The Jugni Page 4

  The word headquarters took sarcasm away from the clerk and now he could answer the question more seriously.

  “Madam, he is gone to deal with a complaint.”

  “The whole staff seems to be present here, does he deal with complaints all by himself? He did not send any inspector for that?”

  “He is different, madam. Some complaints he deals by himself. For example, this once, it was a complaint of eve-teasing from a Girls’ College nearby. He has given the police station number to the Principal of the college and asked her to give it to all girls. Any girl can call here anytime to report.”

  “He went alone?”

  “He always goes alone. He is a strong man; he does not need any backup. People fear him. We call him daredevil.”

  “Hmm, I see. I’ll wait.” She took the newspaper from the table, sat on a chair and started flicking the pages.

  A few moments later, there was some movement among policemen in the station. She noticed everyone was looking towards the entrance of the building. It was Zahid Khan who was walking in with two boys. He held both from their necks. As he entered, he pushed them both towards the constables.

  “Put these scumbags in a lockup.”

  Simar could see him only from the side until he turned and walked towards where she was sitting. He was little more than 6 feet in height. Simar could see why the clerk mentioned him as a strong man. His big biceps and shoulders made his half-sleeved uniform very tight. Big pectorals stretched the uniform to its maximum. Sharp facial features, big brown eyes and a tough look, all the checkboxes of being strong ticked.

  As he approached towards his office, the clerk walked to him and said, “This madam wants to see you.”

  He walked to Simar. She stood up.

  “Hi, my name is Simar Kaur and Sinha sir….”

  “So, you are Simar Kaur. Sinha sir was praising you a lot. He has proposed your name for gallantry awards for how you saved that girl on the bus. Did you really kick the ass of those four men at the same time?”

  “Well, I am not here for the praise or any recognition. If you spoke to Sinha Sir, he might have told you the purpose of my visit.”

  “Yes, he did. He said you want to change things around. What do you want to change?”

  “First of all, tell your men to treat girls with respect. If any girl enters the police station, they should not look at her like they haven’t seen a girl before.”

  Zahid looked at the rest of his staff which was indeed looking at Simar like that. As soon as they realized Zahid was looking at them, they started doing their work.

  “Let’s go to my office and discuss.” He showed her the way to the office and did not comment on the previous conversation.

  “Please send two cups of tea in my office.” He asked the same clerk as they walked to his office.

  Simar started her work straight away. The first day was only about Zahid giving her orientation about their way of doing work. She stayed most of the day with Zahid and studied his ways. The day finished, and she went home. Zahid could not come out of the hypnotism of Simar’s radiant aura even at home. His eyes had captured the beauty of Simar in detail. Every time he closed his eyes he could see her.

  “What is this Zahid? She is your junior. Keep this professional. You are a tough man. You have never let these types of feelings come to your mind before, so why now?” he told himself. After questioning and telling the same thing to himself a couple of times, he could sleep.

  Next morning, he went to the office on time. He looked around all the corners of the station.

  One thin, early thirties constable approached him and said in a cheeky way, “She broke our heart, she did not come today?”

  Zahid looked at him and smiled. “Be careful mister, she can break a heart as well as bones.”

  “What are you saying, sir?”

  “She is the one who saved the girl on the bus and kicked the ass of four men, alone.”

  “Really? We thought you are the only daredevil this department has got.”

  They all laughed; the phone rang. It was Simar who informed that she wasn’t coming for the day. All the staff of that police station including Zahid started their work again, half-heartedly.

  Next day Simar came with a plan. She asked for a staff meeting. Everyone was happy that they will be able to see her for a while without her feeling offended. Their happiness did not last long. Simar read out her plan. It included a staff roster, a complaint system, public relations, dealing with criminals and every little aspect of the operation of that place. Basically, everything was supposed to be upside down. Some staff retaliated. She asked their concerns and solved without major changes in her plan. The first few days, it was difficult for everyone to follow a new routine. Even Zahid never had any instructions from any female before. His male ego was suppressed by his attraction towards Simar.

  He tried to flirt with her a couple of times but he could not go beyond the invisible boundary Simar had in her personality.

  One day when Simar finished her work and was going home by her Jeep, all of a sudden, something went wrong with the engine and it stopped. Simar came out and opened the bonnet; it was all smoky. As soon as she pulled her phone to call for help, Zahid showed up from nowhere on his motorbike.

  “What happened?” He asked Simar.

  “I don’t know, I am going to call my mechanic to send someone to fix this.”

  “That’s right, let them fix it and you come with me; I’ll drop you.”

  Simar showed no interest and said, “No, I am okay.”

  She called the mechanic and explained the whole situation. He told her that he will send a tow truck to get the jeep and will get it fixed within two days. He also asked her to go home by taxi. So, she didn’t have an option. The ride was already there waiting for her. Zahid was feeling happy internally but did not show it. Simar picked up her bag from the Jeep and said, “I guess I have to go with you.”

