It was some 1.25am, silent, soothing night! I was working on the 6^th floor. Somehow I was enjoying the article I was writing, specially the satire I was using. Pink Floyd was going on and I was loving it. Suddenly, I felt a thirst for a cup of coffee. As usual, with practiced hand, I dialed 649, the extension of 6^th floor pantry, but in vain. None picked up, I tried again, again and finally shook my head in irritation. “These fellows will sleep always” I said this to myself. I got up and went to fetch a cup of coffee for myself with the determination that I will give a slight thrash to the guy there.

The coffee came out, I love the aroma…. But the guy wasn’t there. Anyhow, I turned back and while coming back I saw the ‘pantry boy’ sitting inside the small conference cabin and reading something. It was a bit surprising for me to see him awake, that too reading something.

I pushed the glass door and said, “Hey, couldn’t you hear I was calling you? Why aren’t you at the pantry?”

“Sorry Sir!” he hurriedly folded the book in his hand, took it under the table and was looking really embarrassed. His expression was really genuine, so I left the place and came back to cabin.

Had a sip of coffee and looked at the monitor, saw the last word I typed was ‘empathy’… and I stopped there… ‘empathy!’

I got up and went to the conference cabin again and popped in again, the guy was some 3-4 years older than me, wearing a white shirt tucked inside a black trouser, curly hair, well built and curious big eyes. I asked, “What’s your name?” The ‘Pantry boy’ was new one. He was looking at the AC at the back corner of the room, and as my words struck him, he turned back with the same embarrassment in eyes. “Sir!” he uttered.

“Your name?”

“Shundarlal.”

“From?”

“UP”

“What were you reading?”

“Nothing sir!”

“Show me. Come on!” I didn’t ordered, I pleaded.

He held the book up; it was The Third Revolution, by Paul Harrison, a book that I had bought before Diwali this year from the pavement. Where did this guy get the book? “Sorry Sir, this book was at your desk, I just took it to read, I will return it.” I was silent.

“Sir, I should’ve taken your permission, sorry sir. I’m just 8 pages left. Sorry sir!” he went on saying.

I asked, “How far have you studied?”

“I’m a graduate Sir.”

“In?” shocked me!

“I’m Graduate in Sociology.” He was more ashamed whereas he should’ve been proud of it, and then I realised why he was ashamed! “Then?” I asked stupidly.

To this “Then?” Shundarlal let the entire blocked flood inside his heart out and I was drowning in that flood, exploitation personified, and we say ‘Indian Shining’ …. I was ashamed, he could have been a prestigious teacher by now, and where was he? At a pantry, as a ‘pantry boy’, earning nutz, and getting scolding from nutz like me!!

After that I was speechless and all I could say is … “I’ll give you few more books, do read them, and we can talk about them at some other time!” He was smiling and gentle and genuine smile….

“How do you think this book is?” I asked with a smile…… he said, “Africans ke dard koy nehin samajhta… koy nehin!” (None understands African’s pain… none) …….. was he talking about EMPATHY?

I came back, reached by chair, shook my head, looked at the computer, the word ‘empathy’ was gobbling me up; I couldn’t tolerate it. I deleted it and wrote ‘sympathy’……. ‘Empathy’ is a great feeling; I decided that I will not write this word till I truly and practically empathise.

DEAR FRIENDS, WHY DO I FEEL THAT THIS IS THE HIGH TIME TO WAKE UP? WHY ARE WE IN THIS BIG SLUMBER? DON'T WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE? ARE WE JUSTIFIED TO DO THIS 'CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE'.......... WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? ANOTHER RWANDA? ANOTHER TET-OFFENSIVE? ANOTHER IRAQ?..................... OR AM I INSANE TO THINK THESE 'CRAPS'?

Night and concentration are directly proportional. The deeper is the night, greater is the concentration. Last Wednesday it was! It was around 2.30am and I was the only on the 6^th floor. My entire team was on the 3^rd floor. But I prefer 6^th floor, quiet, calm. I was listening to songs and the tuk-tak sound coming from my typing was reaching over the songs! I was typing, reading, deleting, editing, adjusting, thinking… by far writing. I was writing a column on a very sensitive issue…. When I finished the article, I was numb. Perhaps winter is coming and the AC was on, that’s why…. But I was numb….. I took the final print and went to my boss, the cutest person in the office! I asked him whether he will be interested to listen to the story; else, I can straightaway sit with the designer and make the final designing! He said, “I’ll love to listen to that.”

His cabin’s AC was on, we sat! I held the print out up and started reading……….

With Diwali in the Air, Poisonous Air……

“Do you know Jhuma Chowdhury? You Don’t? How would you? Jhuma is the 2^nd Year English Graduation student in Bankure Sammilani College, West Bengal. Since Childhood she is fantastic in studies. In 10^th and 12^th she got STAR. While her eyes were filled with the dreams to study and stand on her own feet, her parents were having no less dreams for their beloved daughter. The intensity of the dreams was so high that they left the mark. Mark? Yes, mark! Now Jhuma is hiding herself in either friends’ places or relatives’ places. Why? After rejecting her parents’ proposal to stop studies and get married, her parents didn’t even hesitate to run blade all over her body! Torn apart Jhuma is exploited by her own parents. After hearing her version, Police arrested her father, who eventually got free the next morning and after coming out from the police station, the gentleman (!), the high-school teacher’s first remark was…. “My daughter is mentally disturbed!”

