The Green Eyed Dove

The early morning train left the station on time but someone was desperately wishing the train was late. The monsoon rain was literally flooding the platforms and railway tracks; the vendors were scurrying frantically to load their precious goods. The rain showed no mercy to a poor lemon vendor whose wet paper box tore apart dumping the lemons all around the platform. The fresh green juicy lemon rolled all over the dirty platform, some slipped under the train tracks and some jumped in the gutter. An old woman stepped on one of the lemons and immediately slipped on the wet platform. Her old worn out purse landed on a puddle, she was ready to unleash her power of cussing but she abandoned the idea as she couldn’t afford to miss the train.

‘Poor Guy’ thought Rudra looking at the lemon vendor with sympathy. He remembered a similar situation two years ago. He was nineteen years old then, a newbie to the line of business and on a very unfortunate day he tripped. All his vegetables fell off his bamboo basket right when the train was about to leave the platform. He managed to salvage only two hundred rupees worth of stock, the rest was gone. He cried right at the very spot while picking up the vegetable, two fellow vendors Vijay and Manu took pity on him and helped him through his misery. He has been friends with them since.

“Oh no! She is not coming today…” said Vijay with mock sorrow.

“Oh, how our Rudra wished the train will wait until the pretty lady gets on…” added Manu and they both laughed together.

Rudra was indeed a little disappointed but thinking back at the poor lemon vendor he sighed and said

“Good for her, today is not a good day for newbie hawkers”

Every morning Rudra would load his stock from Baharu station early morning and travel to Sealdah selling them on the way and he would again restock his basket in the afternoon at Sealdah station to sell them until midnight. His mundane life was going smoothly for almost three years until a young mother entered his life, about one month and eleven days ago. The short frail young mother would sell cheap ornaments, bindi, hair ties, clips, bangles, combs and other household items while carrying her four year-old toddler in her arms.

She would wear faded worn out sarees and drape the ‘Pallu’around her head and secure it in its place with her teeth covering almost her entire face, her curly brown hair would peak from insider her ‘Pallu’. Even though Rudra gets hesitant whenever she was on the same train coach, his eyes would wander around hoping to catch a proper glimpse of her barely visible face. Every day they would meet for less than forty minutes on their way to Sealdah early in the morning and briefly in the afternoon as she heads home.

The women didn’t speak a lot but one day she was cooing her fussy toddler, singing a beautiful song. Rudra couldn’t understand a single word she sang but he found himself enchanted with her voice and smiled wide and silly at her.The saree draped over her face was fluttering in the wind near the door tugging at Rudra’s poor heart who was hoping to see her face properly. She was clearly married, it was quiet evident from the bright orange vermilion she rubbed between the partings of her hair.

But wait… she suddenly grabbed hold of her fluttering ‘Pallu’ and bit the edge between her teeth and looked straight at Rudra, catching him in the staring with acreepy smile. The heat of embracement spread from his heart to the soles of his feet but still Rudra couldn’t avert his eyes from the lady's beautiful Green ones. In the end she look away herself frowning and mumbling under her breath. Rudra was spellbound; something about her alluring voice and sorrowful eyes were tugging onto his soul.

Since that day, Rudra was eager to learn more about the woman. He wondered how to get friendly with the woman without freaking her out or make her feel uncomfortable. Rudra highly doubted his social skill among unfamiliar womankind. Sitting on the abandoned platform one moonless night he eventually divulged his problems with his two friends Vijay and Manu who burst into a series of laughter as expected.

“Rudra my brave boy...I am proud of the fact you finally decided to mingle with the opposite gender but… don’t you think you leaping too high wait until you see if you are capable of leaping at all” babbled Vijay chugging down the almost empty beer bottle.

“…you make so sense” said Rudra with a straight face.

“Because you yourself make no sense…dude, she is married, god knows to what kind of a devil her husband is…” reasoned Manu.

“You’ll get killed my boy killed if he finds out…here... Have some beer and wash down your stupid one side crush…” proposed Vijay and the two drunken friends began laughing again.

Rudra scoffed, stood up a walked away from his friends and splashed his face with some water from the public drinking tap. He always hated the smell of alcohol which always brought back bad memories he was desperately trying not fo relive.

