The Jugni Read online

  The Jugni

  Gagan Saini

  www.whitefalconpublishing.com

  All rights reserved

  First Edition, 2018

  © Gagan Saini, 2018

  Cover design © White Falcon Publishing, 2018

  Cover image © Shutterstock.com

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by means of electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author.

  Requests for permission should be addressed to

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  Chapter 1

  New Delhi, 9:47 AM - People are waiting for buses, sweat is drooling down from everybody’s head, the winter was short this year. A middle-aged man is looking at his wristwatch again and again perhaps he is late for his work. Some boys and girls of similar age group are talking to each other and laughing. A lady in a blue saree is wearing thick-lens spectacles and reading a newspaper while relaxing as she is probably the oldest traveler and knows the entire schedule of the bus regime.

  It is not only the bus stop but everywhere around that spot, there are lots of people. There are so many people, so many vehicles on the roads, giving a glimpse of the population explosion in India. Everyone is looking very busy. The roads are packed with vehicles and the sound of horns never stops. Everybody is in a hurry to reach some destination or the other.

  Soon a bus arrived and was looking almost empty. It did not slow down as it approached the bus stop. Perhaps it was out of service. But a few people could be seen inside. As the bus did not slow down so the people at the bus stop hardly gave any attention to it. They started looking in the direction of the approaching traffic for the next bus.

  A beautiful girl, standing at the bus stop, noticed something on the bus. She quickly took the earphones out of her ears which stopped her from listening to Gurdas Mann songs and something adamant took her attention. She saw a few men on the bus and a girl. The girl on the bus looked in some sort of distress and seemed to be looking for help. And this was a sign of some emergency.

  She started running towards the bus and shouted for help. With those coherent steps and pace, she could easily beat any athlete in the race. Her big black eyes looked everywhere to avoid a collision with anyone. She tried to draw many people’s attention but still, nobody bothered about and continued their busy slog.

  As this late-twenty aged girl tied her dupatta at her waist, a Punjabi outfit accompanied with colorful Punjabi shoes which could have been a hindrance, it didn’t even slow her down. There were lots of obstacles on the way, but she had an eye like a falcon. She did not miss the sight of the bus even for a fraction of a second. Running that fast in a crowded place won’t come without bumping into a few people, no matter how careful you are. She once tipped over from someone’s bag on the ground.

  The way she got up and started running again in a moment, only a professional athlete could have done that. At one corner, the bus had to slow down because of traffic. This was the opportunity she did not miss; she jumped with all her power and got hold of a rod in the window of the bus.

  The bus gained speed again. It headed away from the crowded area. She was hanging by the window and was trying to get into the bus. The door of the bus was locked from the inside. With one hand she held the window and she managed to slip another hand inside and unlocked the door. As soon as it opened, she swung herself into the bus. The door closed by itself behind her.

  She drew the attention of all five men as well as the girl inside the bus. The men were almost of similar age group, in their thirties. Two of them were quite big with strong musculature. The other three were average built with big bellies and ugly faces. “Sorry guys, I am getting late for work that’s why I had to jump in, you can carry on what you are doing,” she said with a fake smile and sat on one of the seats at the back and started to look out the window. Her face did not show any expression. The men on the bus laughed. The yellow shirt of the girl on the bus was torn from the left shoulder. Half of her dark dull hair was already out from the ponytail.

  Her eyes were full of fear and tears. She saw a ray of hope and ran to this girl sitting calmly in the back seat.

  “Save me, sister, from these men.” The first thing she noticed on her face was a little blood on the corner of the lower lip, as she turned her head from looking outside towards her.

  The girl slapped this girl as soon as she asked her to save. She was so surprised. This was the last thing she had expected.

  “Why did you do this?” She asked while sobbing. Her eyes were full of fear and doubt.

  “Why do you need my help?”

  She held her hands and said, “Look, you got hands and feet use them! You don’t need anyone’s help.”

  “But they are huge and so many in number,” she replied in a very feeble voice.

  Before any girl could say more, one of the ugly men approached them and said, “Before it was a problem for us, we were five and there was only one girl. Now you have come, the problem is solved to some extent.”

  All the men including him looked at both the girls and gave an evil laughter. Their eyes were raping both girls already. The bus was in some outskirts already which meant hoping for any help was just pointless.

  She seemed immune to this intense situation, there was not a hint of any fear on her face.

  “Can’t you see? I am talking to this little girl? Wait for your turn.” And she gave a grin.

  Frustrated by the answer he shouted, “You bitch! It seems your turn is first.”

  He turned his head to the other men and said, “She is mine, you guys can go for that girl. Anybody who wants to taste this girl will have to wait. She talks a lot; I am sure after some time she never will.”

