and then I never saw her again

pic credit :http://www.wallpaperup.com/

Its about two years ago when I used to stay in salboni and occasionally used to visit Kolkata for my training on ethical hacking. In those days there were only two direct trains to reach Howrah from Salboni and vice versa . I had to reach back to Howrah station within 5:30pm to board the last train back to Salboni. It was a very busy day and the streets of Kolkata were full because of some political campaigns(Which I hate very much). I was trapped inside bus for 3 hours due to heavy traffic jam and I reached the howrah station at 8:30 pm and the last local train up to Midnapore was already gone. Then there I had only  two options to get back home, first get on the train which is after four hours in midnight or spend the night at the platform and get the first train in the morning, but I had to get back home as soon as possible because I had internals examinations from the very next morning. So I had to wait upto 12:30 am and get into the midnight train.

I was extremely nervous because I heard of thieves and smugglers they use the midnight trains as I was carrying laptop and extremely confidential case report in my bag pack. 

Well finally I boarded into the train with my pumping heart and I sigh! In relief after seeing two old men and a girl of my age in the compartment. Unfortunately those two old men deboarded the train after few station. I was feeling creepy as I had to travel more about three hours and no one is in the compartment other than the girl. I thought to go and seat near the girl atleast I will have a company to feel myself confident for sometime.

I noticed her for some moments she is beautiful , peacefully reading something in a small piece of paper and she seems like she is not worried about anything . 

I went near her and asked her “May I seat here? “  and she replied to me pleasantly “Yes please “

then I introduced myself to her “Hey I am Kajal, are you going on the same route? Its freezing cold na?” .

She looked at me strangely and laughed “kajal? Ha ha Its like a girl’s name”  she giggled and also told me her name “Mira” (sorry I have changed her name for her privacy)

“Oh God, please don’t make fun of my name anymore, people have already done enough, well leave it, where are you going? I am upto Salboni” I said

“I am upto Bankura” she said

“Hey why are you travelling alone in this midnight , even this train is empty and looks so scary don’t you feel creepy? “ I asked her

She was silent for a moment and replied me rudely “so what’s the problem with you? I am a girl and I cannot travel alone at night?”

“No, sorry I don’t mean that” I apologized to her

After few moments of silence she said  “Sorry I am in bad mood”

“its ok, well I am a student and I was in Kolkata for training , what about you? “ I asked her

Again she went silent for a moment and replied me little emotionally, “you seems to be a decent guy if you will know what I am what I do then you may don’t want to talk with me anymore or you may want me to do what I do to live, please don’t ask”

I was suborned for a moment and was thinking that if the girl may have psychological problem or she may be passing through big problems, for a moment I thought to change my seat but my heart felt like to know more about her and I told her”  No its ok, I may be a stranger but you can trust me, tell me “

She said “ok, I hope you are capable to listen this, I am a sex worker and I am not a good girl as you may be thinking.”

I really felt sad for her and I cannot believe to my eyes that this damn pretty girl work like this well honestly I have never seen girls in such job in real life I have only heard of them. Again I asked her “ But why you do such things , there are lot of other jobs you can do around in this city? Or you can move to another town for some good respectful jobs“

“ It’s a long painful story , you may don’t want to listen” she said

“No, please tell me” I requested her

“ok, my family is so poor , I even remember when I have lost my father ,I have one brother , two little sisters and my mother used to work on other’s house as servant to support our livelihood , we use to live at our uncle place who was not a good person . I was 13 when some people may be they were my uncle’s friends who took me to the prostitution area in Kolkata, they told me that I will get jobs here  and I was not aware of anything  and then everything in my life was changed within a blow.” She said, I saw few drop of tears from her eyes.

Again she said “I love my mother, brother n littler sister and I am not allowed to meet with anyone but I somehow manage once or twice a month to just a glimpse of my mother, brother and sisters, They hates me  and don’t want to see my face but I love them a lot . I don’t meet with them I just go to house like a thief just to get their glimpse that they are fine and will return back to Kolkata by first train at 5 AM “

I was completely speechless and didn’t get any word to say her even I was feeling like to cry , I asked her “ did you had dinner?”

She said “No”

I had one packet of biscuit two cupcake and a chicken sandwich in my bag which I gave it to her , and she smiled, and said “ I have never had such things before, what does it called?”  I said “ its  chicken sandwich why don’t you escape from there and go somewhere else and find another good work?”

She said “Where Will I go?  Even I also dream of a normal life like to study, having a boyfriend then get married , visit different place , have some good friends and neighbor  , eat good food , but my life  is not normal anymore, who will love and marry a prostitute ? everyone just know to make use of us but no one can have love in their hearts for girl like me, even my family also hates me, but I will move out someday somewhere where I will start my new life may be alone but I will be happy rather  doing this work for poverty . I care a lot about my little sister and don’t want anyone to let them become like me because of this I save little money and drop inside the house from window hole but it doesn't matter to me if still they hates me, I want them to be safe”

She told me a lot of things about their life at their workplace , their livelihood which is not less than a hell. I wish I had more time to spend and talk with her but I had to leave the train. I didn't had any more words inside me to say her, I didn't know what to say, I did a hand shake and said her

“God bless you dear”.  Her story really made me cry and I could not sleep the whole night , I was just thinking about her life and her spirit to start a new life. I wish I could help her on anything but I not.  No girl want to do such work but poverty compels them to do so and also because of bad surrounding where they live, their greedy relatives .

Human trafficking is another great reason after poverty  in this country .we need to stop and help the girls like them to get out of their poor situation .  We need the support of government and NGO to help these girls to deserve their desired life and pride like every other girls do. After that night, many times I knowingly missed the last train to board the train of midnight just to meet and talk with her but I did not see her again in any of the compartment