“I just need to know if…” Rudra finds it hard to explain his reasons .

Despite his friend’s warning he was hopeful that someday he would manage to be friends with the woman and her toddler as well. So he targeted the little boy’s affection first, hoping it would be an easy job to impress a four year old. ‘How hard can it be?’ he thought.

The next day Rudra sat right opposite from where the woman was standing on the other side of the door and continued admiring the absentminded woman as usual. What he didn’t notice was her toddler son’s death glare directed towards him. Rudra thought the kid was being playful so he decided to offer his brightest smile to the boy who in turn seemed even unhappy, almost to the point of clawing Rudra from across the coach. ‘Ferocious little tiger I’ll get into your hear someday’ Rudra promised silently.

For days Rudra was racking his brains to think of a plan that would introduce himself as the toddlers’ harmless friend. Rudra began carefully observing the toddler for days. He never really closely paid attention to the toddler as all his affection was silently centered on the mother. The toddler was extremely well behaved, never wined unnecessarily, always obediently clutching onto her mother’s saree following her everywhere. The little kiddo was very protective of his mother. Whenever a male passenger would come and stand close to her, he would instinctively hug his mother with his tiny arms and shield her with his tiny body and use his death glare.

‘How cute’ thought Rudra. The boy’s behavior reminded him of his own childhood days when he used to accompany his mother to their little fish stall. Whenever a customer used to harass his mother regarding the price he used to come to her rescue with voice raised.

“This is the actual price of the fish, everyone is selling for the same price you are bullying my mother on purpose because she is soft-spoken…why?” little eight year-old Rudra often quarrelled with a baby voice. His young mother would eventually apologize for his rude behaviour vigorously. Sometime the customers would curse back and leave and sometime they would just give Rudra the stink eye before buying their fish and leave. Rudra’s mother’s fish shop was a little famous in the market, she was young, extremely beautiful and kind. In order to boost the sell she would offer to cut their fish big or small free of cost and even fry tiny fish as snacks for the customers and other fellow vendors at affordable price.

“Ma you are an Angel you deserve to be in a Castle not here in thing stinking place” Rudra used to complain.

“Ok then one days lets go there together ok?” proposed his mother to little Rudra.

The train was docked at the Sealdah station; it was twenty five minutes until the train leaves for the afternoon. The last time of the day Rudra gets to see the mother-son duo in front of him before the crowd starts boarding. Sitting opposite to them gives Rudra so much peace, he hated it when she has to move away to sell her stock . A hawker cannot sell standing in one place after all. Moving among the crowd getting pushed and cursed and attacked is daily a deed. Rudra was used to it but the young fellow hawker wasn’t, so to support her morally and spiritually he would do his best to follow her through the crowd. Sometimes he would successfully follow her ignoring rain of curses directed at him and sometimes he would get held back by a customer. Since customer is god one must not turn them away.

Sometime within a flash the mother-son duo would vanish as soon as the train stops on a station when she would get off and run to the next carriage of the train. Rudra would turn red with anger and frustration wondering if they got on safely. Getting off a crowded train with goods and safely getting on the same crowded train on another adjoining carriage within the few minutes the train stops at each station is a mammoth task and adding a toddler to the equation is totally dangerous. Rudra fell off and broke his toes couple of times in the rush during his rookie days and imagining the poor woman in the same situation gave him chills. As soon as the next stop arrives Rudra would quickly get off and jump on the next carriage. Sometime he would find the duo on boards as predicted and sometime he wouldn’t. He considered approaching her seriously and forbid her from pully risky stunts like that with her toddler but he would stop himself with the same question every time

‘Who am I to worry? Who am I to forbid her? Why would she listen to anything I say?’

Rudra was lost in his thoughts when a loud commotion brought him back to reality.

A man and a woman, presumably married were engaged in a heated argument and the few hawkers and commuters present was forced to witness their uncomfortable lover’s spat. Rudra was beyond surprised with their shamelessness.

