UNDER THE SKY LANTERNS - PART 44
By Archana Vinod
DAY 3 -
Desperate dailies have managed to scoop up this fresh piece of news to fill up their empty columns:
"In another grueling and shocking case that rocked the city of Ahmedabad, a young woman in her late 20's was brutally raped by two men in the wee hours of the weekend and left to die at a garbage dumping site with multiple fractures and grievous injuries. The main accused, Prakash, 32, is currently being treated at a government hospital in town. The other, Raman, 27, a taxi driver, continues to be at large. We tried contacting her parents but they chose to remain unavailable for comments."
AT THE HOSPITAL PARKING LOT - MORNING
Remo and Vimla approach Siddhant's car and finds him fast asleep in the back seat with his long legs dangling out of the window.
Remo slaps him gently on the legs with the rolled up newspaper in his hand.
REMO: Oye!
Siddhant wakes up with a start.
VIMLA: Morning.
REMO: Wake up buddy. It's ten.
Siddhant pulls in his legs and straightens up with a groan, rubbing his eyes and stiff neck as he does.
REMO: (straightens up the newspaper) Check this out.
Siddhant takes the paper curiously and begins to read, his eyes go round as he does. It's the article about the ill-fated incident of their friend Roli.
SIDDHANT: (mutters angrily) What the hell. Which paper is this? (flips to the front page - the Mumbai trumpet)
REMO: Tell me about it. God damn people, they have no clue what they're up to. They'd do anything to sell their lousy paper.
VIMLA: How can they exaggerate something like this? This is so awful!
Siddhant's eyes dart through the words. Spiteful and derogatory comments about Roli's ordeal linked with the provocative dressing sense of modern women fill up the space.
SIDDHANT: (throws the paper aside and pulls out his phone) Find the number. We need to screw them now. I'm getting Nitin's help.
INSIDE THE HOSPITAL
Atul walks along the corridors, disbelief and anxiety written all over his face. He had just come to know about why Roli never answered his calls or messages that night, about what had happened to her. He walks past Jamanlal huddled on the chairs in the waiting room and peeks through the glass on the ICU's door.
He feels a painful stab in his chest as he sees her condition. She is barely recognizable with the fiery purplish bruises masked onto her eyes, the shattered cheek bones and blue, swollen face. Her arm is plastered up and she is wound up to several life supporting aids and surrounded by many high tech gadgets to monitor her heart rate, blood pressure, brain activity etc.
He turns towards her father. He has his head resting on the wall and his heavy eyes fixed in a blank stare onto nothing particular. Clearly, he is overloaded with anxiety and grief. Atul has no clue what to say or how to console him.
Maybe it's not a good idea to talk to him now, he thinks, he will get more upset. I'd better talk to the doctor first.
THE MUMBAI TRUMPET OFFICE - LATER
Siddhant is accompanied by Vimla and the plain clothes officer Ram Chaudhary.
SIDDHANT: (at the front desk) We'd like to see the Chief Editor.
The receptionist, a shabbily dressed woman in her 40's glowers at them.
RECEPTIONIST: (rudely) Do you have an appointment?
SIDDHANT: No. We---
RECEPTIONIST: (cuts him off) Get an appointment first. No walk-ins please.
Siddhant sighs and hangs his head in frustration before BANGING his fist furiously on the table. The receptionist jumps onto her feet, startled. To her surprise, he storms away to the Chief Editor's cabin.
RECEPTIONIST: Hey! You! Stop there! You can't go in there!
RAM: Why not?
RECEPTIONIST: Because... because you cant!!!
RAM: (displays his ID) Go down and have a coffee break while we talk with your boss.
RECEPTIONIST: (panics) What!!? What the hell is this?
They ignore her and walk off to join Siddhant in the cabin.
THE CHIEF EDITOR'S CABIN
Siddhant OPENS the door wildly and finds the Chief Editor, laughing and talking on the phone.
C. EDITOR: (pauses, to Siddhant) Who are you? Who asked you to come in? Shirley "
Siddhant grabs his phone and ends the call.
C. EDITOR: Hey! What the f---
SIDDHANT: Shush. We need to talk.
The editor glowers in confusion as Ram and Vimla join them in the cabin.
BACK TO THE HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM
Atul returns from the doctor's cabin. He looks shaken up as he stands before the ICU's door and peeks through the glass to see Roli once again. The details of her injuries and present condition stab him painfully.
The trauma she suffered on that fateful night had given her a fracture on the skull and an inflamed brain that caused her to go into a coma. Repeated strikes to her forearm had shattered the bones which the doctor replaced with iron rods. She was covered in scratches and bites, but the worst, the men had ravaged her so brutally that she bled from her ripped and tattered groin.
With the injury to her head, it's a question if she will make it. And even if she comes out of her coma, she may never be the same again.
Atul feels an unbearable sense of guilt building up in him. If I hadn't called her to the party that evening, then this wouldn't have happened. She would have been safe. Untouched. It's... it's my fault. In a way, I am responsible for how she is now... please God... just give me one chance, I'll do everything in my power to bring her back to normal. Please... let her live.
... TO BE CONTINUED
Edited by Archana_Vinod - 10 years ago
