Your Dreams Are Mine Now (11 page)

All this appeared so new to Rupali. She had never imagined that such a sick admission system would prevail within the walls of such a prestigious college. For a moment, she felt disappointed to have become a part of this college. But Arjun pointed out that the story was the same in many other colleges. He told Rupali that this is what he and his party had been fighting against.

‘Two years back, our party had an important agenda of removing the reservation quota. We won the elections based on the issues that we brought to the table. Mahajan’s modus operandi was to illegally use the quota system to admit his preferred students. Removing quota would have made it extremely difficult for him to perpetrate his act. Also, back then there was a wave in favour of anti-reservation, supported by those who got admitted through the general category. As per our manifesto, we wanted to eradicate all sorts of OBC and SC/ST quotas. But that’s when Mahajan played his game. From creating government pressure to taking the matter to court and getting a stay order, he did almost everything he could.

‘Not only this, but he also encouraged various OBCs and SC/ST groups in colleges across this university to fight for their cause. He made himself a messiah of students from backward classes. We continued to fight the battle of abolishing the quota system. But by the time the next elections came, Mahajan had already lured students to his side. He took the backward community students into confidence and asked them to vote for his preferred party. On behalf of that party, he ideated a few populist policies like free Internet in every hostel room and introducing a cheaper student pass for the local metro. Our issue-based manifesto lost to the populist manifesto that Mahajan had smartly carved out for our opponents. Ever since, our opponents are in power and no one has talked about the reservation issue. In fact, as per rumours, Mahajan is working on setting up a domiciliary quota. Most of the influential people in his circle live in Delhi and a domiciliary quota will ease his work manifold.’

Rupali was shocked. She knew there was more to all this but only now did she realize how mistaken she had been to think of lodging an official complaint against Mahajan to the higher authorities of her college. If she did that, she, too, like the others in the past, would be thrown out of the system. But then, what could she do about it?

‘So is there no way for us to take this matter forward?’ she asked Arjun.

‘Not unless we have strong evidence,’ he answered.

‘The victim herself is the evidence. I have seen Mahajan sexually abuse her. I am the evidence,’ Rupali said loudly.

‘I understand that, Rupali. But I am wondering how strong our case is with just the two of you on one side against someone like Mahajan. What if Mahajan sues both of you for defaming him? What stops him from saying that the two of you have attempted to malign his image for your personal benefit? What will you do then?’

Rupali argued, ‘If he sues me, then I will fight back. What sort of a hidden agenda can be important enough for a woman to put her own self-respect at stake for it?’

‘You and I feel that. But in the court of law, feelings do not matter. Facts and the motives do.’

She wanted to counter that one, but with her limited knowledge of the legal system, she didn’t have words in her favour. ‘But this is not right. You know it. This is not right. It can’t keep going on this way. Because, this is not right . . .’ she said in sheer frustration.

Arjun wanted to pacify her, but didn’t know what to do. He chose to keep silent. Meanwhile, in his mind, he was analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the case at hand and their position to fight it. The thought of reaching out to the vice-chancellor of the university had also crossed his mind. He knew that the vice-chancellor was a lady of values and a person of good heart. He had interacted with her in the past. But he also knew her limited powers on matters such as this, which raised a finger against the powerful nexus in the system. He wasn’t sure she was strong enough to break through that. Yet he continued to weigh the odds.

The streetlights in the hostel block and the campus in front were turned on. It had been more than an hour that the two of them had been together. He looked at Rupali and wondered if she was still uncomfortable sitting with him. Probably not—he thought to himself.

Then all of a sudden, something struck Rupali, ‘I have evidence!’ she smiled.

Arjun was curious. He waited for Rupali to speak.

‘I have . . .’ Rupali stopped as soon as she began her sentence. She took a second or two to speak again. As she was about to say it, she realized she couldn’t look into Arjun’s eyes while revealing what she was about to.

‘A video of Mahajan sexually abusing Raheema will definitely serve as evidence. Right?’

Twelve

‘Shall I?’