‘Well off educated people are no different than poor illiterates like us…how dare they treat us as low class people !’ thought Rudra. Suddenly his eyes landed on the mother. She looked as uncomfortable as everyone else was but there was another emotion very prominent in her face, fear. Her little son had his arms around her neck shielding her and glaring at the shouting couple.

At some point the verbal altercating became physical and the young mother seemed to cower away facing the wall even her son began to scream at them. Seeing how much the domestic violence was affecting the duo Rudra decided to intervene.

“What do you think you are doing…is this your home? Take your fight to somewhere more private..Sir and Madame” yelled Rudra respectfully fropm where he was sitting.

“Who was that? who the hell are you to ask me to leave? What are you… slum dweller!” growled back the rude man.

Rudra was used to hearing all kinds of insults from random well off people since birth, the society somewhat normalized the fact that poor people getting insulted by the non-poor ones, especially the rich customers is normal and nothing to be mad about. Customers and potential customers hurling insults must be tolerated because they are the only source of income for poor hawkers and vendors. But every once in a while one must show less tolerance and give the rude pride brats a good earful.

“Respected Sir Do you want me to call for the railway police from the office outside…I am pretty sure none of the people present here is enjoying your loud mouth” warned Rudra standing up and turning towards the man.

The man was furious; his wife who was rubbing her freshly slapped face smirked secretly. “She is my property I can do whaever I want, even kill her…what will you do?” said the man.

Rudra who had been restraining himself all this while couldn’t take it anymore. It felt as the bandage has been ripped off a very old wound making it bleed again.

“What did you say? Your property… Kill her…?You think you are God? crazy mutt!” growled Rudra advancing towards the man disregarding the mother-son duo who was witnessing his rage for the first time.

“Ha…look at that little brat’s anger...What will you do huh...What?” mocked the rude man.

‘This is it’ thought Rudra clenching his fist and proceed to unleash the beast when he felt a tug on his pajama, a pair of pale trembling hands was holding him back. Rudra looked down and met the woman’s head, shaking and begging him to stay back. His anger evaporated,‘Is she sacred of me, too scared to face me? Shit! Gone my chance to look friendly’ thought Rudra. Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, the rude man gave a sinister smile and rushed towards Rudra.

“Hold back that punch Mister, hands up in the air...no argument get off the train and come with us…we received a complaint against you now don’t waste our time..Quick!” yelled an officer aiming his gun at the rude man accompanied by two more constables.

The aggressive bull of a man suddenly turned into a scared mouse within seconds in front of the men in uniform and mumbled something while looking about for his wife who was surprisingly missing. So what happened was…when he was venting his frustration on Rudra, his wife saw the opportunity and ran off to complain to the nearest officer. Even when the man was being escorted away he was looking for his wife, gasping like a fish out of the pond. ‘The wife did look like a clever fighter’ thought an amused Rudra.

The train left on time after the drama unfolded and the mother and son vanished from Rudra's sight. The woman usually boarded the first morning train from Sonarpur junction so the next morning, Rudra peered outside waiting for them, but they didn’t turn up. Rudra was restless; he was dying to find an opportunity to explain himself to them, do something to repair his image, maybe apologize or something. He was worried if he had permanently become a monster in their eyes. For two days the mother managed to avoid Rudra.

The third day he a reluctant to board the afternoon train as he casually strolled towards the station. From across the platform Rudra caught a glimpse of a familiar red saree with round mirror stitched on it. A familiar face peered from the coach tugging onto his heartstrings. Rudra instinctively looked at the clock which said the evening train was bound to leave in two minutes. The time was enough for ordinary people boarding the train but for a vendor, carrying a giant basket filled with vegetables through the overpopulated railway station and cross two railway tracks is a superhero task. But Rudra couldn’t back down, he made the run and as God had planned; he tripped on the railway tracks and fell on top of the rough stone chips laid between the tracks. He managed to arrange his basket with the help of fellow vendors and managed to board the train in the nick of time.

Rudra gave a quick glance at the mother-son duo and turned away taking gulps of air to sooth his oxygen deprived lungs and emptied the entire content of his old smelly water bottle. When he was done reviving, a small toddler’s hand showed up in front of him holding a pink handkerchief. That was the first token of affection showed to Rudra from there side. He was a little confused but beyond ecstatic. He took the offering with his most generous smile and wiped his sweaty face with it.

