Your Dreams Are Mine Now (8 page)

It was Saloni, in her sweaty T-shirt and shorts, with a basketball in her hand.

To annoy Rupali, the way she always did, Saloni ran to embrace her roomie.

‘Eww! Get off me! You are sweating like a pig!’ Rupali shouted while shoving her away.

‘Tabhi to kar rahi hun, meri jaan,’
(That’s the reason I am doing this, darling) Saloni chuckled. Then she spotted Raheema and stopped unexpectedly.

She looked at Raheema and then back at Rupali.

‘I had called her for some work,’ Rupali mentioned even before Saloni had time to ask her.

‘All right, didi, you leave now, I will see you tomorrow in college. Keep my mobile number with you. We’ll talk later,’ Rupali said as she wrote her number on a piece of paper for Raheema.

Saloni watched her go and then jumped at Rupali again. ‘You have to listen to what I have to tell you!’

Rupali smiled. Saloni would never let a moment go without bringing some spice into their lives.

Meanwhile, Raheema stepped out of the hostel block. It had gotten dark by then. On a usual day, by this time, she was already home.

All hell broke loose when she arrived at the door of her house. Right in front of her, Mahajan was sitting on a chair and stroking the head of Raheema’s daughter, who was busy completing her assignment.

Eight

A week later, the elections were over. The winning party from the previous year had come into power for the second consecutive time. Meanwhile, DU had seen various clashes where the police had to intervene to maintain law and order. On one occasion, it had to take a few students into custody. But that was only for a few hours on the eve of the election as a precautionary measure.

While the elections had gotten over and the peace in the university had been restored, another storm was preparing itself to engulf the college. The signs of it were first felt in Prof. Mahajan’s cabin, a day before classes were to resume. That’s where the bugle of the battle was blown for the very first time.

‘May I come in?’ Rupali asked from the entrance of Prof. Mahajan’s cabin.

Prof. Mahajan moved his eyes from his laptop to the door and replied, ‘I am a bit busy. Come in an hour or so.’

‘Sorry sir, but this can’t wait,’ Rupali responded urgently.

‘What’s your name, girl?’ the professor asked. He certainly didn’t like the manner in which Rupali had spoken.

‘Rupali Sinha, Sir.’

‘Listen, Rupali, I remember you. You had reached out to me for the doubt clarification last week. I was away for a few days. We can discuss that in an hour. Come back later,’ he said and raised his hand signalling her to leave.

When Mahajan resumed looking at his laptop, Rupali spoke, ‘This is not about my project.’

‘Then?’ Prof. Mahajan asked in irritation, for Rupali was not allowing him to concentrate on his work.

‘Sir, we need to talk,’ Rupali said and stepped inside Mahajan’s cabin without waiting for his due permission.

Her behaviour annoyed Mahajan. No one had ever dared to speak to him like that. He didn’t approve of Rupali’s audacity. He shouted, ‘How dare you walk into my room without my permission?’

For a second Rupali backed off, but the next minute some inner strength told her to move on. In her mind, Rupali knew what she wanted to do. She had already prepared herself.

She walked towards the professor’s desk.

‘This is about Raheema. I know what you do to her, Sir,’ she said in a calm yet confident voice staring at the teacher’s face. Her heart was beating wildly inside her chest.

Prof. Mahajan had heard the name crystal clear without any iota of doubt. His face was something to be looked at. His mouth fell open and in that moment he seemed to be at a loss for words. Being confronted so directly and unexpectedly, Mahajan felt as if he had lost the ground beneath his feet. Clearly, he wasn’t prepared for this, not even in his wildest dreams.

All this while, a determined Rupali kept looking straight into his eyes. She could see the acceptance of wrongdoing in them. Rupali crossed her arms against her chest and waited for Prof. Mahajan to react.

When he got over the surprise, he attempted to ignore the topic. ‘Who and what the hell are you talking about? Listen, I am busy. Please come later. Okay?’

In response, Rupali smiled and pointed out, ‘Sir, seconds back you were shouting at me. What’s made you soft now? Is it the fear that I know what you do to Raheema?’