  He approached her and held her from the ponytail, and tried to drag her towards the empty seat. She was standing now with her hair being held by that cruel man from the back. Other men stood at some distance and they were ready to enjoy the show. The driver enjoyed this from the mirror and at the same time, he had to keep the bus running so that nobody notices what was going on inside.

  The girl was in front and the man was behind her holding hair strongly. As soon as he pushed her a little to move forward, she hit him with her elbow. Although he had a lot of belly fat, it did not act as a shock absorber. The impact was strong which made him lose the grip on her hair. She turned towards him and punched him on the nose with all the power she had. The other men were shocked, as this could not have been expected from a girl.

  Before he could recover, she moved to his back and held him from the hair on the back of his head and banged him into the window. As soon as he tried to gain his balance, she held his face from behind with one hand near the chin and the other hand on the back of the head. Her hands moved fast and in a jerky motion in the opposite directions, his neck got twisted. He dropped dead instantaneously.

  Everybody gasped at the girl with the dead, motionless man on the floor. It happened so fast and unexpectedly that the other men did not have any chance to intervene.

  She moved to the girl and said, “This is what I was talking about, use your hands!” The other girl was still sitting on the seat restlessly blank.

  She walked towards the other men and warned them, “I will forgive you if you let this girl go and promise you guys will not do such thing again.” Then she asked the driver a bit loudly to pull over and drop them.

  The driver wasn’t going to follow her and gave a bad smile instead. One of the four men said, “We will take what we want, one way or other.” All of them approached her aggressively. As the girl was standing in the
middle of the bus, she started running towards the rear end. It appeared to the other girl, for a moment, that this strong girl had got scared and was looking for a hideaway. But this was not the case.

  She gained momentum by running and then jumped and turned back by swinging with help of a pole. She was in the air when she kicked the two men in the front. They fell and the other two came forward. She punched the third one and blocked an attack from the fourth. She twisted and held his arm strappingly, simultaneously placing her left foot strongly on the floor and with the other, she kicked the three of them one after other.

  She blocked the attacks, kicked and punched them in a much synchronized manner. Every punch and kick she delivered, had a lot of energy and force. The clash lasted for a few minutes. Though she got a few blows, she still managed to knock down the four of them.

  Then she moved to the driver and said, “Do you want to be beaten or to turn the bus around.” By this time the driver was so afraid, he had to do what she said. She told him which way to go. The bus reached a police station soon. She asked him to stop the bus right in front of the police station. By hearing the breaks, a few policemen gathered. That brave girl got out of the bus with the other girl.

  All the policemen saluted this girl. She asked the constables to put all the men in the lockup. The other girl was very puzzled about the whole situation. She moved to a constable and asked: “Who is she?” “Simar Kaur IPS (Indian Police Services) officer,” the constable with a big mustache replied. Before she could ask anything more, her rescuer turned to her and said, “Get in the jeep; I will take you to the hospital.”

  Two policemen proceeded to the bus to follow the order. The criminals, coming out of the bus one by one, looked at Simar with fear.

  The girl was in a deep shock. She tried her best to understand what had just happened as she sat in the jeep. Simar and the girl started towards the hospital. On the way, Simar asked, “What’s your name?”

  “Rosy,” she replied.

  “Are you a police officer?” Rosy asked curiously.

  Simar gave a little smile and replied, “Yes,” and passed a bottle of water to her.

  “No wonder you are so strong.” Rosy drank half the bottle of water in one go.

  “It is the other way around. I am not strong because I am a police officer, I am strong that is why I am a police officer. Moreover, you don’t need to be a police officer to be strong.” Simar could see on Rosy’s face that she did not understand. “Let me Explain!”

  Rosy nodded.

  Simar narrated…

  “It’s all still so fresh. Based out of England, I came back to India and started the preparation for Civil services examination. This is one of the toughest tests in India. This test is the tool to select administrative, police and foreign services officers. I always wanted to do this. Moreover, my mother is a teacher, she helped me build a strong educational base. She was always there to help me in studies.”

  “During the examination preparation days, I used to study very hard. My only routine was to study, eat, exercise and sleep. My brother Jaspal was very helpful as well.”

  “My father is no longer alive. He died in the nineteen-eighty-four Sikh Genocide in Delhi. It was just a matter of chance that he was in Delhi during all that chaos. He was there to attend a wedding. My mother could not go because she was about to give birth to me in weeks’ time and Jaspal veerji had chickenpox. He thought he would attend the main ceremony and catch the next train back home. But he never came back.”

  “My mother brought up both kids very well. As she was well-educated, she got a job as a teacher, which was a great help. Her parents and in-laws were very supportive. Jaspal veerji was not good at studies but he was a big man and was very good in bodybuilding and boxing. He was a state champion in boxing. This was how he got a job in police through sports quota.”

  Simar continued her story as she drove the jeep and Rosy kept listening with interest.

