The next evening Devika was walking back from work as usual. A couple of guys in her locality started teasing and abusing her from behind. She did not look back, but she realized that they were following her closely. She could smell they were drunk.
One of the guys hurled a hostile comment, "If you don't respond to us now, next day we will break into your home."
Her natural flight instinct to walk quickly and reach home had kicked in.
But then, the words she heard in the night, 'Remember Devika, at times, all it takes is one moment of insane courage,' reverberated in her head.
She switched on her mobile camera, paused for a moment, and took a deep breath.
She turned towards them. The harassment would not stop. She was burning with rage, and tears had already filled in her eyes. But she did not want to surrender to her internal demons this time.
She shouted, "What is your problem? What do you want?"
Before they would utter a word, she slapped one of them with all her might. He fell to the ground with a thud. In the next instance, the other guy ran off the scene.
She was surprised to see how timid those men were. She blamed herself for yielding to such coward pricks all those days.
He got up, tried retaliating, and raised her hand to strip off her saree. He then realized that she had video recording on and tried escaping.
But, she caught him by his shirt collar from behind and screamed her lungs out. Till a couple more resident women gathered in the next few seconds, she fought tooth and nail not to let him flee the scene. They beat him till he was badly bruised and let him go.
She was crying hard by the end, but she felt relieved and proud from inside because she chose to confront the situation instead of escaping from it.
She wiped her tears and looked towards the skies, smiling heartily for the first time after her husband had passed away. She had fulfilled his wish to be a strong woman, and she knew that she would stay the same for the rest of her life.
She wholeheartedly thanked the lady for her words the other night. She hoped she could talk to her for once and tell her what had happened. She was beaming with confidence, and she would not stop smiling. She took a detour and ran to the lady's home. To her disappointment, it was locked from outside. She walked back home slowly, remembering her sister.
You crossed my path on my most vulnerable self;
Your empathy traced the deepest scars carved into my skin;
Your heart struck a conversation to learn my story;
Your words became a compass for my lost soul;
But, you were not here to see the result by yourself;
You will always be remembered, sister!
In the next few months, there were moments when Devika felt like a lion in the jungle. Sometimes, she felt like a scared deer that leapt into the edge of the forest to find itself in the open. But never for a second she had let her guard down.
Sometimes, she wanted to scream and cry hard in the open. But she knew that if she cried, the curtains would rise. She did not want the drama to begin. She faked bravery till it had become her inherent quality.
She embarked on a journey that demanded her to be strong and bold; she had no other option, and she aced the task! She had no more direction than a voice calling from her soul to lead her upwards and on.
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One year had passed by since that eventful night. And the lady had visited the city for a few days. Coincidentally, the lady had come across Devika in the same bus route. Devika did not recognize her in the crowded bus. She handed over the ticket like she was doing for everyone and moved ahead. She was dodging the bad touches like a skilled boxer and moved ahead like a bullet.
There were no weapons but her poised demeanour.
There were no visible enemies but her mental demons.
There were no physical wounds but her emotional scars.
There was no armour but her shielded confidence.
There was no blood but her sweat.
There were no warhorses, but she was no less than a queen.
There were no medals awaiting but glory to be owned.
There was no history waiting to be written but her past to be overridden.
Devika was battling a war with self-belief as her only aid.
"What is the delay, Driver sir? Move, move. All the tickets are punched", Devika shouted from the rear end of the bus.
The lady had a hearty laugh at Devika's enthusiasm at the job.
The lady had observed Devika throughout her bus journey. She did not feel there was a need to ask Devika about her life. The answer was strikingly visible in front of her. She got down at her bus stop while hearing Devika urging the passengers to buy the tickets. Devika's voice drowned out the chatter of passengers on the bus, and she was spending every ounce of her energy to fulfil her responsibility. Her confidence was pure and tough, strong as the earth and impending as the sea.
The bus had departed. The lady stood at the bus stop with a satisfactory smile on her face for a moment.
Just like a rainbow that appears magically out of nowhere, attracts attention during its short stay, and then gradually disappears, she made a cameo appearance in Devika's life and inspired her to live.
She walked ahead with smaller steps, carrying the dignified aura of someone who had finished the task she was set to do. She slowly sank into oblivion among the crowd.
THE END
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