The woman giggled looking away tugging her ‘Pallu’ and her son joined his mother smiling ear to ear. With a gaping mouthRudra’s head snapped in her direction . ‘Did she just smile? Even her son…Because of me? How?’ wondered a happily confused Rudra.

The toddler was crouching; he hopped close to Rudra and pointed to his bleeding knee. Almost as soon as Rudra saw the nasty wound he never realised was there earlier he felt the pain and quickly wrapped the wound with the pink handkerchief and gave them a goofy smile.

The toddler approached him again next morning and handed him a small tin box and pointed towards the wrapped up wound. The content of the box was green and smelled herbal, probably a homemade concoction prepared by the woman with her own hands.

Rudra felt previledge as he rubbed his open wound with a large quantity of the content and almost immediately shrieked in pain. The woman looked at him hearing his cries which Rudra immediately covered with a tearful smile. The toddler sat beside him proceeded to blow on the wound like a pro. Rudra was tremendously touched by the little man’s gesture which brought tears in his eyes.

‘How long has it been since I have felt this kind of warmth and care?’ thought Rudra and pinched the cute toddler’s cheeks offering him a cucumber from his basket. The toddler nodded and grabbed a carrot instead and directly took a bite grinning at Rudra .

Stroking his forehead Rudra said “little tiger looks like little bunny now…”

Rudra knew from then on than that the wall of ice around the mother-son’s heart has melted, he had hopelessly fallen in love with the duo and given them the power to destroy his peaceful life with their absence.

Every day the trio would enjoy each other’s presence peacefully. The toddler would always come up to him and get himself a carrot from the basket. The first few time the mother scold her son but Rudra didn’t mind. He would sometimes buy snacks and fast food for the toddler from other hawkers on the train but her mother never accepted anything from Rudra. Most of his interaction was with the little kid who loved sitting beside Rudra and munch on his stock of carrots. One day the train was too crowded because of an ongoing bus strike that forced all the bus goers to take the train. The mother was having a really hard time, the toddler almost got squished and trampled on when Rudra came to their rescue and put the toddled on his shoulder. The mother looked at Rudra with her beautiful green eyes expressing her gratefulness, their eyes met for the first time. Rudra’s heart skipped a beat and then started beating viciously; if only Rudra was light skinned one could have clearly seen him blushing like an idiot lovesick teenager. It was Rudra who looked away from her captivating gaze and cleared his throat and calm his nerves.

Two months went by in the blink of an eye and the relationship between them grew stronger by the day. An outsider could give one look and assume the three are one family, even Rudra felt as if he had gotten himself a family which he should protect at all cost.

It was few weeks before the celebration of ‘Durga puja’ when Rudra noticed the mother staring at a little girl around her son’s age giggling with her father wearing a pretty blue frock holding a hammer like toy that made jingly noise when shaken. The mother turned away and brushed away the unruly hair from the sleeping toddler in her arms. Tugging the toddler’s faded green t-shirt to cover the boy’s naked leg the mother gave a sad smile and looked outside the fleeting senery.

‘That’s the reality of us small vendors who earn by the day. We cannot afford to take a break from hawking and enjoy the celebration. The entire city can enjoy, but for us every day is the same and festival are when we need to work harder. People enjoying the festivals seldom pay attention to hawkers because their minds and heart can only think about the next thing they will enjoy with their loved ones’ thought Rudra .

“I want to buy something for them, I have no one else to look after anyway I can spare some money” confessed Rudra to his friends that night.

“Do you think they will accept your gifts, her husband is there to buy her stuff…you don't have to bother..buy us something instead” insisted Vijay .

“Leave it Vijay...Let him, maybe the husband is out of the picture…” said Manu supporting Rudra’s intention.

“Or maybe the husband is hiding behind the picture waiting to pounce on his wife young lover…seriously the woman looks as young as nineteen” said Vijay chuckling.

Rudra never paid much attention to the fact that there was a husband in the woman’s life, for him the woman always looked like a maiden in distress. Rudra’s affection towards the duo was more of a protective kind rather a possessive one. That woman’s presence always provoked him to reach out and be helpful.

