A bevvy of wild beauties, piled up in an expensive convertible, two raving youths flashing money and status. Today is their night, another night to do the wildest of things. A plush apartment in the remotest part of the suburb; a society where neighbours do not intrude, and residents enjoy privacy.
Way past midnight, the convertible slid noiselessly through the apartment gate, some kilometres away from foggy, cold Delhi. The guards, half-alert, quickly allowed the guests to pass through. As one of them, out of curiosity, tried to peep in through the haze of the foggy car windows, the pillion youth beside the driver subtly tapped the butt of a shiny pistol peeking out cosily from his right trouser pocket. The guard hastily retreated, and the car was allowed in with even more haste.
Tuli was surviving another night of restless sleep, tossing this way and that, clutching the pillow and trying to make herself comfortable during her full-term pregnancy. Any day now the baby will arrive. Joy was snoring beside her after a long and gruelling day at the office.
Tuli heard the convertible parking, the double click-click of the lock as the passengers got out and locked the car behind them. Then started the noises of the glasses tinkling, accompanied by shrieks and squeals of young blood let loose to bohemian indulgence. Noises easily travelled up to her second floor from the ground floor. The rest of the floors were still vacant, with possession in process. She heard the ground floor was rented by some local family but never saw the inmates. There were nights when the men brought in women to linger on through the darkness of the nights, living out some unmatched fantasies of youth and hedonism. Tuli sighed at the noises of the prattling feet running around from front garden to backyard, drunken giggling and playful screeches. The sound of lustful men chasing wilful women continued till Tuli’s eyes, heavy with sleep, finally shut in a restless slumber. She had heard this a few times since they shifted six months ago.
Then sometime later, Tuli’s disturbed sleep was again broken by a scream and then some muffled heavy noise. A few steps were heard running into the backyard of the ground floor. Even as Tuli listened intently, as she was now alert and completely awake, what followed was only an unbroken silence. She was contemplating waking up Joy, but the residual silence discouraged her.
Realizing she was sweating even in this December cold, Tuli slid from the bed with an effort, had a glass of water, and felt the baby turning gently inside her tummy. Concerned she was not having enough rest and worried for the baby, Tuli once more went back to bed in an effort to sleep.
Towards dawn, her sleep was disturbed once more. Now a new noise had started, the rhythmic metallic noise of a shovel hitting fresh, moist, rain-soaked earth. After the rains of the previous night, the earth was soft. Tuli’s instincts were immediately piqued. She tried to hear harder, and yes, tearing through the silence of foggy, groggy, frozen cold night, the metallic clink, clink of shovel reached her ears. It continued for some time till she lost track, and then everything became deadly silent.
In the early hours of the morning, just as the sky was catching up with the faded blush of the morning sun, the desperate revving of the engine, followed by the piling up of the last night’s noisy, now-silent inmates into the gleaming luxury cruiser, was heard. Tuli was now standing in front of the glass-panelled balcony and could see the front parking. Another night of reckless and wanton indulgence in carnal pleasures had come to an end! Tuli thought. But the sound of a piercing shriek and the clanking of a shovel was still fresh in her mind. This pregnancy anxiety is playing havoc with her imagination, she thought.
As the convertible slid past the gate and the sleepy guards recorded the exit, no one noticed there was one less beauty inside and one extra purse to be disposed of at their convenience, away from the eyes of the world!
Bidisha Dutta
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