The Invisible Lens | Goregaon Girl – 4.0

This is a fourth part of the series: The Goregaon Girl. If you haven’t read the first three parts, click the image links below:

Beyond fear, there is success – an adage that was resonating in my mind and heart together.

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I had pulled the chain because I wanted to rescue Ananya. As her story unfurled, it was my existence that I was in search.

My childhood, my birth parents, my history, are they still alive?

All these were the questions that cascaded one after the other, looking at the Rameswaram ticket. In the succeeding blink of the eye, I had made up my mind to travel Rameswaram – for Ananya, for myself!

I took a general ticket for the next available train to Chennai from Mumbai. I was unprepared of what entails – but I was willing to take the risk of the challenges – though it put my life in danger.

Our train was scheduled to depart at 6 PM. It was the Chennai Express. Post which we had to make an alternative train journey to Rameswaram. No sooner did the train reach the platform, I yanked Ananya with all my might and reached the gate of the General compartment. You don’t have a reserved seating area in the general compartment. She gasped for breath but made it to the foremost of the queue.

After receiving some blows of the eager passengers to find a seat, we got two seats. I held Ananya’s wrist, ensuring trust and accordance. Deep down, I was scared too.

After a few hours of traveling together, Ananya dozed off. She lay her arms on the window with her face was pivoting right and left as the train raced on the tracks.

I looked at her trying to gauge some more information about her whereabouts. I gawked at her for hours, just to find any hint – some small information that could help me chart the search of her parents. Moments later, I found her forearm with a unique tattoo – ‘a flag and an arrow.’

The moment I saw this tattoo, my breath hitched. I could feel my heart pulsating at my cheeks. I clutched the chain with the locket my father gave me earlier that week on my 22^nd birthday.

Gripped in fear of my destiny, words choked me, paralyzing my mind completely.

This tattoo relates us – I whispered to myself, as I looked outside the train, with rapidly moving trees past us, blurring the reality. I still could not contemplate our connection.

Why did Ananya’s family abandon her? Is Ananya drugged? Can I trust her words – the ticket? So many questions remain unanswered.

And as I move my vision away to catch a breath of air, skimming passengers on the train, I see a man reading a big black novel. I could not believe what I just saw. My palms became sweaty with fear when I witnessed the book’s cover image. It said “The Invisible Lens Community” with a similar logo – of the flag and an arrow – that was present on Ananya’s tattoo and my chain.

Is somebody following Karthik and Ananya? Is Karthik being trapped? How will Karthik handle this situation?

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