The process of investigating about a trafficked victim's location in a red light area becomes a smooth task if you're well connected with the local police and have some other handy contacts who work in the brothel area. The procedure became much easier since we had a well known lady police officer to help us raid into the correct brothel.
All this while, the mother of the missing young girl was crying continuously. It was really moving for me to understand that simple gestures such as holding a mothers' hand, wiping off their tears and assuring them that their daughter will be found would strengthen the bond between us and make her feel somewhat relieved.
In the next one hour we managed our way inside a brothel in the local red light area. It was difficult to recognise the girl amongst the many heavily painted young faces all set for the evening. After some heated and aggressive conversations bent down upon the brothel madams, ofcourse with the support of the police led to the release of the girl.
Finally, she came out with one of the madams who was time and again whispering something into her ears. Probably something nasty! which she ignored in the happiness to feel the freedom outside the four dark walls. Her family and the young man were happy too to see her.
Picture Courtesy:"She's Standing All Alone"by ElifKarakoc (Deviantart)
I promised her that we will come back to meet her soon and this time at her native place. Exactly, after one month, I was back in West Bengal to do a follow up of this case and went to meet Chandni and her family. A surprise was in store for me...when I saw the same young man standing close to here a Chadini too was wearing the 'mangal sutra'(A mangalsutra is a piece of jewelry worn by women that symbolizes hindu marriage.) and sporting the bright streak of 'sindoor' (sindoor (vermilion) is traditionally applied at the beginning or completely along the parting-line of a woman’s forehead.) There was sudden rush down my spine to see the young couple together. With a slight suprised expression on face and heart filled with happiness I hugged Chandni. This was the best case follow up I had during my experience......
I am writing this to reaffirm your belief in the fact of life that there is no language, no bondage of time or any other barrier in your act to help someone. All you need to do is to cross those limits you've created in life and go a step ahead to help someone in need. All you need is to have some love for change!
