The Revenge

                           
Amit was really excited. Today was his first day of the college. Going against the advices of his parents and relatives, he had decided to take journalism and not engineering. "Mom, be real quick or I'm going to be late on my first day." "Come, let me feed you sweet curd, it will make this journey great and auspicious." After eating sweet curd, he zoomed his scooter to his college. He was really looking forward in meeting new friends. He drove in full speed that day. He shouldn't be late on the first day of his college.

On reaching the college, he looked around the place. This place was going to be his work place, his Alma matter for the next 3 years or if everything went great, for 5 years. He was wearing a grey t-shirt with the slogan "Winter is coming" ( As he wished to impress his classmates from the first day) and a pair of blue jeans. Then with the help of several signboards and notice boards, he finally managed to reach his class. As he entered the classroom, he saw that 18 students were already in the class. The number of girls were more than the number of boys. After interacting with everyone, he found that almost all students were like him except 4-5 high class students. And he developed a crush on Ria from the moment he met her. Then suddenly a voice zoomed up from the doorway:" Good morning class. Sorry for the delay. I'm your HOD Mr. Anand Mishra. You can call me Anand Sir." And then Anand Sir first told them to introduce themselves and then he initiated them into the vast  world of literature and journalism. "Once you enter this world, there is no exit door. You'll learn something new each day till you go to grave."
After the class was over,Amit started conversing with his fellow classmates. He had made 3 friends and had got the phone numbers of many classmates; but he didn't have the guts to ask for Ria's number. Just as they were chattering about, many other students entered the classroom. One of the guys slammed the duster on a table, telling them to be silent. Then he introduced himself as Rahul, their super senior and then he went on introducing all other seniors and super seniors. Then he asked for everyone's introduction, from which school they have passed out of, which stream they were reading in, what's their aim in life and what's  their special talents. Then they were told to show their special talents in front of the whole class. Amit sang well, so he went to the front and sang a song. The senior standing next to Rahul said, "Ok that's enough for today. Will see you later.", and he left smiling sinisterly.

The next few days were awesome for Amit. He made a lot of new friends and became really close to Ria. He even had her phone number now and he used to chat with her in WhatsApp everyday. Then, after 2 weeks of the commencement of the class, the seniors made their entry again. Rahul said, "Sirs and Madams, we'll be having our welcome ceremony tonight at Hotel Trident at 6pm. So make sure you reach before that time. And we'll have a surprise waiting for you. Special advice to all boys:bring women's make-up kit and girls, you'll be given special advice by our babes. And those who will not come today will be personally taken care of!"

That day Amir's dad was out of station and his mom had gone to her sister's house. So he was alone at home. He had his lunch at a hotel and then came back home. He watched TV for a while, then went on to prepare for that evening. He searched his mother's room for her make-up kit. After opening the kit, he went on applying lipstick to see which shade makes him look less like a girl. He had to go in front of Ria applying this lipstick. As no one was home, he had left the door ajar while trying on shades of lipstick. After being dissatisfied with many shades, he finally saw an sealed lipstick on his mother's dressing table. He picked it up. His mother walked into the room just as he was about to apply her new lipstick. She was startled. He was startled. "What are you doing with my lipstick? It's new...I haven't used it so far. Couldn't you have waited?" He smiled and handed it back to her. "I forgot to tell you...I am playing Draupadi in our college production... rehearsals start this evening." "Son why are you lying to me? Was there a shortage of girls that they chose you to play Draupadi?", his mother said, "What are you hiding from me, son?" "No.... Nothing mom, am telling the truth. No need to worry!" "You are applying lipstick like a girl and telling me need to worry? What has happened son? Please let me know." "Please mom, I'm telling you na  nothing has happened. Why are you irritating me!?!" "Now I'm irritating you. Finally I'd to see this day; Ok fine. I'll not utter another word. Do as you like." his mother said sobbing softly. After his mother went out, Amit took the make-up kit and ran to his room.
                                     ***
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, sirs and madams", Rahul said, "I welcome you all to the welcome ceremony of the 2017 batch of Journalism. We have a great program lined up for you tonight. Hope you like it." The convention hall was full with all seniors, super seniors, invited guests and the teachers. Amit wondered how they would be doing what they'd been told to do in front of the teachers and the guests. He then thought that he shouldn't worry and enjoy the function. First Anand Sir was invited to introduce the chief guest and to give a welcome speech to the students. Then the chief guest, Gaurahari Das, a prominent Odia writer of the Sahitya Academy fame, enlightened the children about the importance of literature in their life. Then there were many dancing and singing programs performed by the seniors. And a fun trivia was organized to entertain the newbies. Then finally a short comic drama was started by the seniors. By the time, all these functions as well as dinner were over, it was 9:00pm. Then the seniors told all the teachers and guests to leave and told the new comers to remain to collect their gifts.

