It poured heavily on that night and everyone was rushing to reach home as it was the weekend. Amaya stepped down at the junction of a side road. It was still drizzling, so she took out her umbrella and started walking towards the dimly lit side road with street lights found only at long distances where one can sense danger. The road looked empty, like a way to a graveyard. She felt a trembling fear in her chest as she put her leg forward and she had to walk for fifteen minutes to her home. She took her phone in her hand and looked at the time, and didn’t put the phone back in her handbag. It was past midnight, and three-year-old Keerthy is waiting with her grandmother to see her mom before going to bed. The bus reached the stop half an hour late as it was heavy traffic in Delhi because everyone was going back to their homes to spend time with their family and friends. She thought of calling her husband, but then it would be vain as he can’t drive such a long distance. Her husband is working in Mumbai so she can’t depend on her husband and Amaya started walking forward. She gathered her shaking heart in her hand and murmured to herself that a strong woman like her, who is also a journalist, shouldn’t fear anything and walked like she was brave enough to reach home.
Suddenly she heard some men speaking near a closed clothe shop on her side of the road a few meters away. There were five men having liquor and talking, which was little audible for her to hear. Though she acted herself to be strong, Amaya was startled at those sounds and hid near a tree that was close to the streetlight and watched those men. Her mom usually scolded Amaya before marriage for coming late at home. She, like every mother, used to say that night is not safe for women and especially walking on a lonely road. Amaya now is a little scared seeing those men and her mother’s words run through her mind every time she is found alone at night. Feminism is rushing through all the women similar to Amaya when she reports news of women should be strong enough to fight for themselves and for other women as this society somehow finds way to dehumanize one gender until she herself is being vulnerable some days fighting with her own brave personality. In the midst of their talk, she was able to recognize a face among that group. He was Ankith who escaped for raping a woman who was his cousin, from the hands of law which she herself reported in news yesterday afternoon. She knew he was one of the culprits in raping that innocent girl but the political leaders who hid Ankith to satisfy their lustful desires threw a lot of money to the police officers and closed the case. Though we preach democracy is for the people, by the people and of the people, when it comes to practice, common people have to give a lot of money to lawyers for fighting against such powerful leaders and the laws can always be manipulated by people in power. She walked past them without notice and reached home in a hurry.
At night, on the bed, she thought about Meera, who was denied justice for getting raped by her own cousin. Public always worshiped Thejabhai because he opened the opportunity for educating many orphaned children and was active in social work. Behind this helping hand, he is a vulture who does anything to get what he wants with his money but Amaya does not have any proof to present his hideous face to the public. An incoming call was constantly ringing on her phone and she was not paying attention to it. Keerthy then started to cry laying near to her and at that time she saw Vishak’s missed calls. She took her daughter to the washroom, slowly put her to sleep, and then called back her husband. Vishak took the call instantly with one bell and they started talking about how their day went. Vishak is also a journalist and he went to catch the news on gold smuggling that happened in Mumbai. He talked about the possibility of Thejabhai getting involved in gold smuggling and how it is connected with the rape case. After that, they talked about their upcoming wedding anniversary and how to celebrate that special day differently. With lots of laughter and kisses, Vishak cut the call assuring that he will reach home by evening tomorrow.
Amaya slept through her memories of how they met for the first time. It was during a news reporting day in the middle of ‘ham sabh’ party rally led by Thejabhai; his eyes met her. At that time, Vishak was working for News 24 and still working at the same organisation. He was strongly raising his voice against the party’s non-considerate behavior over women and lower-class people. Thejabhai also smiled at Amaya in an inappropriate way when she was standing in the crowd with the mike pointed at him which made her to rethink about that person’s behaviour. Amaya went head over heels over his reporting, and she started following his social media accounts. Then one day, she took over courage and proposed to him, which is not seen much in our men- lead society. Fortunately, Vishak was looking for this type of woman who goes along with his unwavering character.
On the next day, a call from ‘For the People’ News channel came for Amaya to come urgently and so she got ready without one bite of her chapatti and rushed to catch the bus. She got surprised as Ankith was standing in front of the editor’s office. Amaya was raging with anger and ran towards Ankith and slapped him harder shouting how can you do this to people in your own family. Ankith didn’t react back, and she slapped him till his face became red with her palm’s mark. Ankith then went to her and told her that he deserved this slap and he came here to reveal everything to the public. Amaya rubbed her face. Stood up and dragged him in front of the camera and asked him to say whatever he was going to reveal. Ankith belonged to one of the lower-class family and he was admired by Thejabhai’s act from his teen days. He started to get involved in ‘Ham Sabh’ parties and took a major role working as a volunteer, standing in front of rallies. Ankith didn’t know that people like him, who belong to the lower class are treated like working machines by these rich people only to get their votes. One day when he understood how this party works, he tried to protest against it when he was asked for a seat at the party and Thejabhai just laughed off saying that you people are only good for this work. If you come in our position, who will work and speak for us. The next day, Ankith was given some gold biscuits to be delivered to Mumbai and when he hesitated, allies of Thejabhai threatened to kill his family. He had no option but to deliver it to Mumbai and after taking Meera outside to buy a mobile for her birthday, he went from there, giving some cash to Meera to catch an autorickshaw to reach home. When he reached Mumbai, one man from Nigeria and another from the party were waiting for him. They took him to a resort and forcefully gave him some alcohol though He told them he had to return back.
The next day when he woke up, he reached Delhi, but there stood many people in front of his house. His mother was screaming and cursing him for raping his cousin. He begged the public that he didn’t do it and went to the hospital where Meera was admitted. Thejabhai came with one man into the hospital room and asked him to admit that he did this crime with a smile. Ankith was angry more than ever and hold Thejabhai’s throat when the nurse called security to throw him away. Thejabhai then came in front of the media saying that Ankith had admitted to him that he did it in a fuss of alcohol and he was sent to jail for a crime had not done. Thejabhai had to transport the gold again so he took him out of the jail as members of the party can’t handle illegal gold and he showed the public some trace of gold he hid under his bag. The whole viewers were keenly hearing about their hero and Ankith was just another victim like Meera. After the news hour, Amaya and Ankith went to the hospital to see Meera and Ankith was free of his guilt. Thejabhai was arrested, and justice was served. Amaya looked at them with sympathy and Thejabhai’s party office was burning with the rage of public as he fooled them with an innocent face of a sheep.