Lalitha’s smartness

The train was speeding along towards Warangal.Dinner was expected to be served anytime.Lalitha was restless as she looked at the young girl aged six in the opposite lower berth.She was fairskinned and charming to look at.There was an undescribable fear in her eyes.She kept sobbing all the time. She had boarded the compartment at Vijayawada along with a man of around fortyfive.The man’s rugged features, the dark skin and the bushy muschtach did not give Lalitha a good impression.It was evident the girl did not belong to him.He was now and then chidng the girl in an unintelligble lingo and pulled her closer to him.She kept moving away from him.He kept a constant vigil on her.Lalitha felt that the girl could have been drugged a little as her eyes looked drowsy.
.Unable to suppress her uneasiness, she asked the man where he was bound for.He pretended he had not heard her.When he looked at her after sometime,she repeated the question a bit louder.He mumbled something in what seemed a dialect of Hindi. This only confirmed her suspicion.She was waiting for an opportunity to talk to the girl.It soon presented itself when he went to the toilet when he saw the girl asleep with her eyes closed.The moment he left Lalitha touched the girl and she woke up promptly.She asked her in Tamil who she was ,why she was crying and who the man was.She blinked.She tried in Hindi to which also she gave a blank face.She tried Telugu as she boarded at Vijayawada.It had no effect.Finally in smattering Malayalam she repeated the questions.There was a faint trace of smile in her face.She asked her whether she knew the man and she shook her head vigourously to indicate a no.Meanwhile the man came and looked at the sitting girl in obvious conversation with Lalitha.He pinched the girl hard,pulled her close to him and made her forcibly lie down with the face turned away .The girl let a muffled shriek and cried in pain..Lalitha decided she must do something to save her.
Meanwhile dinner arrived .Aftersometime when everyone had retired by 10 30pm Lalitha looked at the young girl sleeping unaware of the great harm awaiting her.The man was sitting by the window with the head turned outside but keeping a vigilant eye on the girl.Lalitha switched off the light and lied down to sleep.
Around 11 15 pm everyone heard a loud scream from Lalitha that the man in the opposite berth touched her at inappropriate place and tried to molest her.All the passengers crowded and rained blows on the shocked man.Lalitha started weeping.The ladies in the adjacent cabins came around her to comfort her.A couple of Railway policemen soon appeared and took custody of the man.
When he turned to look at the girl, Lalitha said”I have a strong suspicion this man is kidnapping the young girl.She is from Kerala and the man speaks some strange North Indian dialect.Please do not allow the girl to be taken by him”
One of the policemen replied ”Do not worry.We will restore the girl to her parents in due course after interrogating him.You need have no fear about the safety of the girl.”
At the next station when the policemen took away the man along with the girl, Lalitha heaved a sigh of relief happy that she could save the girl from the clutches of a wicked man.
It was then a passenger in the midle berth asked her “Did he really touch and try to molest you?”
Lalitha smiled and replied ”No, I could think of no other way to save the girl.I was not sure how many of the passengers would have taken the initiative.The man would have got down with the girl at the next station..I had to act fast.”