Chapter 25: chapter 25

After five yearsAll the candidates were in the same hall. Our training class was about to start after about ten minutes. We all had become depressed and frustrated. In the last five years, whenever we tried to raise our voice, they shut our mouth by threatening us to pay 1.5 crore rupees on the name of the expenses of the training that they gave to us. Nobody dared to speak against them. All were scared. After about three to four months, they did allow us to talk to our parents but in a very controlled way. We were stuck. We didn’t know what to do, where to go. They didn’t even let us move out of the building even once. We were fed up seeing the same things, same building, same walls every day. I said to Jay, “Jay, for how long will it continue?”He said in a depressed voice, “I don’t know.”Sania - Are we going to live here for the rest of our lives? Are we trapped here? Jay - I really don’t know. Sania - What should we do now, Jay? He lowered his eyes and said, “I don’t know.”Sania - Please don’t say every time that you don’t know. Please tell me something. I want to see some hope. I looked at Jay. He was silent, completely silent as if he learnt to live a life of slavery. The song teacher entered the hall. I mustered courage and asked the teacher, “Sir, already six years have passed. When will our training end? We are fifty candidates here now.”