A small
crowd had gathered at the building gate. All of them were standing in a kind of
semicircle, except for one. He was standing alone, facing the crowd, and was
afraid that soon he will have to also face their wrath. His fear was quite
reasonable; around ten people had surrounded him, and he was a lanky man, and
he looked even thinner in his oversized blue uniform. Watchmen in this city
could hardly make their ends meet. But this watchman was not worried about that
at all at that moment. At that moment, he just wanted to run away from that
building as far as he could; after all, he was being accused for a heinous
crime.
The crowd
was getting restless. A man wearing all whites and a saffron turban shouted at
him, “Tell the truth. Did you do it or not?” Another man, who was quite hefty
and had gone all red with rage, added, “Of course he did it. He is afraid to
admit it. Why will the little girl lie? I know how to bring out the truth.” He
grabbed the watchman’s hand and twisted it hard. The watchman shrieked in pain.
“No, I have done nothing wrong with the girl. I don’t know why she is saying
that,” he whimpered. Someone from the crowd said, “Leave him, Dubeyji. We will
hand this bastard to the police, they will deal with him.”
“Did you
hear him? Do you want to rot in jail? Accept your crime now and we will not involve
the police. Esha has told us everything. How dare you molest her?” He gave a
hard slap to the watchman.
The
watchman, cowering in a corner and clutching the side of the face where he got
slapped, said, “Sir, it is true that I was drunk, but I did not molest the
little girl. I am telling the truth. Believe me.”
“So you
won’t open up like this. Fine, let the police come then,” Dubeyji growled.
The
police van arrived after some time. Two policemen stepped out of the van and
one of them stationed himself in front of it. The other policeman headed
straight towards the crowd. He talked with the people present for a while and
then enquired, “Where is the girl?”
“Rohit,
call Esha down,” the man wearing the turban told the person standing next to
him. Rohit went inside one of the wings and came back with Esha, a
pale-looking, frightened 11 year old girl. Walking behind them was Esha’s
mother, her face expressing a mixture of shock and anger.
“Beta, tell the inspector whatever
happened. Don’t be afraid,” Dubeyji told Esha.
Esha gave
one short look at the watchman and then turned to the inspector. “I wanted to
go inside my wing, but that stray dog was sitting at the entrance. I am very
scared of that dog. So I told the watchman to take me inside the wing. He
agreed. But as soon as we entered the wing he lifted my skirt up and I felt his
hands brushing around my…” She stopped talking and looked down. “I knew
something is wrong, because my mom always used to warn me of such things. So I
ran above towards my home,” saying this she inched closer towards her mother.
She hugged Esha and gave the watchman a disdainful look.
“She is
confused, sir. I was just trying to get her away from the dog. I did nothing
wrong with her,” the watchman pleaded.
Thaaat… The watchman got slapped again,
this time by the police inspector. “Shut up! We will hear what you have to say in
the lock-up.” He turned towards Esha’s mother and said, “Madam, your daughter
will have to come to the police station to give her statement. I know it is a
bit traumatic but you will have to follow the procedure if you want him
punished. You can bring her tomorrow.”
“And you
are coming with us,” he directed the watchman towards the van. The watchman
took his belongings and followed the two policemen into the van. The van sped
off and slowly the crowd dispersed.
The next
day, the watchman was booked under a non-bailable offence. He had no
money to bribe the police and get out. He had no choice but to spend his next three
years in prison. All he could do day and night was to narrate and re-narrate his
story to the other inmate in the prison cell.
“She was
afraid of the dog. So I pushed her away from the dog. I did not do anything
else, not a thing. My only fault was that I was drunk. This is too big a
punishment for being drunk. This is not fair. Why doesn’t anyone understand
that I am innocent?”
“Why
don’t you understand that it doesn’t matter whether you are innocent or not?
Your blabbering isn’t going to change anything. You are going to remain in this
cell no matter what, and that makes you a criminal.” But the other inmate’s
words fell on deaf ears.
“My wife
hasn’t heard from me from such a long time. She must have got so worried. I
couldn’t even send any money to her. What if she is dying of hunger? She can’t
live alone. Or I guess she must have married someone else.” As soon as the last
thought crossed his mind, the watchman wished that the earth below him would
open up and bury him alive.
After
some days, Esha went to meet her friends. “I couldn’t believe that the plan
worked! You were right, Sheetal. As soon as I said that he touched me
inappropriately, everybody believed me and started beating him up.”
“Told
you,” Sheetal replied.
“I fooled
everyone so easily, I guess I should become an actress,” Esha giggled, and then
went on. “Gosh! I was so sick of him! He never used to let me go out of the
building because of my mom’s orders.
Thank God he doesn’t work anymore in my society.”
(The only message I wish to convey through this
story is that lies/mischief, however innocent or small they may seem to you,
could totally alter the other person’s life. In this story, due to her
innocence and small age, the girl never realised the actual consequences the watchman would
have to face.)
