So Mom saved me in the end. It all happened so quickly. Suddenly they were all there, all the people I loved: Mom and Dad and Janiki, and even people I didn’t know, but who already seemed to love me, a man I called Wayne Uncle but Mom said he was to be my new dad so I mustn’t call him Uncle. So he said I could call him Wayne, but it’s rude to call an adult by their first name so I called him Wayne Uncle in my mind and just never said it out loud. I didn’t want to be rude. But he was nice. He came from America. He is Mom’s husband. He only stayed a few days then he had to go back to America, to work. But he said he would come back for the wedding, and he did.
And there was a little girl called Ragi who they said was to be my little sister, and she loved me too; she was a bit scared of everyone except Janiki and she clung to me so I took care of her, and Janiki laughed and said I could be her chinna-amma. And then there was a very big lady who never got up because she can’t walk, and she is called Rani Abishta. I was scared of her but they said she is my great-grandmother. That means she is Dad’s grandmother, and I should call her Daadi. She was scary but very kind to me, feeding me sweets all day, but Mom said I wasn’t to eat so many sweets; it wasn’t healthy. But Daadi still fed me sweets and called me to sit on her lap but I didn’t want to, so she just laughed and fed me some more sweets. Those were the most delicious sweets I ever ate in my whole life. I couldn’t stop eating them. So whenever I could I sneaked away and went to Daadi for sweets, and I took Ragi with me because Ragi liked being with me, and she liked the sweets too.
We left Bombay soon after my rescue to go to this place where Rani Abishta lived. It was like a palace in the Mahabharata, like Indraprastha, with beautiful gardens and marble buildings and carpets and tapestries and wonderful paintings everywhere. It is Daadi’s home and she said it is my home too. We could all stay there as long as we wanted. And she and Dad spent a lot of time together talking so I was mostly with Mom and Janiki and Ragi. We went for long walks in the gardens and there were mango trees and we could eat mangoes straight from the tree. I took good care of Ragi. She held my hand all the time and Mom and Janiki laughed and said, ‘We cannot separate them. They are sisters.’
And then there was a wedding in that place. Dad and Janiki got married. It was the most beautiful wedding in the world. Janiki looked so gorgeous in her red sari. She and Dad love each other very much. They walked around the holy fire together and vowed to always love each other. That’s what marriage means, Janiki told me. Janiki said I didn’t have to call her Amma now; she would always be my chinna-amma but I could still call her Janiki because she is my sister as well as my chinna-amma. Wayne Uncle came for the wedding but left again. He works hard.
After the wedding we came to another place and that is even more beautiful than Daadi’s palace. It is in the Nilgiri Hills in South India, and it is just like living in heaven with lakes and hills and trees and flowers. The place belongs to Dad. It is part of the silk business that Dad owns, a resort for the staff.
Mom is working with Ragi and me in that heavenly place. She is doing a thing called Therapy, which sounds scary, but it isn’t at all. It’s fun. We paint a lot and make figures out of clay, and we play musical instruments and sing and dance, and act in plays. Doing all these things makes me happy, and it makes Ragi happy too.
Ragi has a lot of problems, Janiki said. She had an evil dad who did mean things to her and she was very sad inside so we all had to love her very much and that will cure her. Our love will gradually wash away the bad feelings inside her. Our love will make the ugliness she has known melt into the past, so she can have a future. Our love will make her life beautiful. So we all love her as much as we can, and Ragi has learned to smile and love back. And she has even learned to love Dad too, because Dad did Therapy with her. She used to be scared of Dad, but Dad played with her and me and we swam together in the lake, and we sang and made music together. And I no longer think Dad is a god; he’s just Dad and I love him like you’re supposed to love a dad.
And another good thing happened. Mom has a friend in America who is a journalist. And when Mom told her my story, and about Ragi, that friend wrote an article and it was published in a big foreign newspaper with photos of me and Ragi. And all the foreigners in America and England and all over the world got all angry and made a huge fuss and so the Indian newspapers also made a big fuss and everyone in America and Europe was outraged. And we were even on American TV! And English and German and Italian TV!
And then Indians also got outraged and the Indian politicians and lawmakers and police also got outraged and they came to talk to me and Ragi and Daddy and Mom and Gita and Janiki. And everything came to light and they arrested all kinds of people and even Mr Chaudhuri and Mr Rajgopal, and they will go to jail. But not Devaki Aunty because she went to live in Lucknow, Mom said, to start a new life, and Mom didn’t tell the police about her. Because Devaki Aunty helped, and trusted us, and she has a daughter too, Mom said.
And people sent donations from all over the world to help little girls like Ragi, and in the space of a month Dr Ganotra was able to rescue five more of them. And so many donations came in that he was able to buy another house in the country so that they have a place to go when they are rescued, because Tulasa House is not enough. So you see: even when terrible things happen, good things can result. And now I understand why I never gave up hope.
We have been here for months now. Because Therapy takes a long time. But sooner or later, Janiki said, the adults have to decide what they want to do and where they want to live.
‘We all want to stay together,’ Janiki said. ‘Kamal and I are adopting Ragi so she is our daughter, but you are everyone’s daughter, Caroline’s and Kamal’s and mine, and so we all have to live together, and Wayne too. It’s a bit of a problem, baby, but not a big one. We can buy a big house for us all in America or here in India. A house where two families can live, with a lovely garden, or two houses next to each other. Wayne already has a job in America so probably it will be there. All the rest of us are more flexible and we don’t care; we just want to be with you.’
So it looks as if we are all going to move to America. To a place called Massachoosits. It’s a lovely place, Mom said, and we’ll have a lovely big house, big enough for all of us, with a porch all around it, and Ragi and I will go to school. But first Ragi has to learn English, but she already can say some words. I am teaching her.
Janiki loves computers, but she does not have one here. She says she is taking a computer break. But when the break is over she is going to work as a detective. Just like in the stories we used to read together, except she will be a computer detective. She found me through detective work on the computer. She wants to find other stolen girls with the computer. She is going to work with Doctor G, who is the doctor who helped find me. He said I can call him Doctor G because I can’t remember his name; I just remember it starts with G. And Gita’s name also starts with G. She is Janiki’s and Mom’s friend. She showed us some nice places in Bombay – but still we were in a hurry to leave, because of the bad things that happened there. ‘We must put the past behind us,’ Janiki said, and that’s what we’re going to do.
So now I have two mothers and two fathers and a little sister, and maybe one day some more brothers and sisters, Janiki said. But it just shows that I was wrong when I said I was lost for ever. Bad times are never for ever. Bad times come and bad times go, and when they are with us, we must remember that all will be well by the power of all harmony. And that is the simple truth. And that is why my name is Asha: Hope.