  “I don’t know why but I was very different right from the childhood. I was very good at sports and exceptional in studies. I always used to pass the exams with good grades. I don’t forget things, God knows why but this memory helped me in studies a lot. I got record-breaking marks in the college. Because of that, I got a scholarship for post-graduation in England.”

  “After post-graduation, I came back to India and started preparing for the civil services examination. My preparation was very good. The test went well, and I was quite confident about it. As expected, I cleared both pre-test and mains and was called for an interview. After the written exams, they conduct an interview which is considered to be very hard.”

  “I reached on time for an interview. Everybody waiting for their turn looked tensed. I was not worried and just kept listening to Gurdas Mann songs on my iPod. Have you heard Gurdas Mann, Rosy?” Simar paused to ask.

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “He is a legend; listen to his songs when you get time. I am a big fan of his.”

  “Sure I will. So, what happened in the interview?”

  Simar continued, “Oh yes, it was my turn for the interview. I entered the interview room and greeted the members of the panel and the interview started. This is how it went…”

  One of the interviewers asked, “Miss Simar, you look quite confident while most of them don’t.”

  And I replied, “Sir because I am not worried about my selection; I know I will get selected.”

  “If not?” he asked.

  “I will try again,” I replied.

  Now a female interviewer asked, “How come you are so confident?”

  I answered politely, “I have worked hard and got good marks and rank; I have cleared the physical test already, I have reasons for being confident.”

  Another member of the panel asked, “With such good marks you can go to any stream you want, what is your choice?”

  “I want to opt for police services,” I replied.

  “Why?” The Same interviewer asked.

  “I want the society to be a safe place to live; I want to root out the evil.”

  The Same person smiled and said, “That is not possible. Evil is so deeply rooted in our society that it cannot be taken out.”

  I smiled back and said, “You know, sir, why it’s not getting out? Because of the people who do not believe it’s possible. I believe I can do it and I will try my best to do it.”

  “Only belief won’t help Miss Simar, you will need to go out there and face the reality and deal with real problems.”

  “I know, that is why I want to go out and face them and deal with them.”

  “It is difficult for females; you will face real criminals every day. I don’t think criminals go soft on females; the place for a female is the kitchen or air-conditioned offices. Fighting crime is not your cup of tea.”

  “With all due respect sir, and no offense to any woman’s personal or professional choice, you may have seen females who are confined to the kitchen only, but I am not one of them, I know how to protect myself.”

  “Can you?” One member of the panel said with a very weird look.

  I smiled and said, “Yes, but if you still don’t believe me, I challenge you all to attack me. I am sure you will end up in the hospital.”

  “The panel was surprised; they hadn’t encountered such a situation before. Nobody was going to attack me, but my statement created a little awkward situation in the room, especially for the one who asked that question. The interview went on for a while and by the end, they said I will be contacted to inform if I am selected or not.”

  With a smile, Simar continued, “After a few weeks I received a letter. This was my appointment letter as an IPS officer. After training, I would start as a Police Officer. But there was only one problem; I was posted in New Delhi, I had to move here. Mother was a bit concerned because when my father had left for D
elhi, he never came back. I assured mom that if I can survive in England, I will survive in Delhi as well. After a little convincing, mother agreed for me to go.”

  “That’s nice,” Rosy said as she wiped the blood from her chin. Simar noticed and gave her a handkerchief.

  “Was it easy when you started here?” Rosy asked.

  “Not really. After the training, I started my job in New Delhi. It was like a revolution in the police department. I wanted to change the old ways, so I implemented no bribing policies. Any officer found involved in bribing was dealt with strictness. Physical fitness was made compulsory. It was compulsory before too, but after the selection procedure, nobody bothered about it. All policemen were supposed to attend fitness and martial arts camp once a week.”

  “Wow! That’s so much. Were you able to do all this?” Rosy asked.

  “Well, it was indeed hard to implement new things as many people opposed and others complained to the seniors. But the overall output was coming up quite good, so the seniors didn’t restrict me much. All these improvements did not mean that there was an extra stress on policemen. They were all treated with respect and dignity within their department no matter what the rank one held.”

  “But, why don’t you wear a uniform like other police officers?”

  “Having the uniform on alerts people. I observe people by becoming one of them. If they do something which they are not supposed to, well, you saw an example of what happens.”

  They reached the hospital. Simar found a lady doctor and explained everything. The doctor took Rosy for a checkup. Doctor asked one nurse to do a dressing on Simar’s elbow and neck.

  After some time, the doctor came out and said to Simar, “The girl is alright, you saved her on time. She just needs some dressings after which you both can go.” Simar thanked the doctor.

  On their way out Simar asked Rosy, “Where do you live?”

  “It is ok; I will go, you have done a lot already.”

  “No, if you go home like this your parents will get scared and will ask you a lot of questions.”