It Wasn't Supposed To Happen

126

" Bahu Raniji ?"

Bondita heard Koyeli's voice and looked at her. She looked surprised. Worried even. Well, why won't she. Bondita sat on the floor infront of her Pati Babu's room. How did she end up here ?

It was just a wink of a sleep she got that night and that too because she was tired of crying. And in that brief moment she wanted to escape the reality, she found herself back in that place. Heeramandi. All lights shining, blinding her. Somewhere there was music playing. Faint. Someone was standing with his back to the door. She took a step towards the door but her feet felt heavy. She looked down to find ghungroo tied to them. Today they felt like what they were supposed to be. Shackles.

" Where do you think you are going ?" Her skin crawled at that voice. It had been years but she remembered it. Thakur. She turned to face him. He looked filthier than she remembered him.  " You have grown." He said. " Perfect."

" Step away from her." She heard another one. And though the words were in her favour, it belonged to yet another man she hated. " She is mine."

" Ah Chandrachur." Thakur said. " Wait your turn."

Bondita wanted to but could not move. She was in the same saree she was in when left heeramandi. Her hands were shaking. This all made her look so innocent. Something she didn't feel anymore.

" Thakur, she is to be my wife." She heard Chandrachur. Her voice was stuck in her throat and she felt like she might vomit.

" Don't be absurd Chandrachur. No girl can be a wife after coming to this place. No respectable man would want a girl like her."

" True. But I have wanted her for so long."

" But we can both have her." Bondita could not stop her tears. " We can..." He paused to move aside. Men. Countless, faceless men. " All have her."

No. Her brain screamed at her. As if the time was flowing slow, as if her motions were dragged, she heavily turned towards the door. That man. Did he too want her like that ? It didn't feel like it. Only if she could make it outside that door. Her hair moved slowly in the air as she turned, lights blurred by her tears, she tried to run to the door. Ghungroo like stones were trying to slow her down but she still tried. Her eyes fixed on the exit. It was then that the man turned. Slowly. His fazed profile coming to her vision. His left hand on his stomach. And what ? Blood. It was blood.

It was her Pati Babu.

She could not see his face but he pulled out a knife from his body and she knew it was him.

" Pati Babu !!!!" She tried to run faster but someone caught her hand.

" Aaaahhhhghg!!!!!" Bondita was jerked up from her dream in cold sweat. She stood there at foot of her bed staring at the bed. Turning she looked at the mirror and was scared of her own image. She wanted to scream. To cry. She grabbed a pillow and sank to the floor. Her mouth against the pillow, she screamed and screamed, the voice being absorbed by the it. She cried and cried wishing the tears would wash off the images of her nightmare but they didn't. By now she was shaking. It was not helping. Nothing could help her. By every passing moment she was getting more aware of her truth.

A girl who came back from a brothel. None of the other girls were accepted back. Only her. " Aaaghhhhh !!!!" Her back resting on the foot of the bed, she screamed into the pillow again. She could not reach him in her nightmare. He was hurt. He went through so much to get her back. Just how many times did he save her ? From how many things ?! And she had come back from a place like that. She suddenly remembered how she had acted at the time she was infatuated with him. Another wave of guilt hit her. She had not believed in him then. After knowing he got stabbed to save her, she had doubted him and his motives. Her whole body rattled with her cries as she remembered each and every mistake she made. Everytime she made him think he didn't do a good job protecting her. The way he had begged her to visit a doctor with fear of pregnancy, she had been so difficult to him back then.