Interpretation

Chapter 6

It has been two days since Ranjith has visited Sakina. He heads out to meet her. However, when he reaches the hospital, he finds Sakina’s bed empty. On enquiring, he comes to know that she has been discharged. He goes to her house. He does not find her there either. The house is locked. He enquires with the neighbours but they do not tell him anything. In fact, they show ignorance. “Something’s wrong,” thinks Ranjith. He calls Aslam. Later that day, they learn that Sakina has been frisked away by unknown people and her grandparents have been killed by them. It shocks Ranjith and Aslam. They search for Sakina the whole day, but in vain. They also visit the police station and find nothing. They find no clue. Such a lawless state this is,” says Ranjith. The picture of losing his family comes back to his mind. They travel back. Aslam is silent and so is Ranjith. As Aslam’s goods carrier is moving slowly away from the border to the town of Lahore, they hear a commotion all of a sudden from nowhere. Aslam stops the vehicle. He goes to see what is happening. Ranjith stays back. After a while, Aslam comes running. “Sir, please come out,” he says. “Why, what happened?” “There a woman has been raped. She is raped as a punishment,” says Aslam. “Punishment?” “Yes, her brother was in love with a girl from some other community. Therefore, they chose his sister for a punishment. The village heads asked few men to rape her. They did. Now they are going to stone her to death after parading her naked,” said Aslam. Ranjith gets furious to hear this. He runs towards the spot. The loss of Sakina is still burning inside him. He rushes to the place and sees a woman tied to a tree. She is semi-nude in a state of semi-consciousness. “This is the same woman. They are going to stone her now,” says Aslam. “No, I will not let this happen,” saying this Ranjith leaps forward. “Sir, please stop,” Aslam screams from behind. Meanwhile, Ranjith already reaches close to that woman. He starts untying her. At this, the people gathered there start shouting. “Who is this man and what is he doing? Hey you, stop.” “I will not let you people kill this innocent woman,” says Ranjith. “Move away. Her brother is a sinner, she is being punished for that.” “Why do you punish her for what her brother has done? And her brother has done no wrong. Neither she, nor her brother, you are sinners,” Ranjith shouts back. “You cannot defy justice imparted by the panchayat. Move off.” “You call this justice? What justice is this? I will not let you people kill her,” says Ranjith. “You keep away or we will kill you too. We warn you.” The crowd starts getting furious. It is hardly a group of fifteen people or so. Others are mere spectators who wish to do nothing to save the poor woman. Aslam tries to pull Ranjith away but he does not move. “Are you moving or not?” they shout again. Few men come forward and catch Ranjith. Ranjith fights them. Within a few minutes, there is a total turmoil. The people start putting their hands on Ranjith. Ranjith also tries to fight them out. After some time, police arrives and takes control of the situation. Ranjith is badly injured, and so is Aslam. They are taken to the hospital along with the hapless woman. Doctors attend to their injuries. “You must not take law into your hands. You are a journalist, so I let you go. I agree what they have done is wrong. I have arrested the people responsible for this vandalism and have charged cases against them. The woman will also be attended to her miseries and shortly we will send her for rehab. Do not worry,” the cops tell Ranjith and Aslam. They leave. On the way, they encounter a few journalists and other media people. The incident has created furores and has sent shockwaves. “What happened today is very bad, sir. It should not have happened,” says Aslam to Ranjith upon reaching Chachi’s house. Ranjith keeps mum. Aslam says, “You must not have lost your control, sir. This has created big news. It is being flashed everywhere. They say a journalist has been hit while trying to save a woman. The media will not digest this. It would affect our mission. People might recognise us.” Ranjith continues to keep his silence. Kusum Chachi comes and informs that few media people have come and they want to meet Ali. “I will send them off,” says Aslam and goes downstairs. Ranjith’s wireless rings. He attends it. It is Brigadier Puri on the line. “Ranjith, what is all this? Why did you scuffle with the civilians there? It is all over the media.” It seems they have got the wind of it. “Sir, it just happened,” Ranjith says sheepishly. “What you mean it just happened? You should not be losing your cool. You must have acted in a responsible way. You have gone there for a purpose, and should focus only on that,” Puri reacts sharply at Ranjith’s innocence. “I know and I understand,” says Ranjith. “Listen, we are on a scruple mission. Don’t know what would happen. Besides, I’m worried. I want you to finish this and come back as quickly as possible.” “Yes sir,” replies Ranjith in his low voice. Puri continues to be angry. “You got tangled with civilians and legal officials there. Totally unacceptable. Enough... that is enough. No more investigation on human rights violation. We have abundance of proof on that front. That will do. So, close this chapter here itself.” Ranjith does not say anything and he keeps his silence. “You are moving to Muzaffarabad. You know what you have to report me from there. Now, the whole investigation will be on that part and you will finish this in a week’s time. After that, you are coming back. Is that clear?” asks Puri. “Yes sir. It’s clear sir,” says Ranjith. “Good,” says Puri. “Over and out” and the line goes dead. He has given his orders. Aslam comes in a jiffy. He has sent away the media people. He asks Ranjith seeing his serious expression, “Anything wrong, sir?” “We are going to Muzaffarabad,” replies Ranjith. Aslam gives a puzzled look, but does not ask anything. He knows Ranjith is upset. He thinks he will talk to him the coming day and leaves the room. Ranjith is left all alone. The wireless rings again. It is Rajan this time. “Yes, do you want to scold me too? Your boss did just a while ago,” says Ranjith to Rajan. “So, what