Honey Trap

This story is not fictional and but also not completely real. I knew the characters of this story (though not personally) and has taken up some creative independence to restructure the series of events. All names have been changed. The story timeline is somewhere in early years of this century.

Ankita hurriedly threw her school bag on the bed and rushed to change the uniform. It is already 3:30 PM. Even if she gorges down her food in jet speed then also she is going to be late. 'He leaves the shop by 5PM' she thought in her mind. Anyways, she picked her tuition bag and checked her wallet, 'Wow, with this much money I can buy two cassettes this month'. 

As soon she stepped out of her house, Sonia called her from the neighboring house. Same age, same class although different schools, same tuition classes, good neighbors but still Ankita never felt to bond with her. 'That tuning is not there between us' she always thought. Sonia told her that she is rushing to her friends as there is an accident there but asked Ankita to not to tell this either to her parents or the tuition teacher. 'If Sir asks tell him that I am not well' muttered Sonia in her typical sing-song voice. 'What a big liar.....it was so evident that she is cooking some kind of silly excuse for her absence from classes' Ankita thought but said OKkk and moved ahead to the local market.

'Ohhh Thank GOD it is only 4:10PM', she would surely be able to get a glimpse of him. Who is 'him'? He is the brother of the owner of the biggest & best gift gallery & Variety shop of her so called small town. People call him Champ....'indeed he is, such a good looking hunk and so amiable & friendly...I just looooove the way he ties his bracelet on his wrist' Ankita's mind crooned. His shop is always the happening place of the area. Every month Ankita saves her pocket-money to buy some music cassettes from his shop. Also, buying gifts for friends & usual stationary stuff, all is done from this outlet only. Ankita' mind continues 'His voice pours as music to my ears......Last time also he asked for my phone number....I felt so awkward & scared....Ohh such a goofy I am..Today I would   exchange phone numbers for sure...what if my phone is always guarded by my parents...I can manage to sneak sometime!!'. She reached the shop but found that he has already left for the day. 'What the ...., Why he has leave early today only....her luck never favors her'. She postponed the idea of buying cassettes for some other day....'Searching for a nice album through the catalog takes so much time, she does not want to waste that only opportunity to be with him in vain'.

Heavyhearted, she went to her tuition classes. There she came to know about the 'Gossip of the day'. Priya whispered in a hush-hush tone 'Hey, do you know Sonia is going around with Champ these days!'. 'What!!!' Ankita literally shouted. 'Yesss this news is 100% pakka, they are seeing each other and today also they had gone for a date'. Ankita tried not to listen any more to Priya. She felt so bad. All her beautiful thoughts which she has spanned around him crashed with a jolt.

Next couple of weeks, she tried her best to avoid Sonia and forget her mushy romantic crush for Champ. In spite of her best efforts, her mind wandered multiple times in his thought…'Why luck never favors me, Why it can’t be me in place of that Sonia…life is so unfair' her heart continued to yearn for him…..

 Now, almost a month has passed after that. Ankita has been able to gather herself and continued with her normal life. Yeah...she went to buy those cassettes but after 5PM only....'I cannot face his flirty behavior anymore'...but the shop was closed. She went again after 10 days but still it was closed....'They have closed their business and "bitiya" do not visit this place anymore' one of the neighborhood ageing shop owner told her.

That night while having dinner she started surfing though various TV channels when her fingers paralyzed on one news channel. 'They are flashing a 'Breaking NEWS' and her town's name is there. OMG....What are they showing....it is news coverage of a MMS (obviously dirty!!) flooding the internet where the girl has been identified from her town...these news channel has got other details as well. The news anchor was shouting on the top of his voice.....See where the latest generation is moving....they take everything so casually...this girl studying in Class 11th belongs to a middle-class family and the guy is a local shop-owner. As per our sources, this guy is into this dirty business of luring innocent teenagers, trapping them in his 'honey-web' and after filming them in compromising acts, selling those clippings in market. Police has raided his house and found many other clips & MMS well. He is absconding now. Girl's family is not ready to comment...blah blah. They kept on showing the bits of MMS (blurred though) on their screen...However blurred it is, Ankita can recognize that bracelet on the guy's wrist!!!!

She got up from the sofa and went to her room.....closed her eyes and said 'THANKS a lot GOD.....from now onward, I would never blame my luck...you saved me from falling in that dirty pit'.

Darlings of Earth...!!

What comes in your mind when in you hear the below mentioned incidents? Like when we hear any crime news  in some 'breaking news' channel, most of us has somewhere in our mind that it doesn't happens in our social circle. Read this:

Incident 1: A mother who delivered her baby 7 months back and has been working in a MNC prior to her delivery has to stay back at her parents' house. Her husband has visited her only twice and MIL once post delivery even if the distance between two places is within 30 Kms. All the expenses of delivery and post that is taken care by the parents of the girl as her own salary/savings account is controlled solely by her husband who happens to be a well known orthopaedic surgeon. They made her and her new born feel uncomfortable & unwelcome in all possible ways. Should I have to mention here that new born is a girl!!!

Incident 2: A single mother who works in a bank is beaten black & blue by her brother. He along with his family members justifies this action as an action he did to discipline (!!) his sister. As per him just because she is earning and has 'no man' in her life to control her therefore he obliged to volunteer for taking up the task of controlling her.

Incident 3: A hearing-speech impaired girl is married off to some person (hiding the truth) by her family members. Obviously they find out & send back the girl to her parent's place while she was pregnant. Her husband was furious that girl's parents have fooled him by passing on a 'defective piece'. Her kid was born at her parent's place and she takes care of her baby whole day. After 3 years, husband comes back and offers to take her back. However he seems not interested in taking responsibility of the kid. Her parents again bundle her up with him and keep the kid with them. They are happy now that their girl is 'accepted' by her husband but completely ignore the pitiable mental condition of the girl who was estranged from her 3 year old.

I am not reading out any newspaper to you. I know all these families and couple of them are even so-called 'well educated'. They stay in this millennium city in up market areas. But how that education or their residential location does make any difference to their Neanderthal mindset and thought process. The XX chromosome is always unwelcome in their families. They want the wholesome control on the women folk of their life. This baton of control is passed on to another man by the institution called 'marriage'. Since childhood she is conditioned to surrender her lever of control to the man of her life...it can be grandfather, father, brother, husband,FIL, BIL, son. Independent thinking, decision making, taking control of her own life are considered a sin for her. Her conditioning make her believe that she is ought to be treated this way and thus even a women also reinforces this biased fact to her children.

While the hate groups of Amir Khan increases manifold after he took up to discuss sensitive topics through 'Satyamev Jayate', can we still choose to behave like 'ostriches in storm'. Amir is not showing something new or bizarre, these are naked truth which lies beneath the various layers of our society. As an individual, we can stand against any discrimination by passing on the right mindset to at least one person or make a difference to at least one life around us. I start this trend by bringing up my daughter with right attitude and groom her to become an independent individual devoid of any gender stereotype...What about you??

Looking forward for that day when all "Darlings of Venus" would also become "Darlings of Earth" in true sense :-D

P.S. This is my first post in DOV :-)