Chapter 6 : The Oppressed

With a lot of questions in mind, we returned to Purulia. We were determined to meet Mr. Banerjee, but at the sight of Garima, we changed our mind and decided to confront Geeta instead.

By the time we decided to leave Kolkata, it was already late. Vikash decided to have dinner at a roadside hotel and continue our journey back home. We completed our dinner by 9:00 PM. I told Vikash about my hesitation to travel in the night. He asked me to stay calm and trust the driving skills of Sonjoy and Joy. He said "Remember I told you these guys are the best. You will know why I said that."

The journey started. Sonjoy was on the driving seat. He made certain adjustments on the control panel of the car and then asked us to put on seatbelts. On the way, Joy who was sitting on the front seat, suddenly commented, "Vikash, I must say something, yours and Arusha Di chemistry is spell bounding. Sometimes I get this feeling that she has a thing for you." Sonjoy suddenly commented, "Actually, as a matter of fact, I think she is the only girl who has not made Vikash her brother." Vikash suddenly reacted "Come on guys, will you please shut up." "You know what, today when we met Arusha didi, guess what she called him," I said. Vikash replied, "Come on guys, stop it." Joy asked to tell me what did she say, and I replied "A GOOD LOOKING CHARMER.". We were so engrossed in this discussion and pulling each other's leg, that we didn't realize we reached Purulia before schedule.

We were tired and decided not to go back home and went off to sleep in Vikash's place. Joy and Sonjoy da left after parking the Beemer in the garage.

It was about 2:00 PM when I woke up. Vikash has already woken up and had a cup of coffee in his hand, which he offered to me. I drank the coffee, went to freshen up and decided to go back home. Vikash told me to wait as he has asked the caretaker to cook lunch. I had lunch with him and finally left back home.

By the time I was home, it was already 4:00 PM. I was sitting on the balcony, thinking about all the questions that were left unanswered. Of all the questions there was one particular question which kept surfacing in my mind: "Why did uncle lie to Arusha di about the whereabouts of his family? Is he trying to protect someone."

As I was engrossed I got startled by Monika's voice calling me and urging to accompany her in scrabble. I obliged. Monika has managed to convince Mom and Dad to play with us.

I found dad was holding Mom's hand and said: "I think we should order dinner from outside, Your mom has been busy the whole week, she needs some rest too." Monika looked at them and commented, "Wow, how romantic." I looked at Monika and put the finger on my lips, hinting her to keep quiet. She looked at me, got up and hugged dad before he could get angry at her and say something. We all started laughing looking at dad's surprised expression.

Dad decided to order Pizza and we started our game. At around 8:00 PM. dad said that we should call it a day and go to sleep. Playing with my family after a very long time took my mind off the incessant questions for a while.

I went back to my room and broke the news to Monika about my visit to Kolkata. I told her about the series of events, our meeting with Arusha Di, our discovery about the crash, and Geeta being one among the survivors, the other being Abhinu who we assumed to be Geeta's brother or cousin, I couldn't resist telling her about Arushi Di and Vikash too. While discussing I asked Monika if she knew anything about Abhinu. She replied "We used to be friends in school. Back when we were in Kolkata, Geeta, Abhinu and me, were the best of friends. However, something happened and Abhinu stopped coming to school one day.". "So you mean to say, you knew Geeta, back when we were in Kolkata.". She replied "yes".

Monika asked me "Were you able to meet the middle-aged man your reporter friend told you about.". I replied "As a matter of fact we did. We were able to locate him, but, when we went inside, I found Garima on the balcony so we decided not to go inside.". Monika asked me in a shocked tone "You mean to say that you have seen the Banerjee daughters in Kolkata". I replied, "Yes, I have." "And did you see Geeta around? I have a bad feeling they have not taken her to Kolkata with them. They never let Geeta out of the house.". Monika said in a worried tone.

It dawned on me that I didn't bother to check in on Geeta. Without saying another word we rushed to the balcony to check for any movements, or light inside the Banerjee residence, anything to indicate if someone is in the house. We kept looking and suddenly Monika said, "Bro, I am 100% sure that Geeta is there. We will have to go and check in on her.". I looked at my little sister and asked "Are you sure about this. If we go there and we don't find Geeta there, it would mean breaking into a house without permission, and if we get caught, think about Mom and Dad."

Monica replied "Trust me, bro, I know this family. I am very certain that Geeta is inside the house. I am worried about her."

I told Monica "I will go and check, but I want you to stay here". She insisted "No bro, I am coming with you," I decided not to argue, and started thinking about how I can escape my house without our parents noticing us and reach the Banerjee residence. My room was on the first floor and we couldn't use the front door to leave the house.

I looked over the balcony and figured, that if I jumped over, I could land on the soft grass but Monica would not be able to do that. I found mom's saree hanging on the balcony to dry, I decided to use that as a rope to get down from the balcony and cross the boundary wall over to the Banerjee residence. We waited for mom and dad to sleep. I asked Monica to put on something comfortable. After about half an hour we left the house. I took mom's saree and tied it around Monika's waist and lowered her down. Once she was down, I jumped off the balcony.

