DAY TWO!!

It was a holiday! Durga was sitting near the window and watching the happenings in her surroundings.. She rested her head on the window sill and was humming an old tune which had stuck in her head since morning. Moments later she saw a teenager going to her tuitions. It was not a rare sight to see women keeping their college bags or purses in front rather on their back as it proved beneficial while alighting or de-boarding from trains. But today it was something different. This teenager had held her college bag in front even while walking down the road. Durga was not surprised and felt eerily familiar with this feeling. She remembered her teenage days when she had incarnated as Charini. Charini had just completed her secondary school and had started her higher secondary school. She liked to travel a lot since she was still exploring places and loved traveling through trains. It was a sunny afternoon and Charini had to attend her classes at Mulund. She had her lunch and took a bus ride to station. Just as she was on the bridge she saw that she had missed a train.. She instantly felt remorse of the delay and how she could have alighted the train.. had she left her house early or had her bus arrived early. No matter now... she could not do anything about it. She still had plenty of time and the next train would take at least 10 mins to arrive. She walked down the stairs slowly and stood near the ladies compartment. The platform was empty as people had already onboarded the train which she had missed and the ones who de-boarded already went their ways out of the station. Charini felt a relief thinking at least there would be no rush and that she would get a seat. She was looking at the side from where the train would arrive.

A few minutes later while Charini was unaware and was still looking in the direction of the upcoming train, a man in his 40's came towards her casually walking and brushed his elbows hard on her chest. Charini instantly went into a state of shock and took a step back. The whole platform was vacant. The man could have easily maintained a distance and yet he brushed his elbows on her breasts. She looked at him but could not see his face completely.. but she could clearly see a smirk from one side of his face. She could not gather what just had happened. Until she could actually realize.. the man speedily walked ahead and jumped onto the tracks.. crossed it and went to the opposite platform and then walked upstairs until he could not be seen. Charini was lost for words. She could not believe and could not digest the level of disgust of what had just taken place. This was the first time a man had touched her and that too with such vulgar intentions. She felt utterly disgusted and could not do anything about it. She was just 15 years old. She alighted the incoming train and sat there still in a state of shock. Her eyes full of tears and a wrenching pain in her heart. She looked at her college bag.. flinched it towards herself and wore it in front of her chest as if it were her armor. So that nobody else could do such a thing what the man just did. She went to her tuition washroom and sobbed and asked God what was her fault in all this. Why did she had to experience this. Didn't the man grew up drinking his mother's milk from the same physical structure that she had. Didn't he have any sister or a friend or a wife or a daughter? Then why such acts of assault on other women. In the silence, she didn't get any answers! She wiped away her tears, came back to her classroom and sat there silently. What lecture.. which classroom.. which teacher..Charini could never remember anything regarding it. She could only remember the disgusting touch that she had felt that day. A tear rolled down her cheek as now Durga looked at the girl pass by and thought maybe this girl too has experienced a similar incident. Durga then looked at the sky and recalled of all the incidents where her male friends asked her why she bent her shoulders while walking.. or why she always kept her college bag in front of her chest no matter where she stood or walked... She could never tell them the actual reason and would simply say with a fake smile...."Aadat ho gayi hai yaar"!!