Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 16: Blast from the Past

My vacations were coming to an end. I had another week left before reporting back to school. So, I decided not to waste any more time and finish up the journal. It was nearing 5:30 a.m. but it felt like sleep was nowhere in the cards for me.

Being a Friday, the Banerjee daughters will go to school. Uncle told me that he has asked aunty to go to work since she has already availed a lot of her leaves.

Vikash didn't stay for the night, he told me that he has got some important work to attend to and will be back early in the morning.

I wanted to have some tea to keep me awake, so I went to the cafeteria, even though my past experience tells me that the hospital tea would only help to ruin my taste buds.

By the time I returned from the cafeteria it was 7:00 a.m. As I entered the room, I was welcomed by the sight of Monika and Vikash standing next to Sophia.

Monika was clutching Sophia's right hand and speaking remorsefully "Sweety, I know I was unable to protect you even though I promised to do all I can to safeguard you. Remember, it's our battle, the battle of the 3 Musketeers against the whole world. Please don't forget the sacrifices made by the maleficient to protect you all these years”

“Remember our motto 'All for One and One for All'. No matter how life gets difficult for us, we will always find a way to overcome it and win. We promised to remain friends and take care of one another till eternity. How can you leave your Porthos alone?"

I stepped forward to be within reach and placed my arm around Monika and gave her a tight hug. She has been weeping and Uncle, who was sitting nearby, stood up and advanced towards her.

He tried to console Monika, "Sweety, our Sophia will not lose a battle that easily. She is a fighter. she will have to wake up, if not for me, then for you, or the 3 men who are counting on her to wake up."

I kept thinking who were the 3 men uncle was talking about and deduced he was surely talking about Me, Vikash, and Master da of whom we have spoken to him earlier.

I looked at Vikash and found him holding something in his hands. He told me that last night he went all the way to Kolkata to visit Kalighat temple to offer prayers for Sophia's well-being. He took out a red-colored thread and tied it around her wrist.

Vikash spoke, "When all hopes are lost, Devi Ma's eternal blessing always works" with this he took leave and was informed that he will drop Monika at home and return later.

After they depart, I started reading the journal once again with the hope that I won't fall asleep.

                                                    14th June 1992

It is a Sunday, there is nothing much to do except lazing around. During these 6 months, Aarohi, Monika, and I became the best of buddies. Monika had a sleepover at our place last night because she wanted to celebrate her best friend's selection. I went to their room and found that Aarohi was a little bit sad. I tried to ask her why she appeared sad and she told me that she misses her parents. I was not sure what she meant by that. Later Monika told me that Aarohi was uncle's younger brother's daughter and that she had lost both her parents in an accident and since then uncle had been taking care of her.

Aunty loves Aarohi more than her own daughters and Aarohi prefers to address her as mom out of respect. Raising someone else's child can sometimes be a burden, especially when the child excels qualitatively and perform better than her own children. Under the circumstances how Aunty maintained her character is a puzzle for me. Monika also informed that almost all the family members congratulated Aarohi, even granny called up last night to wish her.

She is the same granny who kept pestering aunty for a male heir. However, till now aunty did not acknowledge her achievement in any form. I didn't know how to respond to Aarohi's dilemma and decided to keep quiet. We finally ended up playing basketball for the rest of the day.

***Abhinu writes that for the next few days they played a total of 9 matches against Jalpaiguri, Bankura, and Hooghly which they won. ***

                                                          8th July 1992

Today's match was against Birbhum District. To date, we have maintained a good winning streak. In the continued excitement during these matches, we have lost count of the total number of matches we played.

According to our coach sir, we have won the second-highest number of matches in the tournament. Kalimpong has been in the lead. However, the best part was that ours is the only school where 3 players had been selected by SAI for scholarships Sunaina, Aarohi, and Taposh Dada. Coach sir is proud of this feat. Just like most of the days, I was on the bench.

The match started and the first half was almost one-sided. Our team's performance was below par. For the second half, sir decided to play Taposh dada, Arjun, and myself in place of Sunaina, Grihamani, and Sai. The strategy was simple, the team will pass the ball, and Aarohi and I will score.

By now we have become experts in scoring from long distances and sir wanted to use this to the team's advantage. His strategy worked and in the final minutes, we scored and was declared the winner.

                                                           9th July 1992

We didn't have any matches today. We continued attending classes as usual. During the third period, our principal sir called me to his room. It was unusual for him to call me in his room as normally the troublesome kids were called to the principal's office to have their punishments meted out and I was absolutely certain that I had not committed any mischief today.

As I entered his room, he asked me to take a seat. There was another man, sitting on a couch, in the room. He introduced himself as Vikash Subedhi. Principal sir told me that he has called my uncle and they need to discuss something regarding my future.

After some time uncle came to the principal's office. Principal sir introduced uncle as my local guardian, to the man who was sitting on the couch. The person identified himself as a sports agent from SAI and informed my uncle that I have been selected for a scholarship to play basketball for the state team too. It was the happiest moment of my life.

Uncle told the man that he is happy, but he will have to talk to my dad since he is in the army and is currently in a field posting. Uncle looked at me and raised his thumbs up and gave me his happiest smile. As I went back to the class, I decided to break the news in a different manner. I had my head down, pretending to look sad, and entered the class. Everyone kept asking me what happened, and I maintained a sad face throughout the period.

During the period Adler started a rumor that I have been scolded by the principal because I injured someone during our last match who had to be admitted to the hospital. I wanted to share my good news with my 2 best friends first, so I jotted in a piece of paper that I have been selected for the state team and was about to hand it over to Monika when Sasmal sir caught me. He called me to his desk and wanted me to read what was written in the paper. I told sir that it was nothing, but he kept insisting in a sarcastic tone that if it is a joke then I should share the humor with the whole class.

