It was 5 in the evening and Rina jumped off her bed by the startling sound of her cell phone. She pressed the exit button and went to wash her face then she rushed to the bedroom and started to press the beautiful peacock colour salwar, which was Kishore’s gift for her birthday. As she started to work on the curls of her salwar, her thoughts went back to her birthday they celebrated together 3 months back.
The sun was slowly rising up when it was still 5:30 am in the morning. Kishore woke up and kissed on her forehead and wished her Happy Birthday. He then revelead the surprise plan for her birthday. She was so excited to visit that place she had always fascinated about. Spending sometime at the beautiful villa south of Chennai was her dream since teenage. She hurried to the bathroom to get ready for the outing, when he grabbed her and gave the birthday present, the peacock colour salwar kammez, which even won her a lot of vote for the most elegant gal in the Helwet account.
The clock stuck 5:30 and she hurried to the bathroom again collecting all the beautiful memories of the day and night, which she had spent with Kishore. They were the newly married couple in that area and everyone in that colony had an eye on this perfect matching couple. It was an arranged marriage but they were just made for each other. They both tried to understand each other and had a very nice time. Kishore used to come home at sharp 6:30 in the evening. Until then Rina will wait and they both will make their tea and have it at the small garden, set up in the bedroom balcony. Sharing all the gossips, stories from office was fun between them.
Rina worked in a software company 10 kms away from Kishore’s office. Sometimes Rina has to go in shift. Due to lot of adjustments between them, they never found it difficult. Kishore used to come home and drop Rina at office and will pick her up in the morning. She never traveled by the local train then. Even at office, whenever they had breaks they both gave company to each other through phone calls and sms. Kishore found it very easy to manage with work. The thought of going home made him work fast. Same with Rina, where her teammates found it difficult to solve the issues she always solved it with a great spirit and also to avoid staying late at office.
6 months passed by and it was 6:30 in the evening. But Kishore started coming late for the past 15 days. It was very difficult for Rina to travel to office in the local train. Not because of the long journey but of the lonely area surrounding the railway station. Even at 7 in the night it looks very deserted. She once discussed this with Kishore but he advised her to be brave. He told her, nothing would happen to her and many ladies travel like this and she has to get confidence and be bold.
All the happy days started to fade out. Things were not the same as it was 6 months back. They became as usual. Returning back home didn’t give excitement to Kishore. Rina tried to stay back at office during her shift so that she can catch the train when there is enough daylight. The long hour break was starting to shrink. The 25 mins of conversation was now cut in 20 secs. Rina felt bit difficult to go through these things. But she tried a lot. She knows Kishore’s love for her; it is just a matter of time.
She walked along the lonely corridor. Unusually it was very dark and she felt very afraid. She pressed the speed dial button and Kishore cut the call. She tried to be bold and started to walk fast. The station was as usual deserted, with only few men walking here and there. She pressed the re-dial button, the call went on but he didn’t attend it. She reached the counter and got the ticket to her office. She then walked to the platform and sat on the chair. There were four people on the platform. She then dialed his number again. The ring went and then stopped. There was a message in her inbox “in meeting, call u later”. She tried to consoled herself. There was just 10 mins for the train to arrive. Just 10 mins she have to pass in that hell station. Then things would be normal until tomorrow evening. However, her heart started to beat faster. Trying to keep her thoughts off the dangerous imagination, she started to fiddle around with her mobile. She opened her saved messages; the first msg was from Kishore. After their marriage when Rina used to call Kishore, he always picked up the call in 2 rings this was the first time he didn’t attend the call but there was a sweet msg from him “honey… me in a meeting call u later… missing u baby.. Take care” tears started to roll down her cheeks.
In the far, she heard the sound of the arriving train, she wiped her tears and stood up from the chair. Just then she noticed five men walking towards her. She started to walk in the opposite direction. She attempted to call Kishore again. There were two rings and he attended the call, but she was not able to talk clearly. All he could hear was the sound of the running train and it started to fade off. He cut the call thinking that she is out of range. He decided to call her once he reached home.
It was 10:00 in the night when Kishore reached home. The day was hectic for him and he was completely exhausted. He dialed Rina’s number and the number was not reachable. He tried again and again and in the meanwhile he slept off without his knowledge. He woke up around 4 in the morning and realized that he had not called her. He dialed her number again but it was still not reachable. He got panicked and dialed her office number. Sneha attended the call and told him that Rina have not come to office yesterday. He was shocked, frightened, and worried. He dialed Rina’s close friend but it was of no use.
At around 4:45 he went to the near by police station. The police shouted at Kishore for being so careless. They tired to trace down Rina’s mobile number. The last signal went to the near by railway station. They all rushed to the railway station. The police went in search to find some evidence. At last, they found a broken mobile phone along the sides of the track. The policemen tried to follow the scent of Rina, it led them to an empty road. And they were not able to identify anything.
Around 6:30 the policemen asked Kishore to leave home and told him that they would inform him in-case they receive any information. Kishore went home and sat on the sofa inside the deserted house. All around the house Rina’s memories disturbed him a lot. He cursed himself for ignoring her call yesterday night; if only he had taken it seriously he could have informed the police earlier. Now he was very afraid of the thought of Rina missing.
He tried to be positive but the fading voice of Rina around the running train made him think of the worst options. He tried to ignore and think of some useful options, but it was not possible. Around 8 in the morning a police constable arrived at Kishore’s house and asked him to come to the near by grave yard across the old railway lane. Kishore begged the constable to tell him what had happened. But the policemen didn’t open his mouth.
They reached the graveyard to find Rina lying half naked near a stony platform. Her dupatta was tied around her neck and her mouth and it had cut her throat. There was blood clot all over body. Her dress has been torn into pieces. Kishore asked the police men to call the ambulance but the policemen told kishore that it is of no use. He declared that Rina is dead. Kishore was shattered into pieces. A gal who had married him, who had trusted him and became a better half of him, is now no more. The thought of ignoring the phone call killed Kishore like anything.
The policemen took Rina’s dead body to postmortem. Where she was declared dead by the doctors due to a gang rape. She died due to the severe blood loss and chocking due to the cut on her throat.
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There was a day few decades ago when a phone call matters a lot. I still remember the days when I used to wait in the queue to attend my parents phone call when I was in the hostel. We gave so much importance to people when they call. But now a days because of low call rates, we talk for hours and sometimes we don't even know what to talk but we will be still on the call. So I felt like the importance of the phone call have reduced. Sometimes we ignore the calls of our beloved ones because we are too busy and forget to call back. How much ever we earn, earn good name the happiness can last long only when we have our loved ones around us. So lets try to give importance to them. These are few reasons which made me write this story. I didn't intend to point that love starts to fade out after marriage ( Although I guess it is partially true) . The intention of the story is purely to give importance to our loved ones. We should give importance to their calls, their feelings. Sorry if the story have hurted ur feelings.
Lets love our loved ones :)
