Smriti is running down the streets. There is heavy rain in
Rangpur, a village in rural India. Some streets away, you could see some heavy-built
men wearing white shirt and blue jeans driving at full speed in their bullets.
They are chasing Smriti. It is 10 pm and the streets are almost empty and
silent with just few stray dogs roaming and sleeping around. Why are they
chasing her? Let’s go back a few months back.
Rangpur is a beautiful village located in Bihar with big
trees and large fields. Smriti’s husband Lalit is a small time farmer, who
grows strawberries in his 2 acres of farm. Strawberries of his farm are very famous
around the village and they are sold for high prices due to its demand and
quality. He sells them to shops and supermarkets in cities and with that money,
he looks after his wife and children. With his sole income, Lalit was able to
take care of his family very well. He and his family could afford food 3 times
a day which many farmers there could not. He could send his 2 children to
school and buy toys and clothes for them during festivals.
Everything was going well but one fine day, it happened and
was not usual. Early morning Lalit came to his farm to see many of his full
grown strawberries missing from the 2 acre of land. He had no idea who did this.
These strawberries used to take almost 2 months to fully grow. The strawberries
were stolen and not by some animals but by some men who work for Ramdhar Singh.
Ramdhar Singh is a property developer and an influential man in Rangpur.
Ramdhar is like a mobile bank in the village where he provides money in the
form of loans with high interests to small and medium income farmers. As the
strawberries were costly, they would sell these strawberries in markets and use
that money for their alcohol and drug needs. They had the guts to do anything
in Rangpur because they worked for Ramdhar. Lalit was unaware of these things.
He complained to the panchayat head but they were not ready to give any kind of
compensation or look deeply into the matter as they thought some animals would have
done it.
This incident was a big loss for Lalit whose earning came
from these strawberries alone. It affected his family for months in many ways. It
affected family’s food intake, his children’s education and their happy
life. Lalit also like many other farmers
of the village took loan from Ramdhar for his strawberry farming. Ramdhar was
aware of his men doing this crime but he ignored it as it was not a big crime
according to him. Lalit was not able to pay his loan to Ramdhar this time. He explained
him the reason but Ramdhar chose to ignore it and rather shouted at him to pay
the money on time or else to face the consequences. Smriti also pleaded to
Ramdhar to give her husband some more time. Ramdhar had something else going on
his mind. He was infatuated with Smriti from the time she came into the village
as Lalit’s wife. He wanted her at any cost. This was the opportunity he was
looking for to get close to her. Ramdhar gave him some more weeks’ time to
return the money. Ramdhar was very much sure that Lalit will not be able to pay
his debt on time as he did not have the resources except his home and land and
finally he would have to fall prey to his demands.
Lalit became really worried and decided to sell Smriti’s jewelry
in order to pay the debt. With the jewelry’s money, he could pay only half of
his debts. Lalit became really depressed and started consuming alcohol. At this
extreme stage, Smriti became really worried about her husband’s present condition.
She decided to help him by doing household chores in landlords and rich people’s
mansion. With her hard earned money, she was able to pay the remaining debts
and bring back Lalit back to his normal life.
Now as his debts were payed off, Lalit did not want Smriti to
work anymore. He was worried hearing her story of workplaces where she was
physically and mentally abused as she belonged to a low caste and she being a
woman.
Here Ramdhar was totally disturbed by these events as
everything was going against his plans. He wanted Smriti at any cost and the
only way to do it was to somehow bring Lalit to the depressed and begging state
he was. He decides to wait for something to happen or to make it happen.
Lalit and his family were debt ridden and were happily living
their life like the one they were living before. It was Diwali time and they
had gone to the city to do some shopping. After returning from the city, they
saw their house all burned up. He or the villagers had no idea how it happened.
It was Diwali time, so they concluded that the fire must have been originated
from the diya(candle) which was light inside the house. Lalit along with the
villagers were able to bring the fire down and save some important household items
but not the house. The family was on the road. This was a well-planned attack
on Lalit by none other than Ramdhar whose men had done this in the dark.
