The Choice:

On her way home from work, Chaandni felt something weird. She felt something queer. She felt someone was following her. In the middle of the night, at this hour, she knew someone following her is not good news. Covering herself completely with a shawl, she walked faster. However, she knew she was trapped. Three of them stood right in front of her and started smiling wickedly. One of them had tobacco stained teeth with yellow eyes ogling out staring at her covered breasts. The other two looked almost similar, with one completely bald and skinny and the other one had a bald spot and was pot bellied. They were drunk. Before Chaandni could say anything, the skinny guy said, ‘Hold her tight. We will have fun with her’. Chaandni shivered. She had to go home to her child. She did not want to die. As the boys came to hold her, she said shivering, ‘Listen. You know my profession. Don’t you?’. The three of them laughed diabolically. One of them said, ‘We know who you are. We just wanted to have some fun with you.’ Shivering, she replied, ‘Why like this?’. The pot bellied guy replied, ‘Because we want it this way.’ Chaandi said in a soft voice, ‘Look, I have a child to go to and I don’t want to die. If you rape me and leave me, even if I go to lodge a complaint, no one is going to listen to me because of my profession. I know I can’t escape. Hence, I will cooperate. All of you don’t come together. Come one at a time.’ The three of them laughed evilly and said, ‘You are wise you shameless woman’. Chaandni took off her shawl and said, ‘I want to live for my child. If you get satisfaction by molesting me, so be it. I will satisfy all of you. However, you will need to agree to use a condom. I carry it in my purse because someone had once advised me that it is always nice to cooperate in rape rather than being killed.’ Three of them again laughed. Closing her eyes tight with tears dropping, she slid some part of her saree to ensure some part of her curves were visible.The lecherous eyes of the wicked men out there could not stop. They were about to pounce on her when she said, ‘One at a time and with condoms please.’ The first guy yelled and said, ‘Okay’ and giggled. She carefully took out a condom from her purse and gave it to him. He hurriedly wore it and was about to come to her, when she said with fear and tears, ‘One moment, your friends would need it too’. She then searched through her bag, found two more condoms and threw it to the other two guys who had come closer to her. She knew she had to do this. She wanted to be alive. She took off her saree. The blouse and petticoat made her look immensely attractive.

The first guy was about to fall on her voraciously when she took out the pepper spray which she always carries with her. It was deep down inside her bag. While hunting for the condoms, she found it. She mercilessly sprayed on the three of them. While they writhed in pain and screamed, she took out the knife which she also carries all the time and stabbed the three of them till she felt they won’t be able to hurt her. She then took to her heels and ran to the police station. Chaandni told the police, ‘I may have killed them. I know I will be questioned a lot because I am a sex worker. Being a prostitute is a choice I had to make but getting raped is not my choice and I will not let anyone rape me.’