my cheek and then hair. I remembered the faces of my parents, and Rahul. Would they miss me? How would they face people back there?
I lost count of the tears I felt moving down my cheek. And then I thought, is this my destiny? Was this what I was born for? Pondering over this thought, I made a decision. NO. I would not sit and let this happen to me. I wiped my tears and tried to move my limbs. I looked around the room, for some opening, some window where I could escape from....my destiny.

Rahul

“It is a case of human trafficking. Around 50 girls are moved from here to different countries in a month”, the police commissioner was saying. “Seven American girls have been missing for the past 5 months. It was time we had to something. But there has been no leak so far. Location of the girls is still unknown. We are trying our best”, he said.

I was in the Nepal police commissioner’s office with my dad, who through political ties had managed to make it a priority case, here in Nepal.

“But Sir, something can be done. What about the cab driver? Has anybody drawn a sketch of him?”, I asked.

“Yes. In fact my men are looking for him right now. It’s all organized crime, you see. It’s far beyond what we think. It’s a more complex system than we thought. And I am positive that we will find them, because we have got a sketch of the cab driver”, he said sounding confident.

After two hours of pacing in his office, the first good news came. The cab driver was caught near the mall. We immediately went to the police station where he was already being interrogated by a few police men. After an hour or so the entire story formed. The pieces fit. The girls would be moved tonight to be taken to Dubai through air.

The police immediately began to form a plan of eviction.

My mind was on Priya. I prayed to god she was all right. But I couldn’t just sit here and let it happen. There was a part of me that urged me to do something. She was my life, and I couldn’t just let her go. Though my trust in the police had now been restored, I still wanted to do something. And so I did. I offered the commissioner to help him in the evacuation plan. He started explaining me the plan...

Priya

They checked us every two hours, and now an hour or so. It was dark outside and obviously it was time for another dose of chloroform. I had heard about the plan to move us tonight.
It was dark inside as well, and I had planned my escape. I was scared, and wiped off the perspiration from my forehead.  It was now or never. Life wouldn’t give me another chance, and so I waited for the guard.

After some 30 minutes, I heard the scraping of the chair, and footsteps. They were near. I stood up and gingerly went to the door. I glanced at the two girls. They had not even moved in the past hours. I could hear my heart beating loudly. I hoped the plan to work. But there should be just the two of them. Because only one of them came to check us, usually. The other would be in the adjacent room. I had looked at it when one of them had left the door open. I waited in the shadow. And then there was some scuffling noise. Opening of a bottle. And then muffeled voices.

“How much for each?”, one of them asked.

“Ten drops each, precisely, not more, not less. I’ll be back in a minute”.

My heart started beating even louder, I knew the man was just behind the door. I just prayed to god that teh guard outside couldn’t hear my heart beating loudly. What would they do if they caught me runing. The consequences would be dire. I could still pretend to be asleep. But let this all happen to me? The decision was made. These men had been doing this to so many girls. So many lives destroyed because of them in this very room, so many girls would have felt the dejection I had been feeling. The anger, the pain, and then the tears, I looked at the other two. One merely 16, and I knew what I had to do.

And then the door flew open, and he was inside, holding the bottle in one hand and a cloth in the other. He wasn’t expecting when I attacked. I forgot everything and threw myself on the guard. The element of surprise was only momentary. He was strong and in a minute had me pinned to the wall. He choked me with one hand and his other hand with the cloth was dangerously close to my nose. I could smell the chloroform, and then with sheer adrenaline pushing me, I kicked hard. And a blow well taken, he fell to the ground and the open chloroform bottle fell on his face. I looked around, panicked, waiting for the other guard to barge open the door...but before this could happen, I ran. I ran toward the door of the warehouse. But it was locked.

I looked here and there, for a place to hide. But I could hear the other footsteps nearby. I was trapped. It would take the other man a moment to realise what had happened.  And then I saw the door, a temporary make shift door out of the warehouse. I crawled outside, without making any noise and the first thing I saw when I crawled out was a pair of feet.

Fear. Blind fear. I could already feel my eyes water even before I registered that i was about to cry. I looked up expecting to see the guard, but instead saw myself looking at Rahul. I looked at him, and he fell to his knees. He touched my cheek, and called my name. For an eternity we kept looking at each other...and then crying and hugging each other.

And so with the help of the police, I and the other two girls were rescued.

I was saved. But what about hundreds of other girls who had already been pushed into human trafficking? Thousand who are traded across the boundaries like goods, across boundaries, where they lose then themselves, forced to live a life which is not acceptable, not dignified...across boundaries...

Note: Honestly, I got bored from Wordpress, where I earlier had my blog. So, I changed addresses, and because of lack of any good things coming to my mind these days, I have no other option but to post them back. Don't make a face. So what? This blog is new! And besides, blogger has better themes:P:P