What Was It - 3?

Riya got down from the auto in front of a posh looking housing complex. She cross checked the address that Raghav had given her. He lived here! Son of a rich dad! She dismissed. Some people were lucky to be born with silver spoons in their mouths. Raghav was waiting at the gate with two bi-cycles looking comical in his shorts. As she approached him, he looked tensed and worked up. “It can get a little risky. Are you sure you are up to it?” Raghav asked. “Risky? How?” Riya asked flustered, and then remembering something she added, “I am a good rider, trust me.” But Raghav didn’t laugh. He handed Riya one bicycle and a backpack. He rode the other one and paddled very fast. Riya had to struggle to keep up. “Why bi-cycle?” she asked. “Because you would want to be soundless and inconspicuous.” He replied. They rode until they reached a shabby cobbled alley. Raghav got down and Riya followed. “Do you remember the little kid from the Sholls signal?” Raghav asked. “Yes. I do.” “Well he lives here. I come very often to meet him.” Raghav said. His face grim. A sense of anticlimax washed over Riya. The thrill she had been feeling all the way through the ride vanished. They were here to meet the kid from the signal! “He was abducted when he was just three! He doesn’t remember his parents. Older kids do but often they are drugged.” Raghav continued. “What?” Riya could not find a better word to describe what she felt. The swift transition from the boring to the gory unnerved her. “Do you know every year over a million of children disappear in India from all economical background?” he started to walk down the alley. Riya followed silently. “They are tortured, tormented and forced to beg? But people don’t really sympathize if you are whole, so their limbs or eyes are chopped off. But if the kid is still rebellious, they cut off the tongue as well. And for people like you who don’t appreciate begging they are forced to steal and sell those stolen goods at signals” Raghav continued to speak; oblivious to the fact that Riya was finding it difficult to walk anymore and was sitting down on the stones fighting an overwhelming urge to vomit. After few more steps, Raghav came back, “Get up,” he snapped, “if you really want to help the less fortunate, then help me catch these bastards. Help these kids to get back a life they deserve.” Riya looked up. Her eyes livid. “What are you up to?” she asked. “How do you know so much about them?” “My. Own. Sister. Was. Abducted.” Raghav uttered one word at a time. “when she was just eight. We found her eight years later, begging at a temple in Haridwar. She had been there, all the time, but the police could not find her. Luckily she was whole but so heavily dependent on drugs that she would sleep with anybody in exchange of more drugs. We could not save her. She overdosed four years later at just twenty.” Raghav said non chalantly. Riya felt a gluey gelatin stuck at her throat, pulling at her vocal cord, stopping her to utter a word. She stood there, swaying a little, not believing her legs she grabbed the wall that lined the alley for support. “But begging is illegal” was all she could manage. “So you know that! But yet do you know what the revenue of the begging business in India is? 400 crores.” Raghav said to a bewildered Riya. “Get up ma’m.” Raghav extended a helping hand. “It’s just the adrenaline. Tell me are you in? or not?” “You are asking this question now?” Riya was furious. “Well it was courtesy. Now come on. We don’t have time. There is much more you will know tonight.” Raghav said, as he started to walk again. Riya followed shakily, with a complete blank head. They took few more turns with alleys getting narrower and shabbier and crabbier and darker. Stench of urine mixed with rotten garbage added to nausea she was already experiencing. But eerily the streets were all empty apart from few dogs. Of course the city slept early but it was just eight by the watch. “They are scared to death. They won’t come out.” Raghav said. Suddenly Raghav pulled her close behind a thick trunk Neem tree that cast dark shadows over them. Two policemen crossed past them. Riya looked hopefully at them, almost going out of Raghav’s hold but Raghav pulled her even closer. “Are you mad? They are in it. Today is a big night for them. They are just checking if everything is alright. Whether any stray over courageous journalist has gotten the coup.” He hissed in Riya’s ear. “Big night?” Riya asked stupidly. “All these stealing and selling books and toys are not fetching much money Riya. Nothing like crippled children you know, to sensitize people sentiment. So today a deal is going to be made and when it’s finalized soon a mass chopping of limbs or plucked eyes or burned skin will follow. The kids were given choice. Your kid has chosen to be blind.” Raghav said. Riya shuddered so hard that she feared of passing out. Raghav’s nonchalance bothered her. Raghav was already walking again before she could ask anything. They stopped before a structure that seemed like an abandoned garage. Faint lights were coming out from it. There were people inside. Raghav gestured Riya to follow. As she drew close, he asked her to open her backpack and take the handycam out. Once she had done it, he instructed her to wear the raincoat that was inside her backpack. Though surprised, she obliged. They crawled to the side of the building. Two big garbage bins stood there just beside the large crack in the wall that allowed a view into the room. “The kids arranged these for you. Get inside and start filming, as nicely as you can. Don’t freak out. Cover your head. After this we will have to run. Real fast. Okay?” Raghav whispered. Riya nodded. “Yes.” A moment’s hesitation and she was inside the garbage bin, ignoring the overpowering stench. The kids were right, there was a hole inside, just large enough for the handycam’s lens to peep out. Raghav jumped into the other bin. There were around a dozen men. They spoke in Hindi. Riya groped the handycam tightly as she pushed through the hole inside the garbage bin completely oblivious about the wastes and sweats now. A few among these men were doctors. Or so they boasted. They were arguing for their payments. They said being the best in their field they did not fly from Delhi to do charity. No one else would be able to chop healthy limbs and still present it like the outcome of a gruesome tragedy. Arguments were followed by counter arguments. It turned out the doctors were paid Rs. 3 lakhs each for these brutal chopping offs. But apparently that was not enough because there were more kids than they were told. So ultimately both party settled for 5 lakhs for amputating or blinding or burning healthy children “carefully”. At this moment, Riya’s overpowering nausea took over her and she retched loudly. ♣ Everything had gone very quiet. Riya forgot to even breathe. The goons sniffed the air like trained dogs, their eyes glinting.  “Run” Raghav whispered and before the lungi clad monsters could come out of the door which was on the opposite side, she had jumped out of the dustbin and was running for her life. At the alley mouth, a black Audi waited for them. “Thanks dad” Raghav breathed as he pulled Riya inside, even in this situation Riya flinched as she wasted the beige leather seats with her dirty rain coat and running sweats. As she eyed, three men were still running out of the alley. “Did you get them? Did you get the doctors?” Raghav panted. “Yes.” Riya answered. “What’s next?” “Getting the children back to their parents and putting these morons at display before the world.” Raghav smiled.

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