Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 14: The Coercion

By the time I woke up, it was about 10:00 a.m. Aunty has still not reached the hospital. Uncle was sitting on the couch and was having a cup of coffee. He offered me one too. I decided to get my doubts cleared from Uncle, about who Sophia really is, and especially about Abhinu too.

I asked uncle "Sir if you don't mind, can I ask you something?"

Uncle replied, "Of course you can?"

"Who is Abhinu Banerjee?" I asked.

It felt like uncle was not ready for the question I just asked him.

He replied "Abhinu was my late brother-In-Law's son. A few years ago, he was stationed in Purulia and was martyred at the hands of Naxalite"

As I was about to ask for further details about Abhinu and Sophia, Vikash rushed to the room and asked me to come outside.

I decided to step out and asked, "What happened?"

He didn't respond to my query and almost dragged me out of the hospital into his car. I took leave from Mr. Banerjee and stepped out with him.

I asked, "Are we going somewhere?"

He replied "Yes. We are going to Bokaro steel city. There is a Chanchalini Maa temple. (another form of Mother Parvati). This is a very old temple and it is believed that if you pray here and seek her blessing from the bottom of your heart, all your wishes are fulfilled. And when we return, Babul da has asked us to come by his place, we will need to go somewhere."

I asked, "Did he say where we are going?"

He replied, "No, he only said that it concerns Sophia."

I have never visited a temple before in my life. As a matter of fact, I don't even go to Church. Not even for our Sunday Mass. I have seen Monika and Dad visit church every Sunday religiously, but I never felt the need or urge to visit any abode of God. My parents think I am an atheist.

However, in the current context whenever I try to connect with Sophia's condition, deep down a part of me feeling responsible for her condition, and made me forego my atheist nature. I was willing to put my faith in God if it meant that there is even a minuscule chance of her waking up.

I told Vikash that I need to inform Mom about this and he replied that he has already informed her and she said that if going there would help me find my trust in God, she is absolutely fine with it.

I tried getting a nap on the Beemer. Vikash told me that the journey will take about 2 hours so if I wanted to take some rest, I can go ahead. As usual, it was Joy and Sanjay Dada who were taking turns while driving the car.

Even though my mind could not help but worry about Sophia, the comfort of his car soon put me to sleep for the next two hours. When I woke up, we have reached the temple.

The temple is in a hillock 'Chanchal Pahad' (Pahad means hill in Hindi). It was known for hot springs in the past. The springs have dried up now but the temple is still popular for Hindu ceremonies. We had to climb about 300 steps to reach the temple and when we reach it, we were totally exhausted.

I told Vikash "I am not aware of any rituals practiced in a temple."

Even though my Mom was born and raised a Hindu, but dad never forced her to follow the rituals of Christianity. As a matter of neither Mom nor Dad forced us to follow either of the traditions.

Vikash replied, "Just follow whatever I do, and everything will be all right."

At the precinct of the temple, we went to a nearby vendor selling some plates decorated with flowers and coconut. There were two small packets of vermillion and sandalwood along with one packet of incense stick and a few earthen lamps, on a plate. These offerings are an integral part of the ritual to make reverence to the deity and seek his blessing.

As we entered the temple I found a priest sitting in front of the deity and performing certain procedures. Vikas told me that the priest will direct us to pay our obeisance, along with the articles on the plate, to the deity following the scheduled procedure. It is believed that the goddess will always grant the wishes of her devotees.

I have never wished for anything in my life. Whatever I wanted, I worked for it and managed to get it done without any holy intervention but today it is different, it is not for me. As I was offering my prayers there is only one thing that ran through my mind.

'Oh!!! God, I know I have been an atheist throughout. I have never visited a Church or a Temple ever in my life, never felt the need to visit a place of god but today I am feeling very helpless. It's someone I met about a week back and I felt that her family is not treating her well. Something happened and they had to admit her to the hospital and now she is in a coma. I just want her to get well soon. God, I am sorry if I am not praying correctly but I don't know how to pray. If there is anything wrong with my prayers, please forgive me. I trust you to grant well-being to a sweet innocent child who has always been true and good her whole life and has been a true believer of You.'

Vikash who was standing next to me was done with his prayers and was admiring the way I kept my hands folded and bowed towards the deity of the temple.

He looked at me and asked, "Are you sure you have never visited a place of God before."

I looked at him and replied, "Of course, I have never been to any place of God."

We didn't utter another word and left the temple. As we were returning to Purulia I saw a church on the way. I asked Joy to stop to offer prayers there as well.

By the time we were back in Purulia, it was three o'clock. I had a good 4-hour nap. It was a good enough rest to help me to keep awake another night.

Vikas dropped Joy and Sanjay at their residence and the two of us proceeded to Master da's place as per his instruction.

As we reached Master Da’s place, we saw him talking to a lady.

Master Daa started "Meet Miss Maanya Sengupta. She has been a very good friend of mine. We have been friends since school. Once we completed our studies, I took part in the Movement, and she joined the Civil Services." 

I shook hands with her and said "It's nice meeting you Ma'am"

Miss Sengupta replied with a smile "Wow... I already like him. This is the first time someone has called me Ma'am." she paused and continued "I mean everyone calls me ma'am in office, but he has a certain sense of sophistication when he used the term. You really know how to pick friends Babul." She looked at Master da and he in turn offered her a smile.

Vikash replied "Dada, do you mind telling us, why you have called us?"

Master da looked at Miss Sengupta and replied "We were about to go and meet the child's teacher to convince her to quit. I wanted to ask if you guys want to come."

Vikash replied, "Of course dada, I would love to come with you."

