Short Story: A Complicated Battle by Nagma Sinha

Nagma Sinha shares a powerful story depicting the struggles of a woman trying to survive in a male-dominated world and the battles she has to fight every day for existence.

Trigger Warning: This story has mentions of rape and assault.

It was raining incessantly with loud thunderstorms flashing silvery light at equal intervals upon a busy pathway. Cars were lined up in serpentine queues moving at snail’s pace on deluged and damaged roads.

A completely drenched Manohar seated on a motorcycle had his full attention to a phone call received from his supervisor who was currently protected inside the Parivartan party office.

“How many areas did you cover today?” asked Jamal, the supervisor.

“Dak Bangla, Hari Nagar, Maujpur, Nili Dongri and Mount Road”

“Ok, good. You will have to cover the complete Northwest area tomorrow.”

Amid heavy and loud downpours, the voice quality through Manohar’s wireless ear plugs started weakening.

“Sir, I will call you in about an hour. Can’t hear you clearly.”

Jamal dropped the call and walked towards Avinash Sen’s office. Avinash was the party’s Chief candidate running from Kalipur for the upcoming State Elections slated in three months’ time. He was forty-five years old with a degree in Political Science from St. Michael College affiliated with Birpur University.

Avinash was sitting inside a small office with his eyes drowned into the bundle of papers he was going through attentively.

Jamal knocked on the glass door and went in.