Awakening the Durga in me!

It was autumn. The city shone like the costume of a bride. Visitors continued to flock into the houses. Shopping, food, merry-making, pandal visiting, friends and family. The fragrance of puja conjured a different aura. There was glee all around. Kolkata, lies afterall, at the heart of Durga Puja. People celebrate the reincarnation of Ma with the best of everything.

While the city dazzled in the pomp of welcoming Ma, Ridhi sat weeping in her room and no amount of consoles could help her. Ridhi, Ridhima Mukherjee, my roommate was battling the harshest of the pains that any girl would ever face. All I could do was feel sorry for all that happened, regret for not being present at the spot and revengeful for Ridhi was my best friend  as well. It is not even 10hrs now.

I was sitting by the window of our bedroom when the doorbell rang. The tone of the ring in itself suggested of panic and something not being right. I rushed as fast my legs could take me. There was Ridhi, trembling, cold and terrified. Her chikankari salwar was torn at several places. She had bruises all over her face, arms and feet. As soon as she saw me, she held me tightly and burst out crying pitifully. Her soft, straight hair was open in a manner suggesting physical force on them. By some means I took her inside and asked her to explain me what had gone wrong. What followed was something that left me aghast.

My eyes couldn't resist the tears, my heart couldn't resist the vengeance but  my helplessness couldn't allow me to even gather courage to stand. Ridhi was brutally raped. They were our ex-classmates, back from the college days. After college, we all had moved on in life to complete our Masters and take up sensible jobs. Nobody, ever imagined these male classmates would come up someday and do such an heinous act.

The crime had left my poor Ridhi crushed. She sat under the shower for hours together blabbering that she had become impure. I urged to reach out to the police and get the convicts behind the bars. However, Ridhi begged me to not. Being an educated girl, she knew the plights she would land her family into due to the court case. No guy would accept her hand for marriage, their family would be declared an outcaste if they didn't abandon her. Even at the police station, she might be inappropriately quizzed. As one of the gang members' father was insanely rich, there were chances of the case being biased through aristocratic powers. Of course, her character would be questioned.

So, what had we to do? I sat by the window pane with Ridhi holding me tightly, absorbed in her tears. As I looked at the sky high idols being carried off in extravagant processions for immersion, I wondered which Devi showered her bliss on us? So much of melodramatic celebrations on the name of which culture? We were ultimately a society which couldn't safeguard our daughters, mothers and sisters. Each time a girl was raped, the entire mankind blotted itself with patches of seemingly endless darkness. As these thoughts crossed my mind, I saw the dagger, those weapons in the hands of the idols. Something crossed my mind. I locked Ridhi at our house and set out to find those boys.

I didn't have to walk long. As I saw my old friends of the college in a desolated,small street my eyes filled with tears and rage at the same time. I went up to them wordless, opened my long, plaited hair, threw my dupatta and there. My brother held me by my hand, fell on my feet and begged me to not strip off. I simply asked him, "If you could see the other girl cloth-less few hours ago, Why not me ?"
Shame and disgust crept in the eyes of the convicts. I took up their hockey sticks and cricket bats and thrashed them with all the might I had. But, I didn't touch my brother. All five of them stood motionless. I summoned the Women's Security Wing of Kolkata Police and very gladly jailed all the guys in the charges of attempting to molest me.

As I walked back home, I could understand two things - One, our patriarchal society knew nothing but double standards as to rape the very one it prays. Next, Durga was given all of the Shakti and weapons with a motive.

This puja, I invoked the Shakti in me!