Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 50 : The Hunt for Harsh

At the sound of my persistent sobbing, Koushik dada came rushing to my room. He sat on the bed next to me, handed me his handkerchief, and asked "Why are you crying, sis? Is anything wrong?"

"Dada, can you take me to Kolkata please?" I pleaded with him with folded hands.

"Why do you want to go to Kolkata?"

"I want to teach someone a lesson" I replied.

"Whom?" he asked

"Harsh, I want to teach him a lesson on respecting women, if someone doesn't know how to respect a lady, he deserves to be taught a good lesson," I replied.

Koushik dada looked at me and said, "Look at me... We know what you have read and why do you want to punish Harsh."

"But you know your mom, she has explicitly instructed you to stay put at home with me and not wander off or to do anything hasty right."

I protested, "How do you expect me to remain calm dada? Do you even understand what Harsh did? How cruel and humiliating his actions were to Abhinu?"

"If you were a girl yourself you would have understood, how difficult and excruciating it is to get groped by a group of thugs and you are struggling hard to escape their clutches. It doesn't matter if anyone is a boy or a girl, no one has any right to hurt or bully anyone."

In my sheer rage, I might have talked back rudely to Koushik dada but for some reason, he was calm and responded without batting an eyelid, "Dear, I am a human too, ragging is illegal, besides I do have friends who understand what Abhinu had dealt with that day. Perhaps these friends know a little too well how it feels to be different."

"If only I can get in touch with Harsh, I just want to ask him if seeing Abhinu's misery was not enough to quench his l**t that he had to go on and enact his morbid a***e on him???" I asked.

Koushik dada suddenly changed his tone and asked, "Monika, can you keep a secret?"

"What secret?" I asked curiously.

"First, promise me whatever I am about to reveal to you now, you are not going to tell your Mom or Dad," asked Koushik dada.

"What promises dada?" I asked.

"Not unless you promise me that you will not tell anyone." Koushik da insisted.

I finally gave up and agreed "ok... I promise."

"Do you remember the day when Sophia gave the journals to your brother?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Your brother came to me to get the journal photocopied and when I was photo-copying the pages, I stumbled upon the pages your brother is making you r******w. My Xerox machine has a function that allows me to scan the document before printing"

"I gave a copy to your brother, and without telling him, printed another copy for myself. I went through the manuscript and came to know all about Sophia before your brother and mom discovered the truth."

"I was very angry myself and in excitement wanted to rescue Sophia right away from that house. But I knew your brother well and was sure eventually he would sort out the right course of action or get in touch with your mom or Babul da for advice. They would definitely find out the best way to assist her."

"However, I felt that there were two people who needed to be taught a proper lesson, and that was Harsh and Abhishek Banerjee. What Harsh did on the night of 11th February 1994 was abusive and no punishment was big enough to penalize him of the crime he committed"

But what did Abhishek dada do... he seemed like a nice fellow... he was the only one in the family who actually cared about Abhinu..."

Hmmm... well that's what you think... or that's what the asshole made everyone who cared about Abhinu believe... you should go through the other entries to know what he did to our Sophia..."

I asked "Dada, please don't tell me you are going to do something really very wicked," I asked surprised by Koushik Da's dark edgy change of tone.

I saw Koushik dada don a smug smile and wink at me at my cautious words.

"What did you do dada?" I asked in a shocked tone.

"What do you think assholes like Harsh deserves?"

"A fate worse than the deepest punishments of hell?" I was so angry with Harsh that I had no idea what I was talking about. I only realized what I said when Koushik dada smiled at the answered and made a strange face.

He continued "I guess you know that I spend most of my time working for the betterment of the transgender community and the people of the slums in Purulia."

"Yes, why do you ask?" I asked with a lot of hesitation.

"Against my better judgment, I revealed Sophia's predicament to a few friends of mine who were ex-convicts. They have been coming to our NGO for counseling sessions so that they reform themselves for the sake of their families and provide them with a better life. They were really enraged by what Harsh did, but they are mad at someone else too." Koushik dada continued.

