The Sun And The Moon.
Chapter 1 - A Filthy Man
Divyanshi was just a normal 22 year old girl. Her life was pretty boring but the only thing she liked about it was that she was studying what she actually wanted to study, Psychology. She was pursuing her dreams in The Delhi University studying Psychology.
Living in Noida, she had to travel everyday by metro which was another unsafe place for her and several other women. Gathering all the courage she stepped in hoping that she won't she won't get in any 'trouble'. The definition of 'trouble' in her dictionary was 'getting harrassed by a man' which was so common that it was being ignored in the past few months. A few weeks before the day, her classmate was touched wrongly, in a manner which should've been punished but the man who was the culprit was released because 'a bad touch' couldn't be proven.
She hated standing in a metro filled with people with sweaty armpits and it was so unfortunate of her that she had a sweaty armpit just infront of her face, and as if that wasn't it, there was an infant crying uncontrollably just beside her, an elderly man who couldn't stop coughing on the other side and a filthy man who couldn't stop falling on her; behind her. Her breath fasten and her heartbeat even more, she could not bear the torture. She had enough, if it was a mistake she would've easily forgive the man but he was purposely falling on her, touching her constantly. She turned around and pushed him back.
"Are you blind? Can't you see so much space? Go stand there! Not close to me." she raged.
"Oh madam! Who are you to blame me? It's not my fall that I fell on you. You are being so dramatic." the man grinned.
She felt the sudden urge to scratch his face with her long nails and bang his head on the pole beside her. His grin which was as filthy as a gaze of a hyena looking at its pray. She controlled herself and said, "You aren't to be blamed? You purposely fell on me, you fool! Not once! Not twice but this whole time since you've boarded!"
He scoffed. "The women these days!" He said with disgust, "You are provoking me by wearing this deep neck top! And you're blaming me?"
She stared at him for a minute, she couldn't process the shit he spoke. "Are you mad? What the hell is wrong with you?" She spoke.
The man silenced himself and stood behind her again, maintaing a small distance from her. She sighed and rolled her eyes, her station was near and she didn't want to ruin her day with what had happened. 'Any moment now!' she thought, 'I'll be free from this shitty person.' Her thoughts were interrupted when the man once again, not surprisingly fell on her and this time he touched her bare neck and pinched it.
Being extremely proud with himself, he didn't expect a 'jutti' to land on his face. His face was red and so were the eyes of the girl. She looked at him with rage, if looks could kill, he would've been ashes by now.
"This bitch!" He pushed her back, touching her inappropriately again. "Didn't you all see? What she did to me was unpunishable and you are ignoring this?" He asked the crowd, his cheek still hurting.
"What are you talking about, Bhai? It was nothing. I saw nothing." An elderly lady said.
"Yeah, humne kuch nahi dekha." Another said.
The metro had stopped and a chaos slowly formed. The man was making a huge scene. The staff was impatient, another metro was arriving in ten minutes.
"Sir, why don't you understand?" A man asked, "We have protocols! You can't hold this woman's hand and block the gates."
"No! This is the matter of a man's pride, his honour! She insulted me and assaulted me infront of the public." He gritted his teeth.
"Arrey Bhai, you need to calm down! You are being so dramatic!" Divyanshi smirked uncontrollably, she felt a strange happiness in her heart, "My god! You are so emotional! It was just a normal touch and how can you prove it? Tell me! Answer me! Do you have any prove that I smacked my sandal on your face? Your face doesn't have any marks of a sandal."
"What's happening?" An unknown voice was heard, it was deep and rough.
"She hit me!" The filthy man complaint.
"Oh did I though?" Divyanshi smiled.
"Both of you, follow me!" The unknown man said.
"I am sorry but why?" Divyanshi's smile dropped.
"Thane, we are going to thane. I am a cop." The cop said.
"Hey Ram!" She sighed.
~~~~~~~~
"Name?" The cop asked the filthy man.
"Mohan." He answered.
"Mohan what? Don't you have your baap's name or your mother forgot to tell you?" The cop said.
Divyanshi snickered, it was an awful day indeed but seeing Mohan being insulted brought her joy.
"Mohan Trivedi." He replied bitterly.
"Oh! So you are a Trivedi!" The cop noted it down. He also noted Trivedi's number and address.
"Your name, madam ji?" The cop asked.
"Divyanshi Thakur." She answered.
"So, Thakur Sahab what were doing in that metro?" The cop kept down the pen on the register and closed it. He sighed and rested his head on his hands.
"Sir, aren't you gonna ask him that question? He was the who harrassed me uncountably." Divyanshi said.
"Thakur Sahab ji, let me do my job and please co-operate. It will be easy for you." He said.
She clenched her jaw, sighed and formed a fake smile. "Sir, I travel from Noida to Delhi every other day for college and sometimes to visit my friends."
"Friends? You have a boyfriend?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Sir, that's not relevant." She said respectfully.
"Accha so, this man claims that you hit him. Do you agree?" He asked.
"I can only answer that question if this man answer my question." She said, "It's just one question and then I may answer you." The cop nodded, she turned to Trivedi. "You are being constantly stabbed, what will you do?"
"I will die, simple." He replied.
"Exactly! I felt the same feeling when you touched me. It felt like my heart was being stabbed but this was something that you can't understand, because this is not just physical we are talking about, it mental and emotional." She looked at the cop, "Yes, I hit him, I agree. The only reason was he touched me inappropriately."
"See! This woman agrees! She hit me!" Trivedi said.
"Madam ji, you may leave." A senior inspector entered the conversation, "I'll handle these two." She glared at the cop.
"Ma'am, it was an investigation. I had to ask questions." The cop looked down.
"Haan, investigation! We don't ask such questions in investigations." She scolded her junior.
"Thank you, ma'am." Divyanshi left the police station.
It was almost noon and she had missed her college. She planned to spend the rest of time in the market and leave before it's too late for her daily metro. Walking on the footpath was very normal but on the streets of Delhi, everything was a chaos. People were swearing at each other in a corner, a teenager was selling belts, a group of boys around her age chasing each other. She assumed them as visitors as she had never heard someone wear in a language other than Hindi and English on the streets of Delhi. She knew it was a curse by the intensity of it. She felt a sudden push and she fell infront of a car and the car drove over her.
~~~~~~~~~
She had a faint memory of the accident, the last thing she saw was a huge black Thar and the last thing she heard was 'Yeh toh gayi!'.
She slowly gained sight and saw green grass around her. She felt a cold breeze and she shivered. She sat on her knees observing her surroundings. It looked foreign. She wondered if she had short term memory loss and she had infact recovered and went to spend time with nature.
"It can't be a dream. It's reality. But how?" She stood up and saw a pond. She dipped her feet but saw a movement in the water, before she could move a large crocodile appeared before her. "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" She stepped back hastily and fell on her back.
"Hey, mitr. Don't do that. She didn't do anything to you." She heard a voice, the crocodile whined and went back in the water. "Good mitr."
She turned her head towards the voice. She saw a man not so much taller than her. He had dark skin but an unusual glow, his face was actually glowing. Well, not just his face, his entire body was glowing. She stared him in awe. He was dressed as a king. She noticed a peacock feather but ignored that detail.
"Thank you, sir but-" she was interrupted.
"Ah a 'but' follows!" The man sighed.
"But who are you and why are you dressed like this? What place is this?" She asked in a hurry.
The man sighed again and shook his head, "What about the promises you made me, sakhi? I thought you'd feed my favourite dish."
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