The next morning we got off Sealdah station and bought a pair of shoe and clothes for the toddler and for the mother he bought a red saree and a pair of ladie's 'Chappals' . Rudra wanted to buy more expensive gifts but didn’t have much saved as he never bothered about savings. He rushed towards the station with his half empty basket to catch the afternoon train and on the way noticed a jewelry shop near the station. The mother sold jewelry but never wore any herself. Rudra approached the shop and after much considerationpicked up a beautiful stone nose ring and ‘Kajal’ .

‘These would highlight her beautiful green eyes even more’ thought Rudra.

He then boarded the empty afternoon train and perked his head outside the door waiting for the duo to arrive with a goofy smile and excited soul. His vegetable basket remained unattended long after the train left the platform as scheduled, but the duo was missing. Rudra was a little disappointed but he was not heartbroken, it was not unusual for the woman to skip work occasionally. ‘Tomorrow’ thought Rudra as he clutched his old torn bag holding the precious gifts and began imagining their happy faces .

The next morning the duo was missing again, the festival ended after two weeks , the duo was still missing. A month went by without them. Rudra was going crazy with anxiety; he got off at Sonarpur Junction from where the woman boarded the train hoping to see her shadow somehow. The junction branch has eleven platforms of its own; the woman could possibly reach the junction from any of those eleven platforms. Rudra felt like tearing his hair off. The world looker bigger and more confusing to Rudra all of a sudden.

“Where will I find them?” indulged Rudra to his friend almost at the verge of tears.

“Why would you...Rudra wake up kid they are not your family…they probably went back home, they are not from this city anyway” reasoned Vijay patting his friend’s weak shoulder.

“Maybe this is for the best, about time you got your act straight and get rid of your infatuation” flatly replied Manu.

Hot tears rolled down Rudra’s cheeks, he could not comprehend a life without their absence anymore. They really felt like family to him, before meeting them he never realized what he was missing. ‘Will I never meet them again?’ thought Rudra as a shiver went down his spine.

Two more weeks went by in the blink of an eye, the gifts he bought was still securely kept with him at all times. He saw a glimpse of a familiar stock of household items being sold by a hawker, his heart leapt with joy hoping to see the familiar green eyes. He was dissapointed.From the happy friendly vendor next door Rudra was reduced to a emotionless machine. He took the advice of his friends and went on with his work as ‘Life must go on’.

One evening he was sitting near the train door swinging his legs outside enjoying the wind with his eyes closed he heard a group of middle aged vendors gossiping near him.

“Did you hear the news…few days ago a young mother was crossing the tracks with her child near Budge Budge are got under the train” said one of them with excitement.

“Oh my God did they survive” asked a horrified woman.

“Can anyone survive…poor souls” replied the first woman.

" Was that a deliberate suicide?" speculated another.

Rudra’s eyes opened with a start as soon as his brain registered the words, his hearbeat went insane. He felt dizzy and squeamish; he couldn’t bring himself to enquire the women futhur about the horrific piece of news. He felt his entire world crashing down as he began hyperventilating, his vision blurred.

Some of the fellow vendors noticed his distress and escorted him and his basket off the train and gave him some water at the platform. Those daily vendors who recognized Rudra informed his friends Vijay and Manu who came for their friend’s aid.

The friend took Rudra to his scanty rental abode near Baruipur station; he was running a high fever and mumbling every now and then.

“They died, the woman and …died…” hoarsely spoke out Rudra with his eyes closed and resumed crying like a baby.

“…said who...so what, will you die too?” asked an annoyed Manu.

“No no wait…are you talking about the accident two days ago near…oh no I had a feeling you would react thing way…” said Vijay.

Both Manu and Rudra looked at him. “You heard anything…” asked Manu as Rudra weakly stared at him silently with tears in his eyes.

“Yes I know…a young mother died with her daughter…unfortunate fate…but they were not hawkers...” assured Manu.

Rudra felt the tightness of his chest ease away, he gave a sigh of relief and plopped back down his bed and cried in relief.