There was a disturbing silence inside the tiny cubicle of the Internet cafe.

In the rest of the rows of that overcrowded, noisy and extremely busy Internet cafe, business continued like every day—movies and video games were being played in the private cubicles. The intermittent noises were mostly complaints about the crawling speed of the Internet and dysfunctional keyboards.

Amidst this, there was an odd silence in one of the cubicles.

‘Go for it!’ Arjun finally spoke.

There was no looking back for Madhab. No second thought in his calm and composed mind. He knew what he was doing. They all knew what he was doing. He clicked the ‘Upload’ button. The explorer showed a processing sign. They knew it was going to take a lot of time. Madhab had made them aware of the pathetic Internet speed in that cafe. He was well acquainted with this cafe. In fact, he was the one who chose it. As the explorer continued to process Madhab’s upload, everyone held their breath in anticipation.

It had been more than a week since Rupali had told Arjun about Mahajan’s video that she had shot on her cellphone. After he had seen it Arjun had used his time to brainstorm on how well he could use the video. It was indeed an extremely strong piece of evidence, one that had the capacity to take down Mahajan if used wisely. He was delighted that Rupali had such a strong proof. Time and again he had complimented her for using her mind and being brave enough to capture Mahajan’s act on camera.

However, despite such powerful evidence, there were two challenges Arjun could foresee. First, he didn’t want to associate Rupali’s name with the video. It would be extremely dangerous for her. The video was bound to invite trouble and it wouldn’t be wise to reveal any names, not even a proxy.

But then someone would have to bell the cat. Someone would have to own it and claim to have caught Mahajan red-handed. Who should this person be? Arjun wondered.

The second challenge he was worried about was how he could use this clipping to cause maximum damage to Mahajan. Was submitting this video in an official manner to the vice-chancellor the right step? Or was it better not to trust any university authority and straightaway lodge an FIR and then give this proof when needed? But, in both cases, there were high chances that someone in Mahajan’s network would alert him much before the truth appeared. Arjun didn’t want to give Mahajan time to react.

All his questions found an answer when Arjun got Rupali’s consent to involve his close party workers in this matter—the ones he could trust.

Madhab, a diligent volunteer from Arjun’s party had an interest in ethical hacking. Had he not been an Arts student in DU, he would have been a network engineer. Prosonjeet, who too was an ardent party member, had been to jail a couple of times during the past election seasons. His experience had got him quite a few connections in the police. Rupali was scared when Arjun first introduced Prosonjeet to her, but had become okay when Arjun had pointed out the reasons for which Prosonjeet had been booked in the past—holding college strikes, organizing mass protests as peaceful as a candlelight march and as loud and vociferous as to disrupt a few political events on campus.

‘I have been a political prisoner you see. No extortion or murder so far!’ he had said and everyone had laughed.

‘Look at his tummy, can you believe this fat ass, a year back, had sat on a hunger strike?’ Arjun asked.

Madhab had added, ‘And in the evenings he would crave for prawn curry, but settle for cheap fish fry. Drama king!’

Rupali had laughed like crazy while Prosonjeet had made a face. He didn’t like it that his good friends were revealing his secrets.

Rupali had asked Saloni to join in. She knew that she would feel more comfortable with her roomie around in the company of the new guys. Saloni too was eager to join them. She wanted to make sure that Arjun did not use her innocent roomie to take revenge on Mahajan.

And that evening, when the five of them had first met each other on the college rooftop, Arjun attempted to establish trust among all of them. He knew how important it was that none of them leaked out any information and each one maintained secrecy. So while explaining the matter to his party workers, who were also his close associates, he hadn’t forgotten to include Saloni, giving her the feeling that she too was an important part of the mission. After he had explained the gravity of the situation in great detail and the risks associated with it, he had let the team, including Madhab and Prosonjeet, watch the video.

Unlike Prosonjeet, who had mischievously enjoyed watching Mahajan’s aroused expressions, Madhab was disturbed when he saw his cheap animal instincts. ‘Disgusting bastard! His wife should see this!’ he had said in anguish.

