THE STORY OF LOVE

It was Friday today which means it is the day when she has to sleep in the adjoining room, locking it from inside and be there in complete silence until early morning when she hears the room being unlocked from outside as well. The room was well equipped and also had a washroom attached to it along with a small rack of eatables that are refilled every week by her mother. The room had the same wall so she could clearly hear a man groaning in sync with her mother's moans. At times she even heard her mother crying and pleading for the man to stop but it never ended until the man's groans get transformed into his snores.

When she was a kid she would sob until she slept off thinking that her mother is being hurt and she can do nothing about it because she was so small. But, today at the age of 20 she knows what these sounds are all about, even today she knows that she cannot go out to help her mother when she is pleading for mercy. She knew that this is her mother's profession. Someone's mother is a doctor, engineer or a social activist while her mother is a sex worker. All call her a prostitute. Today she knows the meaning of all the words she hears the different men calling her mother as well her mother's friends addressed themselves as. She knew this is her mother's reality. It is her mother's helplessness. Whatsoever she loves her mother a lot & is proud of her. She knows how the world eyes her mother's profession & hence since childhood she has never made any friends in her school or college. She only wants to help her mother live a happy life once she grows old.

She is Nirjara. Nirjara something. This something is her definition, she is just a human being only her mother's daughter. She is a very hardworking & bright student. She is extremely shy & timid by nature but very smart & alert at the same time. She grew up in the most unsafe environment that a girl could ever live in & so she has always seen her mother scared of her safety. Nirjara's mother was very pretty when she was her age & so she feels that this is the reason why she is in this place. Another major reason she always mentions Nirjara about is love.

KESHI'S STORY

Nirjara's mother- Keshi had long smooth naturally blonde hair just as her name suggests. She was the most pretty among her three sisters & two brothers. She lived in a small village near the Yamuna river. Her family was poor but very happy in themselves. Due to poverty she did witness minor arguments between her parents but never saw big fights between them at all. They fought & in no time got back together as well, just like that. They always expressed their love openly in front of their kids so all the siblings also learned the same. They were never scared of expressing themselves at all. Keshi was the fourth child among all the children. This made her very precious for her parents & favorite for all her brothers & sisters. Her father was a very strong-willed person & very soft-hearted too while her mother was fierce. Keshi was more like her mother but had the same heart as her father & this made her the most spoken about kid in the entire village. As she reached her puberty there were innumerable marriage proposals knocking at their door day in & day out. Her father had decided that he will not marry her until she turns 18 & that is exactly what he did. Soon after her 18th birthday, their father came across a very nice proposal. The boy was not very educated but had his own clothing shop in a nearby village. The boy's family comprised of parents & four siblings including the boy. The boy was born after two girls in his family & after him also there was a girl. His parents were searching for a girl who would be able to take care of everyone in the house as both their elder daughters were married in far off villages. Keshi met the Boy & they instantly clicked, she openly expressed the same in her family & soon was married. Keshi felt blessed to be married in such a great family & thanked God for it every moment. She was deeply in love with her husband & did not give him or any family members a single chance to get upset with her. Due to this, she was again the topic of talks in this village as well.

It was during her youngest sister-in-law's wedding that the entire act put up by her husband & his family ran down the drain. Her husband started getting home his friends & displaying her as an item for sale. The entire family emotionally blackmailed her saying she is the only way how they can collect enough money for her sister-in-law's dowry. She knew sharing any of this with her parents or brothers too would mean disrespectful to her in-laws so she sent them a letter saying that she is going to be very busy for a few months due to her sister-in-laws wedding preparations & also requested that none of them should show up to her in-laws house until the wedding day. She sent the letter with shivering hands for she knew for the first time in her life she is hiding such a big thing from her family. She will be paying a big cost for this choice of hers. Soon after this, her husband's friends started getting in bed with her whenever they wished for & she did it all for at the end of the day she saved a lot of money with her husband. Even after going through all this each day she slept feeling satisfied & happy as she knew that due to this her sister-in-law is surely going to live a happy married life. She continued earning this way for around six months until a week before the wedding of her sister-in-law. She was upset that she was getting married at the age of 12 because her in-laws were tired of taking care of a young girl & wanted to get rid of her. She wondered what this little girl will be able to do after marriage because she knew nothing. Her wedding was decided when she was busy playing with her friends in the courtyard. Her husband also had to sell his shop for her wedding hence she was the earning member in the family. After the marriage, Keshi was told that she was pregnant & with this good news all the good things in her life disappeared. Her husband was not ready to accept her saying she was not carrying her child even though Keshi knew that this is their child only she was not trusted. When Keshi's parents got to know this great news they could not control their happiness & immediately visited her. They witnessed Keshi being questioned about her character & esteem in front of the entire village. Her husband was continuously accusing her of being a characterless woman who has no dignity at all. Keshi was crying with her head bent down & she was listening to all of this without arguing back at all. Keshi's parents knew that this is against her nature to keep mum. She did so only when she was guilty. As this realization hit them hell broke loose on them for they knew that their daughter can be anything but a characterless whore at any cost. Keshi's parents stood for her in that moment & dragged her out of the village with a promise to never send her back here. They took her home & asked her to reveal the entire truth with every minute detail. She narrated the entire story of her journey from being her husband's wife to a sex toy for all his friends, all this at the cost whatever her husband would quote to his friends- no bargaining at all. Her mother immediately hugged her child tightly in her arms like she is trying to heal all the scars she had on her body of the brutal sex episodes she had to do for the sake of money. In that moment Keshi wept, hugging her mother. She shed all the tears that she was holding back since the first time her husband's friend tried to touch her, she sobbed thinking all this will erase the memories when she was slapped or hit for being lazy in satisfying the man she was with. For the first time ever in her life, she saw her father crying tears of rage & hatred towards all those men including her husband who crushed his little flower.