  That’s what he wanted. She sat on the seat behind him and he started driving. On the way, Zahid asked Simar, “Have you seen Delhi?”

  “No time.”

  “I can show you around if you wish to”.

  “No, thanks.”

  “That’s fine if you don’t want to. But there is a roadside food market on our way. You can find very nice food there; I insist you try that today. I go there every day.” Zahid kept on talking. As Simar was hungry too, she agreed to eat something.

  They stopped in the market full of food carts. There were so many food options available. Cheap prices attracted a lot of people. Simar had a look around and placed an order for a pav bhaji and Zahid wanted a shaved ice ball. They found some stools to sit on. They sat side by side. It was not a very good sitting arrangement but that was the only option they had, and it had a complementary table as well, just big enough for Simar to put her bag and plate of pav bhaji.

  There was a great hustle-bustle in the market; all kinds of people and of all age groups could be seen there. All carts had fancy lightings to attract customers and collectively it created a nice ambiance for the market. Everyone was having a good time.

  Zahid had made a lot of enemies in the city by the way of doing things. Many wanted to get rid of him. As he used to come to this market quite often, this was the right spot to catch him and kill him. One man standing behind a food stall rang someone. Some 10-15 men arrived in cars in no time. They took out hockey sticks, baseball, and cricket bats from the boot of the cars one by one.

  Zahid was enjoying his ice ball when a powerful blow from a baseball bat hit his right shoulder. He fell on the ground. The man who hit him followed him. Simar stood up and said, “Hey who are you?”

  That big man did not answer. Simar was about to approach him in a nonverbal manner when Zahid gained his balance and stood up, stretching his shoulder and arm. He waived Simar to stop. Thi
s scenario had gained the attention of all the people present there. That man attacked Zahid again with the bat. Zahid moved a little away from the range of motion of the bat and punched that man in the face with his left hand. With the right hand, he grabbed the bat and kicked the man away from him. The man stumbled away from him.

  Simar stood at her place and watched. Zahid was about to attack that man again when he noticed something. More men appeared from the crowd. Some had a hockey stick, a few had iron rods and others had baseball bats. A quick glance gave him the estimate of the number of men.

  They all came forward and that first man stood up as well. One of them gave him a hockey stick. People in the market panicked and started to run here and there. People with children were first to run away from the spot but many people stayed to watch the show.

  That point became the center of attention, with 10-15 men ready for some serious fight... Surprisingly, that man did not run away and stood tall in front of them.

  Simar came closer to Zahid and whispered, “I think we should run.”

  “I am not a coward. I never run away.”

  “I am not a coward as well, but sometimes there is a fine line between being brave and being foolish.”

  “I am not in the mood of a lecture. You stay behind or run away, I got this.” Simar looked at him with anger-filled eyes, she had never stayed behind men in her life. ‘How dare he tell me to stay behind?’ She said to herself.

  “Okay, so be it.” She wasn’t okay with that but still said it and came to her stool and sat. ‘I can enjoy the show with my pav bhaji.’ She mumbled and started to eat her food again.

  Other men were not going to wait for long. A couple of them attacked Zahid. Zahid still had the baseball bat in his hands. He used it to tackle both. Men had understood by now that they must attack him together otherwise they cannot overpower him. They all attacked him, and he attacked them as well. Simar watched this show from her front-row seat while enjoying the food.

  Zahid was full of power and energy. He fought well for some time. When the bat in his hand dropped, he came on the back foot. Numbers started to dominate. The blows he received were way more than he managed to deliver. Someone hit him on the legs and he fell to the ground. He struggled to stand up. All men hit him continuously almost everywhere on the body. He could not get up. People could not see this as it was sure that they were going to beat Zahid to death.

  One man was about to hit Zahid on the head with a hockey stick, but someone came on time and caught it right near his head. Zahid was surprised to see who that was. It was Simar when he looked properly. She snatched the hockey from a man and kicked him away. He fell on the rest of the men, which pushed them a little away. She stood between him and the men in an attacking stance.

  She turned to Zahid and said, “Now you stay right behind me.”

  She invited the nearest men to attack her by moving her fingers of her forward hand. A man attacked her with the rod. She stopped the swing of his arm using her right forearm against his wrist. The rod dropped. Another man approached aggressively towards her, she pushed this man to him. They collided but not much damage happened. Rest of the guys did not come for intervention, perhaps they might have thought they don’t need too many men to tackle one girl.

  People in the market had something unusual to see. Now they had a girl against those men and her buddy was on the ground. Those two advanced again. Simar ran towards them and jumped. She got hold of the neck of one of them and lifted her lower body towards another. She kicked the second man and swung herself on the shoulders of the first man. In a fraction of a second, she was up from the ground to the shoulders of that man. She hit the top of his head with her right elbow. He fell to the ground unconscious. The man who was kicked, got his neck broken.

  Simar fell as well but she stood up with a jerk and in the attacking stance again.