‘She will anyhow get to know if we play our cards right,’ Arjun had said, after which he talked about the possible challenges. Listening to his concerns, everyone had agreed with him that it would be best not to name anyone as the owner of the video. In order to find a solution, they had first come up with the idea of making a CD and sending it by post to the vice-chancellor’s office with a note attached. But there were a few apprehensions. The biggest being—would the VC even act on it?

That’s when Prosonjeet had played Sherlock Holmes and suggested what he believed was a brilliant idea. ‘Create an anonymous account and post this on the Internet. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, everywhere! It’s that simple! Then we need to make sure a few people from the college watch it, bas! I can bet, it will go viral in no time!’

Everyone was quiet for a while, mulling over the idea. Then Arjun spoke, ‘That sounds good! Really good! I think it addresses both the challenges: It promises to keep us anonymous and if we, through an anonymous ID, post this on our college’s Facebook group, it will definitely go viral. And something like this going viral on a public domain is bound to create maximum damage! Very clever, Prosonjeet!’

Prosonjeet smiled like he had won a competition. He looked around gloatingly at his friends. Saloni and Rupali too had congratulated Prosonjeet on this master stroke of an idea. But Madhab was still quiet. He had something else on his mind. When Arjun noticed his thoughtfulness he asked him his concerns. Madhab pointed out an important issue in the video. To show them what he was talking about he asked Arjun to replay the video.

Everyone had surrounded the mobile phone, to see what Madhab was going to talk about. Just before the clip was to end, Madhab asked Arjun to pause it. He said, ‘See, this is almost a two-minute-long video. Raheema’s face isn’t visible till this point. But her face is prominent in the last few seconds. If we post this video online she too will get exposed. We can’t reveal her identity. This portion will have to be deleted.’

Rupali immediately agreed, ‘We can’t put Raheema’s identity at stake.’

‘Don’t worry, I will cut it down,’ Madhab said. He also explained the precaution that they would need to take before they posted it. ‘In case we want to remain anonymous, we would have to make sure that we do not post this from a private device, nor do we use a network that can be tracked. But before that I will ensure that a DVD of this video goes to a local TV channel. We need the publicity but we also need to confuse people about the source of this video as far as possible.’ That was an ethical hacker talking. He was well aware of how to play safe with IT networks. He knew how to be cautious and give confusing leads.

By the time they were ready to leave the rooftop, Madhab had planned everything. It was his idea that they would upload the video from an Internet cafe in a remote location in outer Delhi. He had informed the others that it was a busy cafe and in spite of the regulations no one asked for any ID proof and there were no CCTV cameras to track anyone.

Everyone was amazed at how wonderfully Madhab had put it together with such attention to detail.

And here they were, finally looking at the video getting uploaded in this overcrowded dirty cafe where no records of any sort were maintained and they could not be tracked.

The processing bar finally reached the end. Just below it, the message flashed: ‘100% complete’.

‘It’s done, guys!’ Madhab said. His eyes were still focused on the screen as he refreshed the page to double-check that the video was up for views.

It indeed was.

A chill ran down everyone’s spines. With the upload completed, their anxiety had multiplied manifold. They understood the enormity of what they had just done and also of their expectations. They knew the risks associated with it. At best, they had calculated them and reduced them to a large extent. Yet no one could deny that there were always undetected loopholes and unintentional evidence that, if connected, could reveal the truth.

There was silence as they let the moment sink in, followed by a collective sigh.

Sensing everyone’s anxious mood Arjun playfully held Madhab by the shoulders and patted him on his back. ‘Well done guys! We’ve done it!’

Madhab turned to look at Arjun. He didn’t say anything in response for a moment. Then he grinned naughtily and everyone cheered. They congratulated each other.

Gradually, their fears were replaced by a sense of achievement. Their anxiety gave way to euphoria. All of them felt a sense of companionship.

‘Bastard Mahajan will now get it!’ Prosonjeet said in excitement. He high-fived with Arjun and then with every one of them in the cubicle.