Then the doors of the hall were closed and then Rahul took the stage. "Welcome to the special session of the welcome. I'd like to call this 'rampwalk'. So now all the 'ladies' stay here and the 'boys' follow the girls; and as you've guessed, for tonight the girls are boys and the boys are girls. So without wasting any time, please start preparation for ramp walk. First it will be the ladies time for ramp walk. Get ready within 5 minutes. So one by one all boys started putting their make-up. Amit also did the same. Then was the time for the ramp walk. Everyone came, introduced themselves, gave a flying kiss to the audience, posed in pout position for the photograph and then went back. Whistles and comments kept coming as the walks went on. All the new boys were embarrassed but the seniors were making videos and clicking pictures of the boys.  After 7 performances, it was Amit's time for walk. Loud whistles and cheese went on from the audiences. "Wow babe!! Really looking hot; please be my girlfriend", said one while another said, "I'm going to alone at home tonight. Come to my house let's have some  fun", "I think we'd told boys to come dressed as girls, what's this real girl doing here?" Amit was really embarrassed. He was more sad due to the fact that he was being insulted like this in front of his crush. He saw that everyone was laughing at him, especially the girls. One of his friends Madhav, lip-synched telling him that he was looking exactly like a girl. He then felt really ashamed and was about to return back when Rahul said, "Where is my babe going? Please pose for a pic and let's have this performance once more. What say boys?" Loud cheer went up from the audience. Amit was really embarrassed and he didn't know what to do. So he just stood there with his face down. "Hey girl, didn't you hear what I said? I said perform again. Oh, are you crying, my darling? Don't cry, no one will harm you. Just perform again." Amit had no chance but to walk on the ramp again. This time Rahul was doing the complete video of how he entered, what all he did, how he poses for the photo and everything else he did. Then after making him perform for 2 more times, Rahul finally said, "It's getting late. I think we should move on. Next girl on stage please."
The function got over at 10:30pm. As maximum students were from the local place, it was not a big problem of transportation for anyone. All were told to go home with the warning that they shouldn't tell anyone about this thing. Of they said, then they'll be surely punished. Amit was really embarrassed as he was kept on being referred to  as 'girl' again and again. All his classmates were laughing at him. Needless to mention, they had all cleaned their make-up inside the hotel itself. Amit was really embarrassed and was crying. He just thought of the taunts and trades and the laughter of the guys, especially Ria and tears automatically poured down from his eyes. He reached home and went straight to his room and locked the door. His mother repeatedly kept on asking what had happened, but he told her that he was tired and he needed to rest. For the first time he realized what real depression really was. He could neither sleep not stop his tears that night. Being frustrated, depressed, ashamed he didn't know what to do. He just went silently throughout the night.

