" Appa! Appa! I want to share something with you." squealed a little girl. Her father was sitting in her bedroom, looking at her notebooks.

" What is it, kanna?" asked the father without breaking his gaze from her notebooks.

" We learned something new today."

" New?"

" Yes Appa, we learned that Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver and Shiva is the destroyer."

Her father, now, raised his head and was looking at his beaming daughter. He smiled and she ran excitedly to sit on his lap. " Hmmm, that's true. Whom do you like the most?"

" Oh! Me?... I like Lord Brahma." she said after thinking for a while.

" Why?"

" See Appa," she said and got from his lap. She swirled to face her father. Her expression became little serious. Her father smiled, mentally. He, too, made up little serious expression.

The girl started explaining. " As I was telling you that I like Lord Brahma. We know that he is the creator. So I am grateful that he created this beautiful world. He created my house and he created a perfect father like you. I don't think I have any other reason for explaining it."

She sighed. She felt proud that she explained it to her father. All by herself. Her father smiled. " So we came to know why you liked Lord Brahma. Now I would like to know why didn't you like other two."

The girl looked sheepishly at her father. " Appa actually I don't have any reason for not liking Them. But I don't know what their role is."

Her father had a hearty laugh. He wished to explain her. But he thought she was still little small to understand it. The girl, was very curious, couldn't hide her excitement. " Please Appa, tell me what does that mean?"

" Kanna, I want to explain it to you but I think you are little small to understand it."

The girl sounded little cross. " Appa, I am a big girl now. I will definitely understand it."

Her father sighed. " Okay so you assume that Vishnu is made up of white waves and Shiva is made up of black waves."

The girl looked amused.

" White waves signify positive energy and black waves signify negative energy."

" Positive meaning good?"

" Yes kanna, positive meaning good and negative meaning bad."

" See Appa, I had told you that I am a big girl now."

" Indeed. You are seven years old, aren't you?"

The girl nodded.

" Both these waves are important. Their balance is crucial. If they fall out of sync, cataclysm will occur."

The girl still nodded. Her father, was now sure that she wouldn't have understood.

" They balance each other. Vishnu transmits positive energy while Shiva absorbs negative energy."

" I think I have understood it Appa." said Durga.

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This is so depressing.

Durga closed her right eye and tried looking into the glass bottle with her left eye.

Not even a single grain of coffee is left.

Durga searched for coffee packet in the kitchen shelves.

How can I be so careless? I should have bought it yesterday. My Sunday is ruined.

Is it?

Yes.

But I think you can buy it from a shop.

Hmmm... that's true.

Then you should go.

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Rudra walked through his room. His mind was stuck at Saturday evening. His mind went back to that memory lane.

Ramaiah saw Rudra walking towards him. He said, " Rudra your personal land line is ringing. Go and attend the call. Rudra thought he knew whose call it was. He quickly went to the room and picked up the call.

" Hello Mr. Detec-"

" Hello Sir, don't take my name."

" Ah! Sorry. But I don't know your name."

" I am not supposed to share that with you. Anyways, Durga wasn't in town on Tuesday, was she?"

" Tuesday... no she wasn't there."

" No wonder he was so cranky. Because Indrajeet was in Mysore."

" What?"

" Yes Sir, it was good that she wasn't there."

" Weren't you suppose to inform me beforehand?"

" Well Sir I am extremely sorry for the delay but as you see, I was trying to figure out where he had been."

" Okay, fine, better not repeat it again. Where is he now?"

" Sir, earth is round."

" Oh my god! I didn't know that. Will answer my question?"

" He is hospital. On saline drip. I am telling you, he is the biggest fool I have seen. Instead of resting for another five days, he travelled from Bengaluru to Mysore and back again."

" His ego is hurt. That's why he didn't think twice. If he plans to come again, inform me."

Durga has suffered a lot. Yet she has become a strong woman. But when Indrajeet will come to Mysore, what will happen? Will Durga be strong enough to face it?

He stopped walking. He flopped on the couch. Why am I thinking so much? I think I should go out for walk.

The sun shone brightly as Rudra locked his house. Within matter of few minutes, he was walking near the market. Crowd had gathered near a shop. Never a person who would poke his nose in other's affairs, he felt a strange attraction towards it.

Jostling through the crowd, he reached the center of the crowd. There he saw Durga slapping three men and warning them. Sensing his presence, Durga turned. Their eyes met. Her eyes showed varied emotion of confusion but his eyes had only one emotion. Sense of pride.

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Durga was searching for the packet in the shop. After narrow eye search, she found the packet. With that she stood in the line. I think I have all the required vegetables... fruits... apples, bananas... no wait... there are no bananas... I...

Her sixth sense warned her. She looked behind to find three men checking her out. She winced. Some people... never change...

She paid for the coffee and went out of the shop. The men followed her. These men have started following me?

She spotted a fruit cart moving, next to the shop, selling bananas too. She waved to the man pushing the cart. The cart came to a halt. She started looking at the cart, picking up the perfect ripened opens. The men came and stood opposite to her.

They should better be going. If they stare me for one more minute, I swear I will kill them.

Will you really kill them?

Err... no... I will not really kill them but yes, I will teach them a lesson.

Okay... their one minute starts now... 60... 59... 58... 57... 56... 55...

Durga heard them whistling and looking towards her. Devi Shakti, please save them.

Durga went towards them. The men were grinning. " How dare you? Following me and now whistling?"

" What madam? We didn't follow you. We weren't whistling at you." said one of them, casually.

" Do you think I am blind? Deaf?"

" We don't know that." said another one and three of them started laughing. People started gathering.

She glared at them. " My Appa says that we should give at least one chance to others. So I am giving you idiots one chance. Say sorry and never tease any girl or woman."

The men laughed. " She is daddy's little girl. We won't say sorry. Now what will your Appa say?"

Durga felt sudden rage in her body. " This time my Appa didn't say anything. Instead he told me to do something."

One of them asked, " What did he tell you to do?"

Durga slapped the one who was near to her. The second one was shocked to see. She slapped him as well. The third one stepped backward when Durga held his shirt's collar and slapped him. Their cheeks were red with her hand imprint.

She wanted to slap them again. She felt she had her rage was increasing instead of decreasing. She looked at them with raw fury. The men were too shocked to react.

She raised her hand when she felt her anger was subsiding slowly. Few moments later, she felt strange peace filling her mind. Confused, she turned towards the crowd to spot Rudra.

The men ran away and the crowd slowly dispersed. Durga, coming out of her trance, bought the bananas. Rudra stood there. He didn't know what happened but the sight of Durga slapping three men gave him a sense of pride and assurance.

Durga walked to her home, confused with what had happened that day.

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Initial conversation of Durga and Akshad spoke of the balance of energies. The concept is borrowed from Amish's book, The Immortals of Meluha.

This chapter is dedicated to all the girls and women. Every girl, no matter whichever country they belong to, face this situation. Sad yet shameful.