Ramdhar saw this opportunity to get close to Smriti and decided
to help Lalit. Lalit decided to take help from Ramdhar to build a new house. He
gave money to Lalit and this time his conditions were soft. Ramdhar decided to
charge no interest and also gave a time period of 6 months to return the full
amount. But he did not want a single day delay in getting his money back. Lalit
was very happy with the conditions and Ramdhar could see his plans working out.
4 months passed by and Lalit was working hard in building his
small house as well as growing strawberries in his farm. Even Smriti was helping
Lalit by working in a primary school as cook. 5 months and 21 days passed by
and after all his limited expenses, his savings were not enough to be paid to Ramdhar.
Smriti was using her money for family’s daily needs and children’s education. Each
day was a struggle for them.
Finally the day comes. Lalit is sitting with Smriti in his
field worrying about how to pay the money back to Ramdhar. Various thoughts go
through their mind and even suicide. Suddenly Ramdhar’s men come searching for
Lalit and finds him in the field. They tell him to come with them to Ramdhar’s
house immediately to talk about the money. Smriti warns him to be careful. Lalit
goes with them and tells Ramdhar about his present condition of not able to pay
the money on time. He begs on his feet to give him few more days and also
promises to provide any kind of help till the day he returns the money. Ramdhar
hearing this, thinks of a plan to misuse Lalit and his family. He tells Lalit
not to worry about the money and gives him few more weeks. Ramdhar also demands
Lalit to grow the strawberries in his own field for free till the money is returned.
Lalit accepts his demand. Before leaving, as a token of thanks, Ramdhar request
Lalit to have a drink with him. Lalit refuses at first but Ramdhar insists him
to do so. They drink till night and Lalit is fully in the drunken state with an
unconscious mind.
Seeing Lalit’s condition, Ramdhar sees the opportunity to run
his crooked plan and brings in a legal paper for Lalit to sign. He makes Lalit
to do the thumb impression on the paper. Lalit is not in a state to understand
anything. This legal paper was going to change his life. The paper read out as
follows,” incase Lalit is unable to pay Ramdhar’s money on time, he will be ready
to sell his wife Smriti to Ramdhar till the full amount is returned”. The moment
for which Ramdhar was waiting for years had finally arrived.
It was 9pm and was heavily raining in the place. Smriti was
really worried about Lalit as he had not returned home till now. She leaves her
children at the neighbor’s house and goes to find him. She reaches Ramdhar’s
house all wet and worried. She inquires Ramdhar about Lalit. He lies to her
about Lalit who was locked in one of his rooms by telling her that he left
already in the evening. Smriti becomes more worried and tells him that Lalit
has not returned home till now. She pleads him to help her in finding Lalit.
Ramdhar tells her” why should you worry about Lalit, you are
not his property any more as he sold you to me and he left for some other
place. He could not pay my money back so he traded you. Now I am your owner and
you are my slave”. Smriti did not believe this till Ramdhar showed her the
legal papers that Lalit had signed. She accuses Ramdhar of misusing her husband
and tells him that her husband would die before doing such an evil thing. She threatens
him of police enquiry. Now Ramdhar hearing all this becomes frustrated and orders
his men to get hold of Smriti and lock her in a room. She immediately takes the
liquor bottle kept on the table and smashes them on one of the men’s head and runs
away.
She runs through the streets and fields shouting for help. She
falls, injures herself but keeps on running in this heavy rain to escape from
the thugs, who follow her on bike and on foot. The whole village is inside their
houses. There is no silence in the village due to thunder and rain. Finally she
reaches a bridge with an overflowing river under it. She is in a dilemma whether
to jump or not. The picture of Lalit and children comes to her mind. There is
no other way to escape other than jumping into the river. The thugs are coming
to her from both sides. She is surrounded and afraid. She has no other option
but to jump. She decides not be a slave to anyone till she is alive. Smriti
jumps into the flowing river and ends her life.