You are right Sir, a girl who turns down a proposal of life long exploitation just to stand on her own feet is definitely a “mentally disturbed” creature! Lucky Girl!!

You definitely don’t know Nadia’s Tashmina Khatun. At the age of 15, she committed a big crime….. she fell in love. With the dreams of making own home in her eyes, she eloped with Muttu Mondal and when the dream was over, she found that she is sold in Kashmir, all set to fly to Middle East to set fire on the beds of the clients! She is earning eh! Lucky Girl!!

Bashanti Barua was coming back with another lady co-worker from the small factory she works in Gariya, Kolkata. With the dusk wrapped on its body, a car stopped by the road and few wolves pounced on her, the lady wolf, till then smiling one, also joined the party. Bashanti shouted, none came forward (even when it was thick office hour!), that was perhaps her last shout for HELP! She doesn’t need to shout now I guess! Lucky girl!!

Next week, four girls came back home. From where? From Pune. Where from Pune? From the brothels (red light areas)….. all these girls are aged between 14 to 17 years! Lucky Girls!!

Hashina Bibi used to work in a garment factory at Shibpur. The lady owner used to love her a lot. To express her love, she gave few sweets to Hashina one afternoon, she took them gladly. And when the drug was a bit thin in effect in her brain, she found herself in another red light area in Gujarat. The marks of many unknown-wolves were still scorching on her body! In pain tears came out and came the warning instantly….. “Don’t cry, else acid will be thrown on your fucking face!” Drinking the tears back she kept on entertaining the clients, as they wish… sometimes with condoms, sometimes without condoms!

Oh dear friend, I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you. I’m sure you love reading about the ‘Soaring Sensex’, ‘India Shining’, ‘Back-biting Politics’, ‘Glow of Luxury’….. and these are just so NON-SEXY ‘stories’ that generally get place on the 11^th page of the news paper on a 3 inch long column.

But the column I’m writing upon is a long one, so I go on. You can stop here if you wish to as after this I will talk about the darker sides even, which is not only NON-SEXY, but NEVER-SEXY also.

According to recent estimation, the number of girl-kids forced to be prostitutes in Mumbai is between 2, 00,000 and 3, 00,000; the same number in Kolkata is 85,ooo to 1 ,25,000. Now add up the state of the same in India’s other states…… Their age? According to 2005 data, 80% of them fall in the age group of 11 to 16. 

This is a great import-export business also. Every year around 6,000 to 9,000 girls are coming to India from Nepal and Bangladesh… not to travel, rather, to be prostitutes. Plus, we get the imports done from Srilanka, Pakistan and few more nations also. If this is the picture about import, our export is also not bad, more than 8,000 girls are exported from India yearly to EU, US and Middle East. These girls are generally aged 11-16, who are shown as 20-25, to get the passports!

Now it’s the time to share the greatest ACHIEVMENT of India. India, a nation that is lagging behind most of other nations in terms of economics, politics, sports, science etc., has got the PROUD 1^st position in world’s list with the largest amount of child-prostitutes. According to the research done by the UN, India has defeated tough opponents like the US, EU, Thailand, Brazil in this race with huge distance.

“Humanity” is a product that used to exist “Once-upon-a-time”… these Jhuma, Sabina, Tashmina, Bashantis are never-highlighted-and-fast-forgotten, why? Just because they are not our own girls? With the rapid growth of the networks, will this pride last long? Do you know the average market value of these girls? It’s Rs. 700/. Yes, you read it right, a girl worth Rs. 700/ for lifetime. Few girl’s ‘market-value’ is higher no doubt. (I assume I don’t need to share the ‘parameters’ to get higher ‘market value’.)

When the heads of the whole nation should bend down in shame, we don’t even know it! Government always has other issues to ponder on (Will MPs’ salary increase?), NGOs are busy to find something else after Anti-Reservation issues these days (Thanks to the Media’s cooperation), Police is really dutiful these days (Providing security to the Brad+Angelina), I’m in a hurry to finish this article (see, the page is about to finish.. ‘Wink’), my boss is also tied up (this issue needs to reach the press by this night) and you? Oh! I got it. You must be celebrating the spirit of Diwali! Let’s put these girls aside for the time being….. Let’s celebrate the spirit of light….. These girls are so dark, so Non-Sexy!! Happy Diwali! “

My boss was silent, he switched the AC off! He was also numb I guess!  

TO BOSS: THANKS FOR ALLOWING ME TO DO THIS ILLEGAL THING. I WILL NEVER REQUEST YOU TO PUBLISH ANY ARTICLE IN MY BLOG!  YOU ARE THE CUTEST BOSS, THE GREATEST MAN AROUND.

TO FRIENDS: SORRY IF THIS BLOG SPOILS YOUR SPIRIT OF DIWALI. HAPPY DIWALI TO ALL OF YOU! ENJOY!~~