The Lost Daughter of India by Sharon Maas

Author:Sharon Maas [Maas, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78681-118-9
Publisher: Bookouture

Chapter 30

Janiki

When Janiki again heard the chain it was almost three, and she had given up any expectation of ever meeting Dr Ganotra; she decided she would return to the streets. Walking up and down the lanes of Kamathipura seemed a better use of her time than sitting here, waiting. She glanced out of the window more from boredom than for any other reason, for she had read India Today and the Times of India from beginning to end; and so she started on a local paper, Mumbai Drums.

A few minutes later the door opened and Dr Ganotra entered. A tall, lanky Indian with a neatly trimmed beard, he was a prepossessing figure, and Janiki felt authority radiating from him. She stood up and greeted him with a pranaam: hands together at her chest.

‘Namaste,’ she said. ‘I’m—’

‘Janiki,’ said Dr Ganotra. ‘Yes; I was expecting you. Sorry I’m late; my time is unfortunately not my own.’

Dr Ganotra walked across the room and filled a kettle with water; turning on the gas stove, he put the kettle on the flame.

‘Coffee?’ he asked. She nodded, and then began.

‘As I told you, it’s about my little sister—’

‘Little Asha,’ he finished. ‘You’ve been able to follow her tracks to Mumbai? To Kamathipura?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But I’m not quite sure – I’ve been walking about in Kamathipura but it seems to me…’

‘A needle in a haystack,’ said Dr Ganotra, nodding. He placed a coffee filter on a jug, filled it with ground coffee and waited for the water to boil. Subhadai, in the meantime, had stood up and was busy dishing out a plate of food from the pots on the stove. She gestured to him to sit down, indicating that she would finish the coffee, and placed the plate on the table. Dr Ganotra sat down and began to eat; hungrily, hastily, as if eating were a waste of time. Between mouthfuls he spoke to Janiki.

‘You met the girls upstairs, I presume. Ratna? And Sita? Two rescued girls out of so many still in hell. I can’t make any promises. I don’t know if we can find your Asha, if we can save her, but I’m happy to try. I’m always happy to try. One at a time we find these girls, and one at a time we save them, bring them here.’

Janiki nodded. Dr Ganotra’s words tore at her. Asha, lost for ever? In Kamathipura? It could not be!

‘I have to find her!’ she said. ‘If you can help…’

‘I can help, but as I said, I can’t make any promises. This place is a refuge; I do my best, but sometimes I feel it’s like water on a red-hot stone.’

‘I know,’ said Janiki, her voice trembling with the despair she felt. ‘I can’t imagine – I can’t even begin to imagine—’

‘How a place like this can exist in a modern city like Mumbai,’ Dr Ganotra finished. ‘How men can do this thing to young girls, to children. Ratna is still a child. Men have ravished her.

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