“Can you see now friend? You are chasing a nightmare…you are destroying you life over complete strangers..Please stop with your obsession” said a worried Vijay desperate to help his friend through his crisis.

‘Was that simply my obsession?…not love…should I forget them like a beautiful dream?’ thought Rudra as he drifted into deep sleep. He groaned all night in his dreams twisting and turning in distress. In his dreams he was back at his childhood home chopping fish while his mother fried anchovies at their fish stall. He saw his mother smiling at him and picking flowers to make garlands near the temple, he saw his mother cooking and singing. Then the beautiful memory went dark with the loud crashing noise behind them followed by his mother’s screams. Rudra hoarsely called out to his mother, sat upright on his bed and sobbed like a baby. Covering his wet tear stricken face with his palms he sniffled “I miss you Ma…I miss you so much” he confessed in the darkness under the moon. It has been nine long years since he heard himself call out the word “Ma”.

He finally understood why he was confusingly attracted to the young woman and her son; they subconsciously reminded him of himself and his young mother. Rudra laid back on his bed wide awake waiting for daybreak promising to let go of his trauma and live a better and healthy life, at least for the sake of the smiling mother in his memory.

In total five months went by in a flash since he last saw the mother-son duo, they vanished as if they never existed in the first place. Rudra went back to his usual self; he missed them from time to time but never showed it. His friends were totally convinced that Rudra has recovered from the ‘lover fever’; little did they know the fever had soaked into Rudra’s bloodstream long time ago.

Rudra was getting tired of the city life, the void of the mother and son was eating him alive. He decided to leave the city and go back to his village and start a new life at his Uncle’s small farm. The burden of the gifts he bought with love was getting heavier by the day, so many time he thought of throwing them away but couldn’t.

On the last day of work he was sitting idle on the train seat ignoring all potential customers waiting around his basket. Rudra looked at his heavy basket and decided to get off the Kalyanpur station and hand them over to his friend Vijay. He dragged the vegetables near the door and waited when his wndering eyes fell on a barefoot woman in rags begging with her newborn wrapped around with her thin torn ‘saree’. The winter was coming close, Rudra's eyes stung looking at the miserable sight.

He quickly took out the new clothes and shoes and generously offered them to the begging new mother. The woman blinked twice hesitating to accept the gift but Rudra smile and pushed the cloths in her hands. Tears rolled down the mother’s dusty cheek forming tracks. She bowed down her head weeping softly and thanked him silently. He further packed all the carrots, cucumber and tomatoes in a bag and handed them to the mother and jumped off the train with his remaining vegetables.

He felt relieved and less burdenedletting go of the gift, glad for the way the gifts could be used for a good cause. He patted his empty pouch and realized he still had the nose ring and ‘Kajal’ with him. ‘It’s still heavy’ thought Rudra.

Rudra was supposed to get off at Kalyanpur station but while interacting with the begging mother he missed the platform and got off one station forward at Dhamua. He was in a better mood so he found himself a good spot near the crowded platform and decided to sell the rest of his stock. By midnight, all the vegetables were sold out and yawning loudly Rudra stretched out his legs and stood up with a jump ‘This is it...’ thought Rudra.

He was walking away towards the bench when a small knee high body crashed into him from behind and giggled looking up at him. “I must be dreaming" breathed out Rudra.

The familiar smiling toddler was holding an bright juicy apple in front of him, he looked taller than the last time he saw him five months ago. Rudra immediately squatted down and hugged the toddler with tears in his eyes, he was about to ask him about her mother when he heard a movement behind him. Looking back he saw the face he had been craving to see for so long, for the first time he witnessed her smilingbehind her 'Pallu' but the charming green eyes that captivate Rudra’s soul was hidden in the shadows.

The woman smiled and stretched out her arm, for a moment Rudra thought she was beckoning him, but she was calling her son instead.

“Ganesh!”, hearing his name the toddler rushed to his mother’s side and waved Rudra goodbye. The woman gave Rudra a nod and turned away dragging their empty basket behind. Rudra panicked, the woman was walking away from his reach with her son crushing his heart with every step.

