Blank Noise Action Hero Rachna

I was on a train, returning from an educational tour in Rajasthan. Sitting among a group of friends, munching potato chips, cracking up, screaming at each other, singing, and doing the occasional jig. You could say I was having the time of my life. I could see out of the corners of my eye, that there was a guy with his eyes glued to us. Moving a little, I could see he was young with a crew cut and a ruffle bag. Army guy. Seeing that he wasn’t embarrassed at my noticing, I switched to my natural defence. Stare the hell out of him. This time it didn’t work, though. He seemed quite entertained by it, actually. He picked up his mobile and called someone, barked a laugh and continued leering. Then they came, two burly meat factories with a crew cut. And they brought with them, a camera phone.

My friends didn’t want me to get very wild. They wanted me to go up to our teacher and tell her that these creeps were clicking our pictures. So I did. I got up and was tried to rush past them – which was not possible because there was a) a beeline to the bathroom and b) pieces of luggage sticking out onto the aisle. One glance at him and he was lying down, smirking at me. Another glance down and his foot started sliding slowly down my thigh and up. And that was when I lost it. I must have shouted pretty bad because he started cringing and denying everything. I must have shouted so bad he started begging me to stop. Some boys from my class came running and took away his phone to delete pictures. In a fit of gallantry, they all agreed to switch berths with us. Very disturbingly, the guy and his friends seemed quite unperturbed by everything. Amused, even. Infuriating, it was. It took me every fiber of self-control in my body to not hit him. As walked away I heard him say, "Aaaay ladki. Be in your limits. Simply don't do ekstraws." Not bad for parting words.

Name: Rachana.

Emotion: Rage.

Age: 14