Page 11 of A Shimla Affair
Noor’s nonchalant remark rang warning bells in my head, as my stomach twitched with nervousness. I went to the kitchen looking for her, but she wasn’t there. Khushilalji joined my search for Afreen but I sent him back, telling him she must be in the room, as I didn’t want him to get suspicious and inform Noor. I didn’t know whether I should be scared yet, but ever since I had found the gun, I had a feeling something like this would happen. How did she manage to find the gun, let alone the confidence to hold it? Instinctively, I went to our room to look for it.
It wasn’t there.
Afreen was not in the hotel, and neither was the gun. I looked around the room to see if anything else was missing, but did not find anything amiss. Half of me wanted to run to Noor and tell her everything, but the other half was even more scared of her wrath. What if there was a simple explanation for it? Maybe Afreen had a newfound passion for hunting. I convinced myself that must be it, and decided to look for her in the forest.
The air felt fresh, scented with pine, and I felt the cold seeping through my feet. I called out Afreen’s name a few times, but my voice just echoed back. There were no signs that she had been here. The sun was still low in the sky at this time of the year, so it was quite dark as I ventured deeper inside. The trees started to close in on me as I worried for Afreen, and the gun had itshold on me, flashing images of what could go wrong. No, Afreen would not be here, I was pretty sure, and decided to go down to the Mall, still refusing to give in to defeat and run to Noor for help.
I went down the road quickly, looking around for my sister, hoping everything would be fine. Maybe she would just pop out from behind my back, looking for me, telling me she was at the hotel all this time, that the gun was just a figment of my imagination. After all, why would a gun be there? Where would Afreen even get it? It’s true that sometimes she joined the local crowds who agitated against the British, but Noor had forbidden her from doing that, and there was no way in the world they would ever give her access to a gun.
Perhaps the gun was not even Afreen’s, and she had just kept it safely there for a hotel guest.
I stood in front of Christ Church, looking around in despair. How would I ever find her? I would have to tell Noor, and as soon as she found out that I knew more than I had let on in the past few days, she would be livid. All that she had managed, winning the trust of the family in Bombay, fixing the marriage, only to have Afreen run about wild.
By some stroke of luck, I saw a distant figure going around the bend of the Mall: it was Afreen. I rushed in her direction, but she was far too ahead and I didn’t want to draw attention by calling out loudly. I tried to follow her, but she moved quickly and I found it hard to keep up. She was looking around frequently to see if someone was watching her, and that confirmed my earlier fear. What in the world was she up to?
Afreen took the way down to the Lower Bazaar but instead of going into the Bazaar, she led me into a tunnel I always tried to avoid. There were several tunnels in the city, built through the hills around Shimla. The British had them hastily constructed as passages for coolies and mules transporting goods. Thesetunnels hid the natives and the animals from view, but they were not concretized and were always clogged with rainwater.
I lifted my sari up, trying to avoid the puddles, dodging the other men and mules, on the backs of whom lay goods that I tried not to knock over. I came out at the other end, and I was surprised to be next to the slaughterhouse.
I had lost Afreen by now, bewildered that she had found some business in this part of the town. No respectable woman would be caught dead here, and a bad feeling settled deep inside of me. I was scared to find what was going on, afraid how it would upend our lives. But the love I bore for my sister forbade me to slow down; what if she was in trouble? What if she was in the clutches of dangerous people? Was she being hassled by some men, or perhaps the police?
The streets were full of potholes and filled with muddy water, and I held the folds of my sari in my hands, looking around for Afreen. At some point it was impossible to save myself from getting dirty, and I had to give up. The low, tumblingbastigot more confusing and I realized I had no sense of where I was. The people sitting outside on the streets stared at me as I walked by, obviously out of place. I was too scared to talk to any of them, and looked for Afreen’s trail, but that too was lost.
I walked faster and faster through the basti, trying to get to its end only to arrive straight back to the Lower Bazaar, just at the other end. Why did Afreen not take the direct route to get to the Lower Bazaar?
Now the sun beat down on me and I walked straight into a small gate that I assumed she might have gone through. I decided to have a quick look around.
The buzz of the outside Bazaar was missing here, and it was quiet enough that I could hear the birds. The houses were so silent that they could have been abandoned, only flocks of pigeons fluttered around. My fear intensified when I sensedmovement behind me. But, before I could react, before my mind could even begin to process any course of action, there was a loud thump on my head and I felt myself collapsing. As consciousness left me, my last thought was of Afreen.
I am five and I want to cross the road to visit my friend Simmi, who lives across the road with her grandmother. She makes Simmi the most stunning dolls. To reach Simmi’s house, I need to cross, but the road is full of stray dogs who growl and bark at me. I am too scared to step outside.
Then Afreen comes. With her flaming hair and fierce smile, she grabs our father’s long stick and extends her other hand to me, pulling me slowly, telling me nothing will happen. On the street, she bangs the stick on the ground and the dogs back away. I look on, amazed by my sister, the brave one, as breathtaking and beautiful as her name suggests.
She escorts me all the way to Simmi’s house, giving me a little kiss on the cheek before bidding me goodbye, telling me to not be afraid. I watch her walk back courageously, alone amid barking dogs, wielding her stick proudly.
My sister, Afreen.
I tried to open my eyes, and the soft hum of noises grew sharper. For some reason, faces hovered in front of me, faces that I didn’t know. Realizing that I was lying down, I tried getting up but a dull pain overtook my head.
I couldn’t move my arms at all, and realized they were tied up! I tensed up in terror such as I had never known before. I was alone, tied up and completely vulnerable and in front of me were two men I didn’t know at all. They held guns in their hands and looked like they were not very happy with me. I tried to stop myself from passing out again.
Suddenly, I remembered Afreen, and looked around wildly. Perhaps she had been kidnapped as well, and I prayed to the Lord that they would take me to her so we could at least be together. I closed my mind and felt myself relax, imagining myself as a heroine captured by the evil forces, pretending that there would be a way out or that a handsome man would come in and save us. I tried to think of what a heroine does in such a situation and decided to keep my eyes open and observe what was happening around me.
The ringing in my ears stopped, and the man in front of me was talking, towering above me.
‘How did you find out? Tell us! What brought you here?’
He banged his gun on a table close to me, and my head spun. I willed myself to focus, but didn’t have anything to say. I had been following Afreen … and then I was here. What would they do with us? Their voices again faded out, and I tried to think of how to break away and look for Afreen.
I thought I was dreaming, and blinked several times, when Afreen walked in through the door, apparently in a hurry. She was not tied up, but did look worried as she rushed towards me. Before I could talk, she pressed something hot on my head and, although it stung at first, it later made me feel better. I might have fallen asleep again, because when I woke up, my head felt lighter, and I could immediately hear Afreen’s voice close to me.
She looked close to tears, standing next to three men whom I didn’t know, all wearing turbans and a guilty look on their faces.The entire situation was so bizarre to me that it was still hard to believe I wasn’t dreaming.
‘What are you doing here?’ Afreen asked, shrill but remorseful. Now that my vision wasn’t blurry any more, I could see that she looked different. She was wearing one of her nicer saris and her hair was made up differently than usual; there were flowers entwined in her braids, although I didn’t remember her dressing up like that in the morning. She was wearing bangles and looked more vibrant than usual.
‘What is going on?’ My curiosity overtook my haze.
‘Why did you come here? Did you follow me? I had no idea. They told me they have a woman in here … I was appalled to see it was you!’