"Who Dada? don't tell me it's Abhishek dada" I asked.

"Yes... he is..." he replied but by the tone of his voice, I am beginning to feel that every time he used the word Abhishek he is disgusted with him. I really wanted to know what did he do to Abhinu.

Koushik dada continued "You should read the remaining pages and you will get the answer to your question,"

"You might not know this, but in prison, someone serving their sentence for murder or theft enjoy a better life than those who were convicted of r**e or molestation. Everyone who is aware of Sophia’s plight from Auto drivers, Rickshaw pullers, taxi drivers to thieves is on a manhunt for both of them."

"All of my transgender friends want a piece of Soham, and since the past 4 days, a total of 79400 transgenders (hijra) from their community in Kolkata are hunting for Soham. Since we don't have his photograph and he doesn't study in D.P.S. anymore we are unable to trace him." He paused and then continued "My friends from the slums have already caught Abhishek and are bringing him to Purulia as we speak."

Hearing what Koushik dada just said, I could only dread to think what will happen to Harsh if they catch him. I am also mad at him too, but my love towards Abhinu took precedence over taking pity on his current situation.

"What are they going to do when they finally get hold of Harsh?" I asked.

Dada replied with a "hmm..." took a deep breath and continued, "They are very protective when it comes to taking care of their kind. But this situation is different. A child is being forced to be like them and then he is being tortured. They understand very well how it feels when someone tries to body-shame them. The feeling of shaming someone because of how they look or what they wear is something that cannot be described in words."

"I can only dread to think about what they are up to. I can surely tell you something."

"They might be foul-mouthed or outcast, and a regular person is generally scared of their presence."

"But if you have ever been good to them, they will stand as a shield to protect you from any threat irrespective of its nature."

"You might not know this, but recently I came to know about an incident which proves how great Sophia is. And just because of that incident she has earned their protection and the duo, their righteous wrath."

"What incident are you talking about?" I asked.

"You will know about it in due time. Even I don't know the details, but all I have learned about Sophia’s share in the incident is that she acted as a savior of one of their Gurus, which according to them makes her a messenger of their deity Bahuchara Mata."

Things felt creepy, and I desperately wanted to know what Abhinu did to gain these people's protection. Koushik dada patted my head and continued, "The journal entries are very disturbing, I only feel that Harsh and Abhishek's destiny has been sealed."

I was determined to help Koushik dada and his friends on their quest for Harsh and before Koushik dada could say another word, I went into the cabinet and pulled out an envelope from the drawer and gave him a picture from one of those dark days. Well, the thing is whenever Harsh and his friends would bully Abhinu, they would take photographs of Abhinu in various compromising positions, and just to drive me mad, they would send a copy of those photographs to me too.

This was one photograph where Abhinu was wearing a body con black dress and Harsh and his friends asked him to pull the skirt up all over to his thighs. They forced him to keep pulling it up till his lower inners were visible and then Soham took a picture with him in that stance. Behind the picture, I wrote Soham's present school address in full.

After all the bullying, I recalled that Abhinu keeps forgiving Soham for what he keeps doing to him, but I lacked his grace or tolerance and can never bring myself to forgive him in a million years.

I know I was instigating Koushik Da by giving him the photo from that dark day. As Koushik dada saw the picture, he turned his head towards the left and shut his eyes tightly as if he was disgusted by what he saw. I saw a tear flow down his eyes.

"Dada, please promise me, if your friends find Harsh they will allow me to meet him once. I want to look into his eyes and ask him what kind of pleasure he was seeking when he was hurting Abhinu that day." I requested.

"I promise" replied Koushik dada.

Koushik dada then asked me to read the remaining pages of the journal and inform him after I was done with it so that he can confide in me his next plan of action.

                                                                TO BE CONTINUED...

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