She hadn’t arrived at Mahajan’s cabin to leave. She was there to talk. She did not shy away from telling him what she knew. After establishing the facts, she told the professor that they both knew that he was wrong. With a dash of daring she asked him to stop what he had been doing to Raheema, failing which she would have no option but to report the matter to the higher authorities.

‘There is no way I will let you exploit poor Raheema any further,’ she said firmly, while the professor looked at her, his face red with anger.

Rupali’s determination to confront Prof. Mahajan was based on Raheema’s agreeing to protest against him. A day before, she had called Rupali’s phone and told her that after she had left from Rupali’s place that day, she went back home to find the professor there with her daughter. Before she could even think of saying anything, Mahajan had said, ‘Your daughter is a good student and willing to learn. While I was waiting for you, I helped her solve a maths problem. If she wants a tutor, I can help her on the weekends. I won’t charge a penny to teach her. You can send her to my place.’ And he looked back at Raheema, smiling a sleazy smile.

Raheema’s blood had boiled seeing Mahajan in her house, running his filthy hand on her daughter’s head right in front of her. His lust had now brought him to Raheema’s daughter.

‘That’s it. I can’t take it any more! I will do anything to get myself out of this dirty man’s clutches.’

Rupali was happy to learn that Raheema had made up her mind to fight. She was equally furious to know the reason for the change in Raheema’s stand. Her daughter was the sole reason why she sacrificed her own modesty. As a mother, she would never want her daughter to become her replacement for an animal like Mahajan. And if, God forbid, that happened, then all her sacrifices would be meaningless. She was therefore not left with any other choice.

Prof. Mahajan got up from his chair. He hissed angrily, ‘You little upstart! You don’t know who I am and what my powers are. Now I will show you what’s the result of behaving with your faculty in such a manner. You will have to pay for all these fake allegations you have made against me.’

Rupali stood still and looked at the entrance of the cabin. ‘Didi!’ she called out.

Raheema appeared at Prof. Mahajan’s doorstep. The professor was again shocked to realize that all this while Raheema had been standing outside, listening to what was being talked inside.

‘None of my allegations is false. The victim is here. She’ll verify my statement,’ Rupali said.

‘I see . . .’ Prof. Mahajan said, looking at both of them. ‘So if you bring anyone in my room and convince her to say all that you want her to say, does that prove anything?’

Then he moved towards Raheema and sneered, ‘You! Look at you! I helped you get a job here and you are conspiring against me! How dare you!’

‘Sir, I want you to say sorry to Raheema and promise us that you will not come in her way ever again,’ said Rupali who was now right behind Prof. Mahajan, completely ignoring what he had just said about Raheema.

That further agitated the professor. He turned back and shouted, ‘Shut up!’

Pin-drop silence filled the tense space of Mahajan’s cabin for a few seconds. Neither of the two ladies spoke.

Raheema was very worried. She wanted all of it to be over soon. She had anticipated that things would unfold like this. But when she was at that very spot, she felt uneasy. Till that day, she had faced Mahajan in a closed chamber, in a privacy that had always made her suffocate. But that day, she was in the open, in the presence of a third person who was willing to fight on her behalf. That day, she raised her voice against the man she had undeniably obeyed for so long. However, that did not take away the latent fear in her heart; the fear of facing Mahajan. And that day, she was not just facing him, but also going against him.

‘Who is behind this? Who has sent you two?’ Prof. Mahajan turned back and probed, trying to give it a look of conspiracy orchestrated by his political enemies.

Rupali clarified, ‘No one is behind us. All we want is that you stop what you have been doing. Else . . .?’

Mahajan cut her short, ‘Else! Else what?’

It didn’t take Rupali too long to clarify her position. ‘Else you will leave us no choice but to report this to the principal and other higher authorities in the university.’

In a state of rage, Prof. Mahajan turned around to stare at Raheema. He was like an injured animal wanting to make his mark. Raheema shrank under his angry gaze. The poor lady didn’t have the guts to look at him. She was too scared to even be in that room.

When Mahajan felt that he had overpowered Raheema with his gaze and didn’t know what to do next, he turned and walked up to Rupali.

He stood in front of her and looked into her eyes, without saying anything. Rupali matched his stare in response. She saw sheer hatred for her in his eyes.
How could a teacher be so amoral? Weren’t they supposed to be even higher than God? Then what made them fall so low?
She thought about what her father had said and that gave her strength, and she stared right back at him with the same hatred he had shown her.