Within a few months, Keshi understood that it is possible for her to stay with her own parents as well because of all that has happened. Her husband had started harassing them by sending his friends to her parents' house saying they have paid advance & I have no money to give them back so she has to continue doing what has left halfway. With each passing day, it was becoming more & more difficult for her bothers & parents to protect her. She had made up her mind to accept this as her fate & return back to her husband so that her parents & brothers could live a better life. She spoke about this with them & gave them no option but to agree with her. She promised her brothers to never come back because her presence was creating havoc in their married lives as well. She left her house with a heavy heart for she knew that this is the last time she will be seeing them or meeting them. She came back to her husband only to find him with another woman in the house. His parents were nowhere to be seen either. He & the other woman were all by themselves. She was not that small to not understand what was going on there. She was about to leave when her husband spoke up saying he is sorry & he missed her etc. The other women also left immediately. He informed her that his parents had left the house long back & are living in some other village cutting off all relations with him. She had no idea of what was cooking in his head & so she trusted him once again. The day went by very normal, something that she did not expect at all. She was very tired of all this & so went off to sleep. The next day she woke up in this place where after 4 months she gave birth to a very beautiful & healthy baby girl- Nirjara.

PRESENT

Keshi made sure that she kept her daughter out of the eyes of the predators coming to her every day. She had taught Nirjara how to stay silent, hidden & sit alone in that room which was always locked from outside as well so that her customers would never enter there too. Nirjara knew this story very well & so she also always stayed away from being noticed. Today, being the first day in her graduation college she was very nervous & scared because she knew that now she is going to be among adults who cannot be tricked easily. She wanted to become a lawyer & so she knew that in this college she will have to change her personality as well. She cannot always be hiding for that will just make the rest more curious & draw unnecessary attention to her. She was smart that way. She walked in the college with an unknown confidence & a new zeal in herself. She knew she was one step close to her dream of giving her mother her rightful life. The day ended well & she was happy with her performance as well. As days passed by, she started gaining attention by being good in her studies & excellent in all her work. She did not like this a bit but knew she cannot help it as well. She just let it be the way it is. Surprisingly there was someone who was admiring her as a human being as well. She was a mystery for him & was hell-bent on solving this one. He was Aadyanth Mathur. The son of a leading businessman Ajinkya Mathur & the top most celebrity stylist Renu Mathur. A very well known family & very rich too. He had the best parents ever & a very lovely family as well. He grew up in abundance. However, since a few days since his college has started he seemed to be quite restless & always lost in thoughts. This did not go unnoticed by his grandmother- his mother's mother. She is the one he is most close to. When she asked him about this he immediately spoke it all out. She guided him what she thought will be best to do at the moment & felt that he is fine but she just made him more curious. There was no way that he could become friends with Nirjara as she did not have friends herself. Nirjara was unaware of all this & she lived her normal life college to home & home to college with weekends locked in that room she called a hellhole for that was the only place she did not like being in. This room was her motivation as well as the reason of her tears. Aadyanth, on the other hand, had found a new way to uncover the mystery & so he decided to follow her to know what she did, where she lived & all that.

