She was a pretty, mallu woman around thirty to thirty five years of age. She had curly, short hair tied in a short pony.
With a very voluptuous, plumpish figure and wheatish skin, she was eye candy to many men, I noticed.
She came to one of our evening prayer meetings one day. We liked her. She was a nurse, working in a nearby hospital. She then kept coming every Saturday.
One Saturday, during the meeting, the priest called folk in the front to share if they had something to share. She went up and began speaking. Utter nonsense. She rambled on and on. That was when we realized something was dreadfully wrong.
She was asked to go back to her seat. That night we took her home. We probed her to tell us more about herself. She was married but hubby had deserted her in Kerala. Somehow she managed to make it to our small city, found a job to make ends meet.
She seemed to be getting more incoherent with every passing day.
Fearful of living by herself in her tiny one room kitchen situated in a chawl, she spoke of some person lying next to her in the night on the floor. We were alarmed. Next week she confessed it was only a shadow, not a man.
Strange!
Men used to stare lustfully at her when she was around, especially with her being single.
We prayed hard for her for her safety and that she'd get well. One day she came home in the morning and asked me to accompany her to her home about twenty minutes walking distance.
I agreed, though I thought it strange.
We walked through dingy streets, some poop scattered here, some there. These poor can't even go to the loo specially built for them, but do it with abandon on the streets, I murmured under my breath, as I held my kerchief to my nose.
She made tea and we chatted over some biscuits. I wondered how she lived alone in such a place.
About half an hour later, we heard a scooter stop at the door.
She opened and smiled at the man. He entered the tiny room and his eyes fell on me.
"You?" He looked startled.
"Uncle!" I exclaimed.
A family friend.
He looked uneasily around and five minutes later offered to give me a lift back home.
I readily agreed. I was getting uncomfortable.
I waved her bye and reached home moments later.
I asked Mom, why he visited her. She kept mum.
Why did he go to her when he knew she was alone?
Why did she ask me to visit her that morning?
Was she helplessly being coerced into a shady act?
I don't know.
It remains a mystery to me to this day.
She later moved away from our city, I learned.
Is she still confused and exploited?
My heart's much moved for such vulnerable women.