A few seconds passed. But Prof. Mahajan didn’t shift his posture and kept staring at Rupali with his furious eyes. His silence was loud.

There were certain moments when Mahajan’s proximity and the wrath he showed without uttering anything made Rupali feel uncomfortable. She could hear the raucous breathing of a furious professor who was brashly staring at her. Unable to absorb his anger, Mahajan could have done anything to her. Rupali knew this, but she didn’t want to step back either. The heat of that moment was turning Rupali cold. But every time she felt scared, she urged herself to be strong. She kept reminding herself that she shouldn’t back off for she was fighting for the right and that it was the professor who should be scared for he was the culprit.

Rupali wanted Prof. Mahajan to speak. She wanted to engage him in a conversation. But with every passing second, Prof. Mahajan was transforming into a beast. His face was turning wild, his eyes red, and his breath louder. It was horrible for Rupali to look at him.

Fearing something unpleasant would happen, Raheema started pleading. But her words failed to register in anyone’s mind. At one point, Rupali could feel the sweat on her palms. But she didn’t give up. She continued to overcome her fear and managed to hold her eye contact with Prof. Mahajan.

Mahajan began shuffling his gaze between Rupali’s eyes. First left, then right, and then left again; in cycles, and then faster cycles. It appeared as if he was going to explode in anger. And then, all of a sudden, the wild dance of his eyes came to rest.

‘Else what? Say that again?’ he hissed.

Rupali repeated, ‘Else, I will have to bring this matter to the principal’s notice.’

Mahajan took a moment to digest what he had heard yet again. The next moment he flung his hand in the air. In a split second his palm landed on Rupali’s cheek.

The slap resounded in Rupali’s eardrums. That was the only thing she could hear in that instant. The impact was so strong that Rupali fell.

Raheema screamed and rushed to help Rupali. When she held Rupali’s shoulders, apart from feeling mortified, nothing else registered in her mind. She blamed herself for what had just occurred. In the shock of that moment, she got down on her knees in front of Prof. Mahajan and begged him to pardon her. She cried in front of the professor, pleading that Rupali was just a kid.

Mahajan didn’t bother to respond or even look at Raheema. He knew whom he had to break down. He knew who his real enemy was.

When Rupali got back on her feet, she pulled Raheema away from Mahajan, stopping her from pleading in front of him.

She looked back at the professor.

‘Go tell the principal now!’ Mahajan retorted, picked up his belongings and left.

Nine

‘Haven’t you understood it yet? The principal won’t care enough for it. That dog has slapped you on one cheek, the principal will do so on the other. What will you do then?’

That was Saloni and they were discussing the matter in their room. She was annoyed when she came to know of Rupali’s call for action and what had happened in Mahajan’s cabin that afternoon. Initially, Rupali had known that Saloni wouldn’t understand what she wanted to do, so she didn’t want to tell her anything. But she could not lie to her for so long either, especially when Saloni had noticed that one side of her face and her ear were red.

‘Are you even listening to what I am saying? You are not going to do anything. Alright?’ said Saloni. ‘Look at me. You have come here all the way from Patna to study. Don’t get into all this. It’s not good for you in any way.’

When she didn’t hear even a word from her roommate she confronted her. ‘Am I making any sense to you?’ She raised Rupali’s chin and wanted her to respond.

Rupali calmly nodded, only to avoid a debate with her roommate. Saloni too knew that Rupali wasn’t buying her argument. She was already extremely disappointed to know what had happened to Rupali. Her roommate’s cold reaction to her advice was making her more frustrated.

Saloni’s anger was justified. She cared for Rupali and was worried about her; her future; her studies. In her mind, Rupali was the best human she had ever come across and she didn’t want to see her ruining her life for someone else. Every time she looked at her red face, in her mind she imagined Prof. Mahajan slapping her best friend. And this was tearing her apart.

A silent Rupali sat on her chair, reflecting upon the course of events in Mahajan’s cabin. She was wondering what she was going to do next. One thing was sure in her mind—there was no going back. She was also concerned that Raheema must not retract from her position and must continue to fight this battle that the two of them had begun.