It took us around 10 minutes to find a way into the house. Once we were in, we headed towards Geeta's room. We entered the room and switched on the light. There was a stench coming from the room. As the light illuminated the room, the most disturbing scene met our eyes. Geeta was lying semi-conscious on the floor with her hands and feet tied with a dupatta, and a pair of stockings stuffed in her mouth. Monica shouted "Geeta!", ran towards her and took Geeta's head and placed it on her lap. I released her from the binds. Without saying a word, she ran to the washroom and came out after 5 minutes. She hugged and thanked me for rescuing her. She let go of me and was about to say something to Monica when she fell to the ground. Luckily I caught her and laid her on the bed.

I saw Monica taking out a packet of biscuits from her pocket and giving it to Geeta. As she was eating the biscuits, I noticed some bruises on her body. I asked her "Who did this to you, Geeta?". Monica interrupted "I know it was aunty and the girls who have tortured her.". Looking at Geeta's dehydrated and weak condition, I decided to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital. However, she begged me not to. I was not sure why she said that.

When I insisted and tried to reason with her, she told me "If you call an ambulance, aunty will know that you were here. which would land us in trouble. Also once I will be back from the hospital, I would have to face the repercussions.".

I tried assuring her that there are laws that will protect her. She replied "The last time I decided to run away, the cops found me after 2 days and returned me to the family. I kept telling them that I am being physically abused but they would not believe me. When I showed them the marks on the body, they told me that I must have gotten hurt when I ran away from them. You can guess what they did to me after the cops left.". I could imagine what they must have done and refrained from asking her.

As we were about to leave, Geeta requested if we can stay with her till morning. I told her we will be with her until 4:30 a.m. Our parents cannot know we were here. I had so many questions I wanted to ask Geeta, mostly about her life before the Banerjee home. Gauging my intentions, Monica intervened "Please don't ask her anything now, she is in pain."

I saw Geeta get up from the bed, and take two notebooks from the study table. She gave me the notebooks and replied "I sense, that you have questions for me Joe bhaiya, everything you want to know about me is in these notebooks. Please be careful with them. Please return them to me once you are done.". I told her that I will xerox the books and make sure that Monika returns it to her.

Looking at Geeta, she seemed to be in too much pain. I got some salt from the kitchen and lukewarm water from the bathroom and mixed the salt into the water. I took a towel and dipped it in the bucket of water and started to dab her wounds with it. As I was cleaning her wounds, I felt like she was flinching and saw tears brimming her eyes. I saw Monica gently wiping off her tears and consoling her: "Always remember the promise I made to you. You have to be strong.". I asked Monica gently, "What promise are you talking about Monica?". She replied, "It's nothing bro it's just best friends talk".

As Geeta and Monica were talking, I wanted to know the reason why she was in that condition. I was having a hard time controlling my anger at what has been done to Geeta and could not withhold pestering Geeta about it.

She replied patiently, "3 years ago, aunty made me promise never to play basketball in my life again. I kept that promise. I have never touched basketball ever since. On Thursday when you decided to challenge the girls to play basketball, aunty couldn't say no. She felt like I broke a promise, even though she did allow me to play. Her justification was that I could have made up an excuse and not play in the match, instead of taking your help and making you seek her permission. During the match when her daughters were not able to score, she felt I was directly responsible for their loss and projected all her anger onto me. Aamaya didi too felt threatened when you made me your friend in the Rakhi ceremony. All these things piled up and caused my misery soon after you left."

After listening to Geeta's ordeal, I felt helpless that there was nothing I could do to protect her. She is far too young to stand up against her family. Generally, I don't believe in miracles but today it felt like the figurine of the five-faced Lord Hanuman and the Saint Nikolas bracelet I put on Geeta's hand the other day protected her.

It was about 4:00 a.m., I told Monika it was time for us to go. Geeta thanked us once again for keeping her company. As we were about to leave, Geeta asked me to re-bind and re-gag her again, so that Aunty and the girls would not suspect anything. I was surprised at her request and absolutely refused to do that to her, but she kept on insisting citing the reason that if the family comes to know of our involvement, her predicament would get worse, or they could take measures to distance her from us. Listening to her I couldn't refute her reason. I knew that they were planning to return today in the morning. I didn't want her to be separated from us and we all were far too young to do anything against them legally. By the time I can plan on doing something for her, aunty would deduce that we know about Geeta's plight and would do anything to stop us. We were not shrewd enough to stop her.

Despite my conscience telling me not to put Geeta through that again, I knew that right now this course of action is the only way to keep her safe. With a heavy heart, I tied her up again but refused to gag her. I told her that we don't know when they will be back and I wanted to make sure she can call out for help if need be. We also assured her that we will be keeping an eye on the house and her.

I was desperately hoping the family would return soon and decide not to punish Geeta anymore. I was contemplating telling my parents about this incident. Would they believe me or would they stop me from Interacting with the Banerjee family?

It boggled my mind that how someone could inflict such torture and humiliation on such an innocent child. This level of cruelty is soul-shattering. How can an entire family have so much hatred towards a child?

With all these questions in my mind, we left the residence and climbed back to our rooms.