  That was enough for the rest of the men to understand that she wasn’t an ordinary girl. They attacked her together. As they approached her, she ran to her bag. All men stopped as they expected she would pull a gun out of her bag. Instead of a gun, she pulled out the chakra from the bag, which her Gatka teacher had given her. She also took a handkerchief out of her pocket of the pant and tied it on her head and covered it. No one else there understood what she was doing. She touched the chakra with her head. By this time the men had surrounded her, but they were still at some distance.

  Zahid was out of this circle, he was too surprised and injured to help Simar, but he watched everything. On the other hand, Simar did not show any sign of fear. She carefully moved to the center of the circle and started to rotate the chakra above her head, using both her hands. After a few rotations, the chakra gained its momentum. She moved it so fast that the tentacles became almost invisible.

  The attacking men were not aware of the functionality of the chakra but they could hear it making a noise. The men in the circle surrounding Simar attacked. A few were ahead of the others. Simar lowered the chakra a bit. Those men came in the range of the chakra. The heavy objects tied at the end of the chakra hit the men at a very high speed. All of them had serious blows and fell out of that circle.

  The rest of the men got scared. They could not go near her. One tried a different approach. He crawled to Simar and hit on the left leg. She maintained the balance with the right leg and tossed the chakra above and kicked that man on the ground on the nose. She caught the chakra again which still rotated at great speed. She looked at the men and smiled.

  “It’s my turn now.”

  She attacked them. Anyone who got in contact with this unusual weapon of Simar’s did not get up again. Simar advanced and men retreated. One raised a cricket bat towards the circumference to disrupt the rotations. The bat got hit so strongly that he lost the grip and the bat flew away and hit another man in the head. Some got blows on their head and others on their face.

  One more man tried to crawl and reach near Simar. Simar lowered the chakra diagonally to reach that man. His forehead got hit, not only once but continuously. He became disoriented and could not move back. He made little effort to move but it made things worse for him. Now his face came in the range of the chakra. His cheekbone got fractured right away. With massive and successive blows, his face got very badly damaged. He fell on the ground and didn’t make any movements after that.

  Simar shifted her attention to the others now. She straightened the chakra and rotated it even faster. After watching the condition of their buddy, they all got scared. Every step Simar took forward they took two steps backward. As Simar took steps faster, a few ran away. One after the other, they all disappeared. Simar chased them but they were so afraid of that girl and her horrible rotating thing, nobody looked back. When most of them had disappeared Simar stopped rotating the chakra. People who witnessed this exceptional act of valor clapped. It pissed her off.

  “Why are you people clapping? Was it a show? Nobody came to help when they attacked us. Stop being bystanders, step up against bullies. Don’t be afraid, your fear makes them strong. Help each other; if you are together, you can do anything.”

  She did not wait for any reaction from people and walked to Zahid.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yes, you are awesome. I can’t believe what I just saw. And that thing is amazing, from where did you buy it.”

  “First of all, it is not a thing, it’s the chakra. I did not buy it, I earned it. You have a lot of power. Having power does not make you strong. When you know where and when to use the power you will become strong. You have zero fighting skills and you go to catch criminals all by yourself? I am surprised how you are still alive.”

  Not even a single word came out of Zahid’s mouth.

  “Secondly, never ever tell me to stay behind. I am not an actress from Bollywood who just stands by and cries.”

  Then she walked to her bag and pulled out her mobile. She rang
the police station and the ambulance. Police from Zahid’s police station came. While Simar explained everything to them, an ambulance arrived. The ambulance staff gave first aid to Zahid and the other injured. Police arrested the injured men after first aid. Some constables took the statement of people. Simar’s Uber arrived. She told an inspector that she was going home, she did not even look at Zahid. She hopped in the car and left.

  The male ego of Zahid was so badly hurt that he could not feel his bodily injuries. His image of Hercules within himself was badly shattered into pieces. He was saved by a girl who could fight those men and he could not.

  The next day he could not face Simar at work. She behaved normally. Zahid kept himself busy in interrogating the men they captured at the market. Simar concentrated on her work. She kept Mr. Sinha informed regarding the progress.

  She had done what she came for. She put a system in place which was working well. After a couple of days, she left this police station and moved to the next one.

  ***

  Train station, Old Delhi

  Train station of old Delhi is busy as always. The number of people cannot be counted. Among those people, one old man in black kurta-pajama waited for someone. One train arrived, and passengers started to come out. This old man looked for his person of interest but wasn’t sure about the compartment. He walked to the two mid-twenties boys who wore jeans and T-shirts and had backpacks on their shoulders. They both greeted him, and he hugged them one by one. They jumped in his old Maruti car parked outside the train station.

  He drove them to a house. A group of 8-10 men and 4 women was already waiting for them. The group had mixed age groups. Women wore hizab, some men had pant-shirt on and others had kurta-pajama. The boys had a warm welcome. Women had prepared a nice feast for everyone. All the men ate while the women served. After meals, the old man asked them to come with him. All men followed him while the women kept themselves busy in the kitchen.