The next morning he was feeling a li'l better but was still depressed. His friends asked him whether he was fine or not. When Ria came to talk to him, all his sadness vanished. He told that he was fine. He asked her how was she and that she was really looking like a tomboy yesterday. She smiled shyly and thus, they kept on conversing for many minutes before the class. Amit was feeling a bit good now. The seniors had their class just after Amit's class ended. So he decided to slip out of the room as soon as the class was over. Just as he was trying to go out after the sir went out, Rahul caught him by his arms and said, "Hey babe. What's the hurry?" And he started to touch him weirdly. This sent a chill down Amit's spine. He immediately rushed to his scooter and sped towards his home. He tried his best to hide his expression from his mother, but it is universally accepted fact that mothers can deduce everything. So his mother, sensing that something was wrong, asked him gently, "How was your day son? Did you face any problems? Did you sir scold you?" Amit smiled and said that he was alright and nothing like that had occured. Poor mom still thought he was in school and she, being a 12th pass out didn't know much about what happens in college. That noon, when his father called, his father was talking about the fact that everyone has some or other desires within them and it's not a bad thing to showcase one's desire how much weird it may be. Then he also told him that he could share anything with him. Amit was really confused. He then fired his mom with questions that what she had told father and all. No amount of excuses could make him believe his parents,( his mother in person and father on phone) that he was not what they thought him to be. Being touched at weird places by the seniors and getting cheap comments became a regular routine for him. His video and photos were made viral in the college. Life at college became hard as everyone used to laugh at him. What could he even do? Rahul was teasing and molesting him the much. It seemed that Rahul was the leader of everyone who teased him. On the other hand, things at home were getting really frustrating. Parents repeatedly wanted him to confess that he had a desire to be a girl.
Two months passed like this. One night, in the month of December, as Amit was returning from his tuitions, he decided to take the shortcut way as it was already late. The 'shortcut way' passed through a small jungle which was mostly empty. As he was driving through the jungle, he thought he heard some noise from the bush nearby. He stopped there and decided to have a look at what was going on there. He had heard numerous tales of aliens and humanoids in places like these. But when he came closer, he saw that there were 4 bikes parked in a circle and the occupants of the bike, 6 persons most probably in their mid-twenties, surrounded something. On more closer look, he saw that there was a scooter in the middle and they were surrounding it's occupant. When he tried to get a visual of the occupant, he saw that it was Shreya, Rahul's girlfriend. His conscience immediately came and told him to call the police and rescue the girl, but the Devil told him to leave the girl like that and thus, take revenge from Rahul. He stood rooted to the spot for 3-4 minutes watching the scene in front of him. Shreya was pleading to them tearfully to let her go. But they didn't listen to her and they started touching her. A man even started kissing her neck. Just as they were about to tear her dress, Amit couldn't bear to look at her sad face and thus he came back to his scooter running and then went back home. Finally the Devil had won. He didn't utter a word about this to anyone. He was somehow happy that karma had taken Amit's revenge. He thanked karma again and again. But what he didn't know that life was just getting worse.

When he went to college the next day, the news had spread like wildfire that Shreya had been raped and was in the ICU. Shreya was in the 3rd year, i.e. of Rahul's batch. She was a cute girl, with asimple attitude. She was very soft spoken. She never tried to harm anyone and why did  she face such difficulty, was what everyone was saying. It is usually the attitude of the people to.praise someone after something bad happens to them or after they die. It was the same in this case. Rahul didn't come to college that day. Amit missed the view of tears in his eyes. He was very happy inside that he'd taken his revenge. But still the conscience kept on reminding him again and again that he was responsible if anything happened to Shreya. He ignored the thought again and again. 2 days later, he got the news that she was very serious and was shifted to a big hospital. Almost everyone in the college prayed for her. There were candles burning for her, with get well cards at every corner of the city. The criminals were never recognized and thus even though a FIR was filed but the police couldn't arrest anyone because no one had seen the crime being committed.

After 5 days of struggling for her life, Shreya finally gave up. She died early in the morning. The rascals had put a piece of log inside her and didn't take it out. She was bitten at several places and her insides were damaged completely. Her body was wrapped in a white sheet and was returned to her family. The body was brought to the college also. That day, Rahul was seen crying out madly like a tiny kid. Amit was really shocked and he didn't even know what was right and what was wrong. He was completely numb. The Devil seemed to have vanished, leaving conscience to deal with Amit. Conscience continuously went on telling him,"  You could have saved a life. You could have saved many lives. You could have earn a new type of respect. Did this revenge gave you any respect? It gave you the title of a monster. You know that you're a monster. You can never change that." He was uncertain of reality and dream. He used to sleep but get up in the night remembering the face of Shreya. He used to cry every night.

Rahul had also became numb and he didn't use to talk about unnecessary things with anyone. Some said he had started taking drugs. Amit became more quiter day by day. He couldn't sleep peacefully at night and he couldn't do anything perfectly. His parents began to doubt that he still had those 'desires' in mind and they tried to talk to him regarding that. But he just used to look at them angrily and didn't tell them anything. He used to sit hours weeping and repenting over the death of Shreya. He had spoiled several lives by only one simple mistake. The fact that he could have saved her went on striking repeatedly in his head. One day, out of the blue, he got up in the morning and started laughing. He laughed and laughed. When his parents asked him the reason for his laughter, he laughed at them. Finally, he ended up in an asylum in the local hospital, neither far away from Hotel Trident not from the 'shortcut way' he'd taken that night.

©AshutoshAcharya,2k17