She was walking down the streets holding her 4 years old little girl's hand. It was a beautiful day of the month March. Most of the families in the town were going out for picnics, watching movies or just a long drive in that beautiful cloudy day. Children were laughing and playing with joy. Their parents were happy and were enjoying with them. Not much vehicles were out that day as most of the people preferred walking to enjoy the weather Sweaters and jackets were still covering the bodies as cold was still their as a guest and people were happy to have him. small tea stalls were opened road side making good profit of weather Parks were filled with kids and their parents.
Sapna, with her daughter, entered into the park wearing a small simple orange saree, loose earrings, a medium sized bindi, light pink coloured lipstick, a plane neck with no sort of necklace few multi-coloured bangles, payal making sound like little ghunghroos and hair tied in a simple bun. No sweater or jacket was their to protect her body of cold. Though her daughter Rekha was covered with a thin shawl barely protecting her upper body from cold.
Children in the park were running, laughing and playing. Rekha holding her mother's hand was looking at those kids with a straight face with no hint of even a simple. She saw some hawkers selling balloons pink folly, toy cars and dolls and then looked away. On the other side of the park she gazed at a kid climbing on the shoulders of his father and laughing continuously She gazed at them for some time and decided to look down and walk.
Sapna was quite and was observing her little doll. She tightened her grip on her hand and kept walking. She saw a newly married couple sitting close to each other. The girl was resting her head on her husband's shoulder and talking and the husband playing with her wife's fingers and listening to her with a smile. Rekha saw her mother and this time she tightened the grip of her hand. They both looked at each other, smiled, and continued walking.
They both came under a tree where a man was waiting for them. Sapna handed him over a visiting card and the man gave her a sarcastic smile. She smiled back and came out of the park with her little daughter.
They continued to walk with a perfectly comfortable silence between them. They entered a small street where big, old, dirty chawl were made on either side of the road in a straight line providing 70 extra small rooms on each side. There was no paint on the buildings giving it a filthy look and were closely built providing no space between them. It had many windows though giving a slight inside view of every room of the chawl. It had a common balcony for the whole building and women aging between 13 to 55 were sitting their either chewing pan or combing their hairs. Every other second slang were used by each and everyone present their. It was the famous red light area of the town.
Sapna, still holding her daughter's hand entered into the chawl. A big, plumpy lady came and slapped her hard saying "you bitch, how much time does it take to hand over a bloody visiting card to a customer! So many customers are waiting here, who'll attend them? Your mom? Just get fucking ready." She didn't utter a word. She took her daughter to a small room where the bed had occupied all the place leaving no space to even walk, asked her to close the room from inside and walked away. Rekha, at such a tender age, understanding properly the work done by her mother, closed the room with a face difficult to guess as whether she was thinking that soon she has to take her mother's place or hoping for that day to never come.....