It was the day when the college had declared that the seniors will behold a fresher's party for all the juniors. Aadyanth was only focused on Nirjara to know what she does. As expected she lets this pass giving some reason for not attending the function. All the students had no specific liking or disliking for her so they also just let it go. Aadyanth, however, had decided to find out about her on that day itself. As she was not attending the function she left early all. He also came up with something urgent because he knew that there was no way he would be able to surpass this. He started following her all the way until she turned into the area that is forbidden for girls to be in. He thought that she must have forgotten the way or something so he starting walking faster to make sure that she stays safe. He was taken aback when she knocked on a door in a certain pattern & the door was opened. She went in comfortably. He was utterly shocked to see what he just say. Why was Nirjara in that area? Why did she knock that way? Who was there inside? Is this a mistake by him like maybe she is visiting someone? He was even more worried & frustrated with all these questions running in his head so he decided to do the same again today. It was the same place as yesterday, the same pattern of knocking & the same house. He was unable to accept this & hence he decided to get more into the details. He started noting down the time of her arrival & all other sorts of details. He estimated a time & waited outside the locality she lived in so that she would not doubt him even if she saw him there someday. Exactly as expected she left her house, latched it from outside & left. His estimate was correct. So now he was sure that this is where she lived. He wanted to be friends with her so that he could know more about her & her life. He tried a lot of ways but none worked so he decided to directly approach him. All his friends were against his idea of talking to her personally but they had no better idea as well. So one day during lunch he tried talking to her. She was unaware of all the deeds he has been doing since the last few weeks. She spoke to him casually & got back with eating her food. For the next few months, he made sure to talk to her with some reason or the other. She had some kind of power that had glued his heart to her very tightly. No other girl was as interesting & lovely to him as she was. He knew her reality but never told anyone about anything. Towards the end of the first year, Nirjara & Aadyanth had started developing so kind of a bond. Nirjara was cautious but she also somewhere deep down her heart had started feeling something for him. She knew her limitations & so never tried to be greedy with it. Aadyanth however was way to crazy for her & so he had made sure that she is going to be the one he will get married to. By the end of their third year in college both of them were inseparable. Nirjara knew what all he had done before approaching her & this made her feel scared but she chose to trust him instead because he had many years to ruin her life. In all these years he had spoken about his family & given every detail possible but he never spoke it at all. Keshi knew that something is going on in her daughter's life for the people staying close by did tell her many stories about seeing Nirjara with a guy etc but she trusted her daughter more & so she knew Nirjara will not let her down.

It was the end of their last year when Aadyanth spoke to his family about Nirjara. He made it clear that they were in no romantic relationship as of now but he has made up his mind to marry her only. He told them that she stays in the "Red Light" area & he has no knowledge about her family at all. It was a shock for his family at first but as he started speaking of Nirjara they started to ease out. He had made it clear to everyone in the house that he wants their support & help to get the girl he has been in love with since the first day he saw her. They all agreed but on one condition that they will meet the girl personally. He promised that it will happen for sure. Later the entire family planned on how to approach Nirjara's family & go on with this love story. The next day Nirjara was astonished to see Aadyanth with his parents at her doorstep. Keshi, however, took over & welcomed them in her house obviously with a confused look. They came in & sat on the small old sofa in the center of the room. Keshi borrowed a few chairs from the neighbors & made arrangements for all to be seated properly. Once all got settled Renu started by asking Nirjara a few questions about why she chose to be a lawyer, what is her future goal & so on. Ajinkya, on the other hand, was observing her & her mother from their body language to understand them a bit & he found them absolutely genuine. Once he was satisfied & so was his wife they asked Keshni for Nirjara's hand in marriage for their son Aadyanth. Tears welled up in Keshni's eyes & she saw her daughter glowing with unknown emotions swirling on her face. She agreed to their marriage. In that moment itself, she decided that she will tell her truth herself to Aadyanth's family in person. All of them left the house happily except Aadyanth for he did not know what & how was Nirjara feeling. The next day itself Keshni asked Nirjara to call Aadyanths's family & request all the elders to meet her & her mother as well. She knew what her mother is willing to do & called immediately. They were invited to dinner.

They reached the Mathur House in time & were welcomed by everyone in there. Keshi could not believe that all this is even true. They had dinner & soon after that Keshni requested all to be seated as she had something important to tell. Keshi & Nirjara knew that speaking the truth at this moment may end up this relationship forever still they gathered courage & spoke everything out. Keshi started from her childhood & told them everything until the first time she locked Nirjara in the "hellhole". They were all in tears. Suddenly Aadyanths Grandmother(mother's mother) stood ups from her seat & walked to Keshni & spoke that I knew you were not characterless even that day & I say it even today. You would not be seeing this day only if I could have been brave enough like you. She confessed that she was present in Keshni's village when Keshni was drugged & was being sent to a brothel. She had heard everything & also saw everything happening but she was a coward to go & help Keshi. She was worried that if she supported Keshni even she would be doomed & called names by everyone in the village so she left the village the next day with her entire family as well. Everyone out there was surprised to witness such a coincidence. She accepted Nirjara wholeheartedly & requested Keshni to live with them as well. Keshi, however, declined that respectfully.

Within a few months, Nirjara & Aadyanth got married & Keshni left for her holy pilgrimage immediately. She knew her daughter was very stubborn & so if she stayed back she will make her move out to a new house. She did not want to trouble her daughter & her so very loving husband as well. She was grateful to God even after all these hardships she can be happy. She gave her daughter a happy life too. She had no more worries & so the best way was to disappear again from here as well.