Chapter 02

"This is it!!! This is the day I was looking forward to for all these years...", Nalini thought standing in front of the mirror . She had just worn her petticoat and the blouse, as part of this special occasion. Her comrade cum friend Shubha helped her put on a special belt jacket around her waist, with the switch in front of her near the navel; just in reach of her hand. After a few hours, she would be standing in a crowded street with the Srilankan people and the congregation of the Defense Minister of Srilanka. And with just a small wave of her hand, every thing goes BOOM!!!

Nalini was just 12 when the Srilankan army took her father away in pretext of interrogation. The next day, they found the bullet ridden body of her father on the outskirts of her village. One the same night, a group of the government army barged into her home and took her mother and elder sister away. She slipped on under a charpoy , and hid herself there for sometime, until the villagers came searching for her in the morning, trembling under the charpoy with no sign of emotions or expressions in her face. Sure, the villagers found the naked bodies of her mother and her sister in the nearby river, with signs of all brutalities a human could ever imagine on them. And no, she still didn't cry even after seeing all this. There's absolutely no emotions - the sign that she is the chosen one for something big, as surmised by a group  of Tamil people who were part of the resistance group opposing the government.

They immediately took Nalini with her, and trained her hard. She was trained n Guerilla warfare and modern weapons and along with it to create, diffuse and use belt bombs, so that they can use her as a suicide bomber on a bigger mission. Thy reminded her, time and again, about the fate of her parents and her sister. The same no-emotions face she had is now hardened up her heart as well and nothing could prevent her from achieving her goal of unsettling the brutality of the Government forces. 

So, there she ism with all the preparations she had done for the past 5 years or so. Today is the big day for her; because she was going to achieve ger goal of destroying the exact cause that made her emotionless, and partly because if she had remembered correctly, is her 18th birthday. Shubha wished her a happy birthday, and she just looked into her eyes! She might be few years younger than herself, but looked aged with all the hellish experiences the children of their ages had to go thorough in those times. 

There was a knock on the door, and she shook herself out of the reverence,. Shubha opened the door and there stood the Supreme head of the outfit in which Nalini, Shubha and a group of teenage children were admitted to. The man who entered was a chubby person, with a  thick moustache and eyebrows and a slight smile on his face. He had worn a militarized khaki, and looked toward Nalini will all eagerness. 

'So today is the big day for you Nalini!', said the chief with his thick Tamil accent. 'You are the chosen one among all these warriors out there, and hope you will not disappoint us! Hope you get the Swargam after you do your karma here, my beloved daughter!!!'. Saying this, he put his thick hands on her head as a a blessing, turned and walked past the main door, his deputies followed chanting - ēṟutupār kodi ēṟutu pār...

Draped in a Sari brought by a man known to the outfit, Nalini, Shubha and two more of the girl cadets of the outfit walked past the thick jungle of Batticaloa, where a government approved 'Press' vehicle used by the journalists of the Srilankan press was waiting. She, Shubha and the other two boarded the jeep and off they went to the press meet organized by the Defense Minister. 

Time was 2:50 PM, and the minister is about to come the the venue. Nalini and her convoy waited - patiently and then eagerly, and then nervously, They tried to blend along with other journalists and media personnel out there but seems like they didn't have the patience to do this. At last, there was an announcement that the minister had arrived at the venue. The minister looked like a well groomed gentleman, with a physique like of an army man. And why not, he was the Army chief a few years ago of the Srilankan Defense forces. The reporters circled around the minister, along with Nalini, Shubha and the other two cadets also trailing behind her. 

And then she did it And she did it again.... And Again!!! She pressed the red button in her waist jacket thrice - and nothing happened. She presses the button again and again, but by then she had been spotted by the minister's guards. They aimed at her to blew her off with their automatics, covering the minister, and then there was the BOOM!!! There were chaos all around! The last moment she registered in her brain, before going unconscious is the severed leg of Shubha, just in front of her with the kolussu given to Shubha by her mother. Somewhere, Sirens were ringing and the footsteps of people running and walking in panic and sounds of talks was the only things she was aware of. 

Is that it? Did her bomb blew off? Did she succeeded in her mission?   

(C) Vipin