The Game Begins

It was in the chilly wee hours of December 6,1986,a crowd was gathered around the dead body of Anju, a wedding stage dancer. Everyone was aghast to what had happened! In the commotion, Anju's mother, a former stage dancer and her son Bablu reached the spot. They were horrified to see the bare dead body of Anju. The whole street no. 7 of Raj Garh, Jheel, Delhi was stunned. Street no. 7&5 of Raj Garh were inhabited by most of the stage dancers. That was the time when the profession of wedding stage dancing was at its peak. There wasn't any rich wedding without the performance of stage dancers. But those stage dancers were not considered as a noble profession. Everyone would try to keep away from them normally, but whenever they would perform on stage, every man under the influence of alcohol, tried to be close to them, to touch them inappropriately. So, one could say that their dignity was really at the edge of swords. That was the time when there were no DJs, nor the family members would hire choreographers to be trained to perform at their family weddings. Life was really simple, without any modern gadgets which have made life aloof today.

Let's get back to the story, Rani, the mother of Anju burst into tears, she was inconsolable. She was saying only one sentence, " My daughter is murdered only because she was the best in the business. "Even Bablu was saying the same. Now, more people gathered there as the day broke. There was an eeriness in the whole street. People started whispering about what had happened!! Everybody was stunned as Anju was the most loveable and lively girl of the street. Nobody could believe that the same piece of joy was no more. But the most shocking thing was her being bare. Somebody covered her body with a blanket. Children were about to get ready for schools but their parents decided to let them remained at home that day. Even in this critical situation, children had a festive time.

But for Pankaj Sharma, a student of class 10 in a government school, this incident was life changing as he would love Anju as his elder sister. His parents were always against his affection towards Anju, as she was a stage dancer, but Pankaj never paid any heed to their warning. For him Anju was his sister, friend and mentor.He was so sad that he got depressed. He lost interest in everything. He knew that something bad had happened to Anju, but he couldn't do anything His soul was restless, his heart was palpable. But he could not go out to see her as his parents didn't allow him to do so.

At 8 in the morning the police came and took the body for postmortem. There was a strange fear among the dwellers of street no. 7.Everybody was in utter doubt to what had happened and who might have been responsible for this. Pankaj knew that Anju was in love with Billu who lived two houses away from hers, as Anju had told him everything about Billu. Billu and Anju loved each other immensely and their affair was known only to Pankaj, but he could not talk about it that time.

He also knew that another boy of the street was also after Anju, but she was never interested in him. Babu was also a stage dancer so he would accompany Anju many a time to the shows. On one such show Babu tried to get intimate with Anju, but she slapped him. Anju had told about it to Pankaj and Billu. Billu wanted to go and beat Babu, but Anju stopped him from doing so. It was around a couple of months back. Pankaj thought that Billu too would have been under complete depression as he had lost his love, his life. Pankaj wanted to rush to Billu immediately but he couldn't do so.

Pankaj was in a condition where he could not do anything however hard he would try. His mind was restless as he was not in a condition to understand the murder of Anju. For him the prime suspect was Babu, as he was humiliated by Anju. But Pankaj was also aware that Anju had told her mother that she would marry Billu and leave this profession of stage dancing. Her mother could never allow her to fulfill her wish, as Anju was the only source of her earnings. Bablu was a jobless alcoholic, who would enjoy at the expanses of his sister. Now the suspicion grew to three directions. In a couple if days the autopsy report of Anju revealed that her death was caused of asphyxia. She was brutally raped before killing. This spread a sensation of fear in the locality. All the girls were asked not to get out of their houses. Even children were prohibited from playing outside. Pankaj wanted to see Billu badly but he couldn't do anything as he was remained in house as any other child of his locality, his suspicion hovered around Babu, Rani, Bablu or..... even Billu. But what could a teenager do in these circumstances except feeling helpless. For a week things passed by in the similar manner.

In the morning of of December 13,1986,the dwellers of street no. 7 got up to another shock, there was the bare dead body of Billu.