Chapter 3...contd.

“Dude, I’m in deep shit,” said Anuj breathlessly on the phone.

“Take it easy. What happened now?” asked Raj absent-mindedly. Trouble was always following Anuj, so this was nothing new.

“Mita’s step father is after my ass…he found out about us.”

This wasn’t a new situation either. At some point in time they had all faced the wrath of an indignant father, hell-bent on protecting the honor of his child. When it came to deflowering girls, Delhi boys faced a two pronged challenge – first the girls themselves were very conservative, but even if they were willing, the specter of family honor and their fathers’ ire was a difficult obstacle to cross.

Anuj had been consistently providing education to girls in the area of carnal pleasures. Mita was a new girl he had been dating and things had been moving at a pretty fast clip, so much so that it was starting to turn serious. However, Raj and the others were concerned as Mita came from a broken family and had a history of erratic behavior. Not only that, but it was rumored that her mom had underworld contacts.

In Delhi, having underworld contacts was the sought-after thing. Every man worth his salt was supposed to protect his family. Since the police was usually busy running its own extortion racket, the more enterprising men sought out and cultivated contacts with the local ruffians, the much maligned Jats. These were essentially uneducated males from surrounding areas of Delhi, who were enthralled by the city life, or more accurately, their perception of city life. They imagined city girls to be loose and life consisting mostly of drinking and bullying.

The worth of school and college going males of Delhi was measured by their backing. This usually translated into how many politicians, policemen or Jats that person knew. Not that the three aforementioned groups were any different, the line between the three was pretty blurred. All three took pride in stripping the people off their dignity and wealth.

So long story short, Mita’s mom had found out about the two and told her new husband. The new husband had now taken upon himself to avenge the family’s honor that had been tainted by two young people in love. Apparently, this blow to the family honor could only be avenged if Anuj was soundly thrashed…couple of broken bones or a stab wound would be an added bonus. Alas, if Indians had as much concern for the country’s honor…the British would have probably been happy simply being traders.