I finally gave in and announced to the class that I have also been selected by S.A.I. The whole class got excited and could not curb their joy since we were the only class with 2 players selected for the state team. Sasmal Sir blessed me and told me he is proud of my achievement.

*** HAHAHA... that was funny... very well played... I never knew DPS had such well-trained students. Well, maybe one, my sister Monika. I continued reading through the journal when I found that there were no entries after 14th July 1992, I don't seem to remember any pages missing from the journal. ***

I was deep in thought wondering about the missing pages when I saw Master da, Miss Sengupta, Koushik, and Vikash entering the hospital. Vikash introduced Master da to Mr. Banerjee.

"Hello Uncle, remember the other day I told you about someone, who is a better choice to be Geeta's teacher, he is the one, I was talking about," said Vikash.

Uncle shook his hands and replied "I have heard a lot about you from these boys. Thank you for agreeing to help my child."

Master da replied "I am a teacher by profession and can assure you that I am pretty good at what I do. Don't worry, your child will get my best attention."

Uncle expressed his feeling at Master da's assurance, “My family has not been kind to this child, and because of my work, I cannot spend ample time with my children. At least I am assured now that with you around, someone is there to take care of my baby."

While he was talking with Master da, I witnessed a curious look on master dada's face because uncle kept watching at the entrance every now and then.

"Is everything alright Mr. Banerjee?" asked Master da.

Mr. Banerjee replied, "I felt like I saw someone… someone I know in the past."

"I beg your pardon" Master da enquired.

Mr. Banerjee didn't respond but walked direct to the entrance, looked straight at Miss Sengupta, and asked, “I think, I get it right, you are the same person whom I am imagining right now?"

Miss Sengupta smiled and replied with the same question, "Whom are you imagining?"

Uncle replied, “Jadavpur Police station, 29th January 1995, 4 police officers were transferred and the Officer In-charge was suspended because of taking bribe and creating a false police report against an 8-year-old. You, Addl. Superintendent of Police Maanya Sengupta was the Officer who supervised the case."

Miss Sengupta smiled and said, "Wow... you remembered me and the details of that incident accurately?"

I saw the shocked looks on Master da and Vikash's faces upon discovering that she is a cop. Initially, I thought master da was aware of her police service but the shocked look on Master Da’s face said otherwise. We have just come to know of a secret about Miss Sengupta from her exchange with Mr. Banerjee.

She asked the 5 of us to get into the room and started narrating the incident Uncle mentioned.

"On the evening of 22nd December 1993, Mr. Banerjee came to meet me at my residence and told me that his brother-in-law's child has been in an incident and as a result has been expelled from school."

"There has been A police report registered against the child and now no school is ready to take the child in. I told him that there is nothing I can do. If someone is a criminal, he/she deserved to be punished."

"Mr. Banerjee then informed me that the child is just 8 years old and had lost someone very dear. An 8-year-old definitely deserves a second chance."

"I felt bad and decided to investigate and see if I could dig something up which could help clear the child's name."

"Upon investigating further, I came to know that the incident occurred when the kid retaliated to being bullied by another student in school. The extent to which this child was bullied was clear from my investigation and made me question whether justice was really served. While talking to the principal of the school, I discovered something, which I preferred to keep under wrap. The child was cleared of all the charges and the investigating officer was suspended for 5 years instead."

I asked about her findings. She looked at Mr. Banerjee and enquired "Do you want me to dredge up the past. What I am about to say, you will not like it. I hate to break this to you and burst your bubble."

Mr. Banerjee replied, "I have seen and experienced enough in my lifetime to be awarded hell, I have seen the death of my favorite child, I have lost all hopes of survival in this world." Pointing towards Sophia he added, "I am only alive because I promised to take care of this child till my last breath. I am no longer afraid of the truth."

"Very well then, don't blame me afterward that I didn't warn you," replied Miss Sengupta.

"After the incident, the other student was sent to the hospital. The police officer assigned to the case had requested the parents of the other child not to press charges because that would mean ruining the life of an 8-year-old child."

"The parents of the other child understood that and decided not to press charges. However, things took a twist when the 8-year old's aunt decided to teach him a lesson in anger management and made a deal with the cops to keep the child in a juvenile detention center for 24 hours."

"I dug deeper to find out who that aunt was and when I came to know about her, I couldn't believe it. I enquired everyone involved in the case and every time my investigation led to that person."

Master Da interrupted her at this point, “I can bet that the person you are referring to is none other than Mrs. Banerjee herself."

"Yes, you are right, the very person who bribed and conspired to put the 8 yr. old kid behind bars was none other than Mrs. Banerjee, the child's beloved guardian," replied Miss Sengupta.

Mr. Banerjee couldn't believe what he just heard and dropped to the floor.

He was holding his forehead with his right hand and bawling, "O! God... what have I done to deserve all these. I have never hurt a soul in my life, I took care of 2 children when there was no one to take care of them and in return, this happens to me. Where is the justice?"

I knew this kind of thing would kill a man if he was alive, Master da and I bowed down and helped uncle sit on the chair next to Sophia.

Master da started, "Mr. Banerjee, I can feel what you are going through right now, but you need to stay strong, for the sake of that child." pointing towards Sophia.

As we were trying to calm Mr. Banerjee down, an unexpected miracle happened. Koushik shouted, "I think I saw her hand move."

All of us looked towards Geeta and suddenly we heard her sweet gentle voice after this torturous period of 9 days. The first words she mumbled were, "I love you Porthos. One for all, All for One..."

Vikash came out of the room and started shouting for the doctor...

                                                          TO BE CONTINUED…