Last Days in Hell_Choudwar,1999.

Now this is a story not a lot of people know. I will be changing a few details for the sake of everyone.

The super-cyclone of October 1999 was dark, fierce and devastating. But a strange calm fell upon the land once it was over. Thinking back on those days, I might say it reflected on the life I had back then.

Having been appointed into a new job after leaving the air force, my father had to move to Choudwar in 1996. Divorced and single, he had to toggle between a job and his 6 year old son. So he appointed a governess/care-taker of sorts for me.

Funny how things turn sour before you have time to blink your eye. She was a horror. My father kept busy with his job and was absolutely indulgent whenever he was home. But that wasn’t most of the time.

This woman, lets call her Meena, used to beat up till I bled. She used to verbally abuse me, saying terrible things about my parents and family. She used to starve me. All this started gradually, mind you, and maybe that’s why by the time I realised what was happening, I was already too terrified by it to open my mouth in front of my father.

Meena got 3 years to break me down, systematically. She used to give me very little to eat, beat me up for almost anything I did, said horrendous things about my family. And above all this, she used to sweet-talk to me in my father’s presence.

All this changed with the cyclone. Father had gone to Mumbai to bring my uncle home, who had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. There he himself got diagnosed with renal failure.

Scared about my safety, both of them rushed home after the cyclone ended. My uncle sensed the abuse when he stayed with us and alerted my father. Meena was fired. Soon afterwards, my father died and I was left with my grandparents.

That was the calm after the storm. And the rest, as they say, is history.