‘What can I do? How do I stop her…how?’ asked Rudra scratching his neck. Then he remembered the nose ring and frantically began searching for the tiny little thing inside his pouch, his pocket, the basket even on the ground he previously sat on. His face turned pale when he couldn’t find it and regained colour when finally when he did. In his excitement he dropped it on the ground dramatically like a fool. Feeling pathetic he looked far at the mother slowly waddling away from him in the dark. He desperately patted the ground around him for dear life almost at the verge of tears calling for heavens above and immediately scooped up the packet along with a stray bunch of rotton spinash as soon as his fingers trecognised the texture and ran after them.

He caught up to them in no time and stood in front of them guarding their way like a scarecrow. “Wait…I…umm here…I also have" he held the nose ring in front of the woman and began rummaging in his pouch for the ‘Kajal’ when the train passed by the platform blowing away the ‘pallu’ from the woman’s face. Rudra saw the woman’s full face for the first time under the flickering lights and a shiver went down his spine.

Throwing his hesitance down the tracks he softly grabbed the woman’s shoulder and took her under a lamp near a shop on the platform to have a better looked at her, surprisingly she didn’t resist. Rudra’s usual smile was gone, he was frowning viciously at the woman whos right eye was badly bruised and swollen and her lips split with dried blood.

'No wonder she always prefered hiding her pain under the cover' thought Rudra angrily. Then his eye fell on the huge stomach sticking out in front of her and the numerous bruised all over her thin arms.

Licking his parched lips Rudra took a deep breath then picked up her son and escorted the mother to the nearest bench. She sat down sniffling as tears rolled down one after the other, her sleepy son went and lay beside his mother.

For a few moments no one said anything until Rudra sat in front of her on the ground starring at her, as if waiting for her explanation and excuses. He took a deep breath and closed his eye trying to calm the budding anger and pain inside his heart. In broken Hindi he began to explain hoping the mother would understand.

“My father was a fisherman and a dirty drunkard; he would beat my mother everyday like a routine. She was young and weak she never resisted, she silently accepted his ruthlessness as if it was her duty to get beat up without reason.

She was pregnant, not as far along as you are but...the beating got worse. One night he would brag about being a father, the next he would curse my mother calling names. The last day I saw him beat my mother was the night her lifeless body lay in front of me bleeding.

That same night I chopped off that man’s head with a carving knife and earned myself a five years prison time. I was ruthlessly dragged from the warmth of my mother’s embrace and shoved inside the cold prison “

He took a break and looked at the women who was looking at him in shock. Rudra was hoping to see horror in her eyes but he saw no such thing so he went.

“So you see, people like them don’t change…so people like you women should change instead…then people like me and you son have a better chance in the world if their mother is by their side…boys like us are scared of monsters until we become one ourself to fight that monster…you have the power to choose your son’s future before he chooses one himself...i don't want him ending up like me”

Rubbing the sleeping toddler’s cheeks softly Rudra stood up as the horn of the last train blared through the silent night and once again held out the ‘Kajal’ and the nose ring in front of the Mother and said “Come with me…I am leaving the city forever…I’ll take you far away and hide you from that monster, try my best to give our children a loving and a peaceful household”

The train stopped behind him lighting up the shadowy platform. Rudra’s heart quivered, he was confident that the woman would accept his offer after listening to his story but longer she waited the faster his courage dropped. He was terribly conscious of his criminal past, ‘Maybe she sees me as a monster worse than her husband’ thought Rudra as he slowly put down his trembling hands.

The mother grabbed his hand midway and smiled looking straight into his eyes. She took the content of his palms, then stood up supporting her swollen belly and spoke in loud clear voice “Parvati…my name is Parvati”

It took a moment for Rudra to react then he looked at the sleeping child and then at Parvati and gave a huge goofy smile. The railway guard gave the final whistle signally the departure of the last train of the night. The guard was looking at the two figures from far; he especially gave a louder whistle just to attract their attention.

“I guess they are not getting on” he spoke out loud to himself. The train left, the guard placed his whistle back inside his pocket and strolled towards his living quarter. Just out of sheer curiosity he looked back near the bench where he saw the two figures earlier.

The platform was empty except for the guard and two of his junior staff.

“Hmm they got on the train after all” he said casually and left.

THE END