"Be aware, what is going to happen might be disturbing. What we are going to do might not be ethically right, so I want you guys to be absolutely sure if you want to come," replied Master da.

I was a bit nervous but felt slightly excited to accompany master da in the execution of his plan since I knew master da had a shady past and I am getting a chance to see him in action.

It took us 20 minutes to reach the teacher's place. I got down from the Beemer and opened the gates to the house to let the car in.

Miss Sengupta advised us just to watch the proceedings and not to participate, she and Master da will do the talking. We followed them to the door. When Miss Sengupta rang the doorbell, a middle-aged lady came and opened the door.

"Do I know you? If you have come for donations, you may leave. I don't entertain people like you who don't like to work and beg for money." said the lady.

The welcome words of the lady were completely unacceptable and I wanted to give her a piece of my mind.

Master Daa replied with a smile on his face "Oh!!! No-No-No... It's not that... we just want to talk to you about something else. It's regarding one of your students Mrs. Das."

The lady smiled and replied, "Oh... ok... I am sorry... Please come in."

As we went in, Master da and Miss Sengupta sat on a twin sharing sofa and Mrs. Das sat on another sofa which was placed right next to it. I and Vikash pulled up chairs that were placed under the dining table and sat there.

Mrs. Das asked, "Ok, which student of mine you wanted to talk about?"

"It's Sophia, the Banerjee family's daughter," replied Miss. Sengupta.

"O-o... that freak faggot, that weirdo? what about her?"

I saw the look on Master Da’s face when she said those words about Sophia. I was so angry that I wanted to punch her right in the face when she uttered them.

Master Daa calmly replied "She is your student; you shouldn't use such terms to define your student. In earlier times, a teacher's status was always above the parents and for a teacher using such indecent word is amoral... YOU DONOT DESERVE TO BE CALLED A TEACHER... YOU ARE A DISGRACE..."

"HOW DARE YOU... you come to my place and a***e me?" shouted Mrs. Das in an angry tone.

Miss Sengupta intervened and responded in a composed tone "Please pardon him. He didn't mean any such thing. We just wanted to discuss something. Please listen to us."

Mrs. Das enquired, "What do you want?"

"We want you to stop mentoring Sophia. We don't want you to teach her or be near her anymore." Said Miss Sengupta.

Mrs. Das stood up and shouted, "Who are you guys?... why should I listen to you?... get up... get out of my house right away before I call the cops."

Master da stood up instantly and retorted in a similar tone, "SHUT UP and sit down... we are trying to ask you politely... and we were hoping you would comply too..."

I have decided not to intervene because I got a strange feeling that things were about to turn very nasty. We have a fair idea of master da's temper... when he gets angry his wisdom falters. Besides he is also a surrendered Naxalite Leader who is well known for his anger issues. About 5 years back when Master da lost his only child in a road accident near Alipore, we saw him losing all control of judgment and over a period of time changed completely to a different entity.

Miss Sengupta started talking to Master da "It seems like things are not going as expected. I thought she would respond positively, not disagree. Now she is threatening to call the police. Babul, do you know what happens when the police suspect someone with the extremist's connections, especially the Naxals"

She turned around and looked at me and Vikash and said, "Do you guys know, what happens?"

"We have no idea, ma'am." We replied in unison.

"Are you threatening me?" Mrs. Das asked.

"Am I? Do you think I am threatening you? I don't dare to do that with you." looking at Master da, Miss Sengupta asked, "Am I threatening her?"

Master da replied. "Nooo..."

Miss Sengupta got up, placed her hands on the 2 arms of the sofa, looked straight into the eyes of Mrs. Das, and said in a dominating tone "Right now, we are just asking you politely to leave Sophia alone. I want you to go to the hospital today or latest by tomorrow evening and check her progress. Later when the child is out of coma you will take Babul with you and inform Mrs. Banerjee that you are being transferred to Kolkata and that Babul will be taking care of the child's studies from now on."

Wow, I thought that Master Daa had an attitude problem, but it seems Miss Sengupta is 1 step ahead of him.

It felt like Mrs. Das was not a person to be cowed down so easily as she replied "I am doing no such thing. The Banerjee's are paying me hefty fees to teach that faggot. Why should I let such an opportunity go out of hand?"

This was the last straw in my way, I lost all control and yelled at her, "LOOK, LADY, IF YOU DONT STOP CURSING THAT CHILD, I AM GOING TO FORGET THAT YOU ARE A WOMAN."

Master Daa looked at me said, "Be calm, we are handling this."

Master Daa looked at Miss Sengupta and said "Maanya, she is not giving me any choice, I think its time to go to plan B...." He paused and continued again "I will let you decide what you want? If you want me to call, I can do it now."

I was not sure what will happen now. I saw Miss Sengupta took out a brand-new mobile phone from her bag and gave it to Master Daa. He took out a SIM card from his pocket, dialed a number, and called up someone.

Mrs. Das kept asking whom he was calling and the only reply she got was, "You will know soon enough."

After the call, Miss Sengupta shook hands with Mrs. Das and went about introducing us to her. As Mrs. Das was distracted, I could see master da hiding the mobile phone inside her couch.

As we were about to leave, Master Daa looked at her and said, "I hope you will think about our offer once again" and exited the house.

I was in a dilemma about the series of events that just concluded and tried to find out from Master da about their expectation on the verbal exchange with Mrs. Das but the reply was "She will be convinced in a couple of hours that our Sophia needs a new teacher."

I got into the car totally confused and we started for home. I tried to check traces of confused expression in Vikash's face too? His face clearly showed signs of it. 

I was sure that if we ask for further detail, Master da and Miss Sengupta will not reveal anything to us, at least not now.

                                                                   TO BE CONTINUED…

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