is wrong in it? What you did was not correct either,” says Rajan. “Then what are you waiting for? Go ahead and say whatever you want.” “Ranjith, you are getting carried away by the situation because you are an emotional person,” says Rajan. Ranjith does not say anything. “Any news on Sakina?” asks Rajan. “No trace of her. She might have galloped or someone would have gobbled her. This place is like that,” says Ranjith. “Are you angry?” asks Rajan. Ranjith falls silent. “Come on, throw it off. You couldn’t on Puri, but you can on me,” says Rajan. “I don’t want to shout on you. Yes, I am angry. However, not on my act because emotions cannot be controlled. It happened. I cannot revoke it. So, let us look forward.” “Ranjith, let us finish it off. We do not want to take it long. If we do, it could be dangerous. It might churn out of our hand. We have to make it fast. Move to the next level and end it. We never had a specific time frame. It has to end when it is over,” says Rajan. “But we have not finished our first step. You remember the prisoners?” Ranjith asks. “You did not complete it and went after other things,” replies Rajan. “Are you blaming me? You think, it is my mistake. Those things just happened. I informed what I was into, what I was doing minute by minute.” “Let us stop this blame game. We took up this mission so that we could do relevant things,” says Rajan. “You mean these things were irrelevant. Girls are not allowed to study. They throw acid at them if they do. A woman is flogged publicly. She is raped as punishment. Punishment! Did you hear that? Then people get disappeared, they sink with no trace of them, like they never existed. Moreover, nobody is bothered to find them. Shit system of law. No one can entertain himself or herself. No movies, no music, nothing. They burn them all because it is un-Islamic. They chop the limbs of men if they play a game. In short, there is no life. This is the state of affairs here. You think all this should not be noticed and reported. I do not think so. These are human rights violations. It has to be reported. And this was also a part of our mission. Was it not?” said Ranjith. “That’s all right, Ranjith. But we do not have time for all that,” says Rajan. “Why? We have enough time,” says Ranjith. “Not now. There is an emergency declared. A war is inevitable. Besides, we have collected substantial evidence for the same. So we can move on,” says Rajan. “But at least we can continue on the prison investigation,” says Ranjith. “Well if so, speak to boss about it tomorrow. Ask him,” says Rajan. Their long argument ends. Ranjith is feeling left alone. Chachi calls him for dinner. He says he is not hungry. He starts thinking about Sakina. Where could she be? Then he thinks about Puri’s order to go to Muzaffarabad. Muzaffarabad... the place where he had left his family. It was there that he saw his family the last time. He goes to bed. The dream erupts again. Khanu and his children are carried away and they try to reach out to him. All the same, he could not do anything. Then a new dream comes. He sees Sakina coming towards him. She is not blind anymore. Ranjith wakes up. The first dream was not good as usual. However, the second one was. It was after a long time that he saw something different in his dream. He feels happy. He goes towards the window. It is still dark. What to do now? He thinks about the mission. He does not want to leave the place like this and carry on from the other end. “I will speak to Brigadier Puri as suggested by Rajan,” he thinks. Ranjith takes a stroll in his balcony. He sees someone down in the porch. He goes down. “Chachi, is that you?” he calls out. “Yes.” It is Chachi. “How come you are still awake?” asks Ranjith. “Just like that... remembering my son. When I think of him, I cannot sleep. So thought of taking a walk,” she says. Ranjith sighs. “Why aren’t you asleep?” “A dream woke me up,” says Ranjith. “Good one or bad one?” “Good as well as bad. Both,” says Ranjith. Chachi looks up in the sky. The moon is shining, so are the stars. “I miss my son too often. I don’t think you understand that. Your children are with you. You miss only when they go away,” she says. Ranjith thinks about the funny things that life plays around. Chachi at least knows that her son is not going to come back. He does not even know that. “You are missing Sakina, aren’t you?” asks Chachi. “Yes,” replies Ranjith. “Then you may understand.” “Why don’t you consider me as your son? Then you may not miss him,” says Ranjith. “You are my son,” smiles Kusum Chachi. The next day in the morning Ranjith contacts Brigadier Puri. “No, it is not possible. I have made the decision and will not change it,” says Puri. “But sir, what about the prisoners?” “You failed to trace them. What else can I say?” says Puri. “I failed? The fact is I never got time to investigate.” “Who asked you to get diluted?” asks Puri. Brigadier Puri refuses to budge. He asks Ranjith to carry on with the orders. “When are you starting for Muzaffarabad?” asks Puri. “In a day or two,” says an upset Ranjith. “Okay. There is a thing. You are not going to contact Rajan or me for the next ten days. Security reasons. After ten days, you have to give all the details about each day. In case there is ean mergency, you can contact Rajan. Try to get an insight of the enemy tactics on the military front too. I want that. You will have twenty days time for all this. Thereafter, whatever happens, you are coming back.” “Yes sir,” says Ranjith. The line goes dead then. They do not even say the normal “over and out” for reason of getting caught. It also seems that Puri is desperate to get Ranjith back before the war breaks out. “You are having your breakfast, right?” asks Chachi. “Oh yes,” says Ranjith. “You must be hungry since you did not have your dinner yesterday. A journalist is not able to sustain his hunger,” says Chachi. Ranjith smiles. “Maybe a journalist can’t... but a soldier can fast for days,” he thinks. “I am hungry too.” It is Aslam. “You are a crocodile. You are always hungry,” says a smiling Chachi. “When to Muzaffarabad?” asks Aslam quietly. “Day after,” replies Ranjith. “So, what today?” “We will look for Sakina,” says Ranjith.

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