It was about 9 pm. It was pitch dark suddenly. But my familiarity with the environment helped me to move to a corner and lean back. I could feel the cold breeze and hear the drizzles of the mild night showers. In the faint moon light, I saw a shadow approaching me and what I felt was no longer a breeze. Yes it is him, I told myself and clutched something that I could use to defend. I repented having got stuck alone. I couldn’t believe my helplessness. I imagined everything from worse to the worst. His haunted face flashed into my mind.
Politely; Patiently; Rudely – I had told him “NO” in every possible way. Everything in vain though. It would not get into his head as he continued to mail, call and also stalk me. Thanks to the wrongly inculcated heroic ideas from movies that persistent stalking will make the girl relent.
His inexorable stalking for a few years now, against my will, instigated my frustration. I felt let down emotionally. I couldn’t accept my vulnerability. No advice or warning from anyone could mend his lost mind. It is not about road or house. It is not about day or night. It is not about being alone or amidst the crowds. It is not about being an innocent girl from village or a well aware, well educated girl from a Metro city, if it is bound to happen, the inevitable would happen. Such cranks might go to any extent as reprisal. That’s what newspapers have taught me. It was drizzling still, even more heavily. I got drenched in fear.
The sound of the generator happened to be the best thing that I could have asked for at that moment, for I knew what would follow. The lights were on. No one else was there. It is my same house, what it was five minutes ago but I was lost. The warmth of my secured gated community was obscured to me for some time. What is supposed to be the safest place on earth, made me squirm. It is border-less and boundary-less. Happens everywhere, anywhere and in any country. The fact that I felt insecure even in my house prompted me the question – Where on earth, will I feel safe, Secure. The answer – The place which really is, if at all it exists.
Bhelpoori 