People
who are very close to me know that I don’t like to roam around after 6.00 PM. Yes,
things are different when there are close friends or family with me and they
offer me to drop back home safely.
Few
days back, I had been to my cousin’s house, which is very close to my place of
stay. Had been there in the evening as late as 5.30 PM (P.S. Late as per my
book of rules), as that’s when the couple becomes free from their job who are
currently working from home. While we were having our chit chats, she was very
curious to know why was I so adamant about my 6.00 PM rule. I smiled away as I
too forgot the actual reason behind that. But she was not in a mood to leave
that. She asked me whether I had any such bitter experiences from the past
that I hold on to it so tightly. And then I had to travel back. Its then I
realised how such incidents create a huge impact in our daily lives.
The
incident goes like this. It was around 15 years back. A room-mate of mine had a
reliance connection. She got a call from customer service centre informing her
about some issue with ID verification that, she was asked to submit the necessary
documents within 10 days to avoid disconnection. In the preceding week, we got
holiday in the middle of the weak that none of us were able to go to our
respective homes and so decided to stay back at the PG itself. And hence, we
chose the same day to go to the nearest Reliance office which was at Muvattupuzha.
We were the only ones who had nothing to do at PG, rest all had some
assignments, meetings etc. Muvattupuzha was around 15 kms from our college/PG.
After
breakfast, we decided to leave and we reached the Reliance office around 10.30 AM.
She just had to submit the documents which were duly verified by the officer
over the counter and the work for which had come, got finished in just 5 minutes
of time for which we had to walk 25 minutes & travel half an hour by bus.
It was scorching heat outside as well. We then decided to have some juice from
nearby café and then return back to our PG. Those days I was crazy about grape
juice and so my friend also decided to order the same. We both drank it within
no time and left the café and boarded the bus back to Kothamangalam. We got the
seats & were busy talking to each other. When bus reached the bus stand and
when we were about to debark, I felt heaviness in my head. Thinking it would be
the effect of outside temperature, I chose not to discuss it with her. But within
few seconds of walking away from bus stand, she told her head is heavy. I told
I too felt the same. So, without any delay, we caught an auto and we hurried ourselves
to reach back our PG safely. Normally, we opt for an auto ride only when there
is heavy luggage or else if we are in a hurry to reach our hostel. Our PG was
just 15 minutes’ walk from the bus stand.
On
reaching back our hostel, we both drank quite some good amount of water and slept
until 3 or 4 in the evening without bothering to have our lunch. And once we
got up, we started to analyse what exactly happened to us. That’s when we arrived
at a conclusion that, something was mixed in the grape juice to take advantage
of 2 young college girls. It was our parents’ prayers that kept us safe. But
since then, I have been following a set of unwritten rules like 1) To reach home/hostel or any
other safe place before 6.00 PM 2) Not
to travel alone after 6.00 PM 3) Not to drink Grape juice
when alone.
Some people might find this funny & illogical. But it brings shivers even after these many years by the mere thought of what would have happened that day which would have changed both of our lives badly forever.