CUANDO LA VERDAD SALIÓ, YA ERA TARDE !

This story is based on real events.  It happened in Delhi in 2014. One day after her birthday, a girl named Piju wakes up next to her mother in bed.  Pu seems to still be asleep.  And although Piju tries to wake her up again and again, the woman does not respond.  Tired of trying, the little girl decides to get up and leave the room with her doll in her arms.

  She goes downstairs to the living room, which is still messy from the previous day’s celebration.  Upon arriving, Piju calls his dad, Gorab, to see if he is home, but no one answers.  After walking around the room for a while, he approaches the front door and tries to open it, although he cannot reach the doorknob.

  Resigned, she gives up and picks up the newspaper that someone left under the door.  With the newspaper in hand, he slowly begins to climb the stairs to take it to his mother.  On the way, he hears the sound of water running from the kitchen and calls Puya to come and turn off the tap.  When she didn’t get an answer, the girl dragged a small stool and climbed on it to try to turn off the water tap.

  Her little hands can’t reach, so she can’t do it.  No options.  Leave the tap running and go back upstairs .  He sits down in front of the television, just outside his mother’s room, and starts changing the channels with the remote control.  Try putting on something other than the news until you find an entertainment channel where people are dancing.

Piju smiles and begins to move happily to the rhythm of the music. Then she runs to the room and asks her mom to get up to dance with her, but Puya still doesn’t react. Piju tells him that he wants to use the garden swing and pleads with him to answer.  Although her mother remains fast asleep.

  The girl goes out again and changes the channel to a movie channel.  Suddenly she sees that they are broadcasting her mother’s favorite soap opera and runs excitedly to tell her.  Even so, Puya doesn’t move.  Piju turns up the volume on the television so her mother can hear her, but when she returns to the room she still gets no answer.

Desperate, she begins to gently move it while speaking to it between sobs, but nothing happens.  At that moment he hears the sound of a phone ringing, looks around and sees it on a shelf.  She decides to go down the little stool to reach him and take him to the room.  However, before she arrives, the phone stops ringing and she leaves the small bench halfway up the stairs.

  He goes back to the room and tries to wake his mother again, but he can’t .  Suddenly she feels the urge to go to the bathroom, so she goes alone.  When he finishes, he goes back to Puya and insists on waking her up, but his mother remains motionless. The phone rings again.  Piju runs across the little bench and takes it to the shelf.

  He climbs carefully and tries to grab the phone, but he can’t reach it. He speaks to his mother hoping she will react, but there is no response. Tired, she decides to leave him.  Then he goes into the bathroom and starts playing with the faucet, splashing water.  To get Puya’s attention, he wets his dad’s sandals, knowing that his mother doesn’t like that.

Even so, he can’t wake her up.  Then he takes several toothbrushes and brushes his teeth with all of them playfully until he gets tired.  Then she goes back to the room determined to wake her mother up once more.  As she moves it, a bottle of pills falls from Puya’s hand.  Piju picks it up and examines it, wondering what it is.

  She suspects they are her mother’s medicines.  She starts picking them up from the floor and puts them back in the jar.  Since Pu doesn’t respond, Piju decides not to take any and leaves some scattered on the ground while putting the rest in the jar.  Suddenly, the phone rings again.  This time the girl is determined to answer it.

  He climbs onto the stool, takes a small jump and manages to reach the cell phone, but when he tries to answer, the device slips out of his hands and falls under the shelf.  Even so, it seems he managed to press the button to answer.  As he tries to pull the phone out of the floor, he hears a familiar voice.  It’s his dad, Gorab.  The man sounds annoyed, speaking angrily, unaware that it is not Puya who is listening.

   He confronts her about having argued with her that morning before leaving.  He says he’s tired of the arguments and that he missed his flight to Colcata because of them.   He also reproaches her for not packing his suitcases or the things he needed for his trip.  As he continues speaking, Gauraf mentions that he only called to let them know he forgot to turn off the iron before leaving.

  She says to leave it unplugged because it could be dangerous, especially since her daughter is home alone.  In his anger he says harsh words, but Pihu doesn’t understand what he hears. As he tries to reach the phone, Gaurav hears his daughter’s voice and is surprised. He asks if she is okay and tells her to take good care of herself, as he is already on his way to a meeting.

  Pihu tries to explain that her mom isn’t answering her, but her dad can’t understand her. Finally, she says goodbye and hangs up .  The girl puts down her phone and approaches Puya, notices that she has marks on her face and comments that her mother needs a cream.  She goes into the closet to look for it, but gets distracted when she finds a lipstick.

  She plays with it, puts on makeup in front of the mirror and laughs without noticing an important detail. There’s a note written on the mirror with that same lipstick.  Piju can’t read, but the message is addressed to Gauraf. In it, Puauya expresses his sadness and disappointment.  She reproaches him for having treated her badly, even after she left her family to be with him.

  In the letter, she says that she can no longer endure the situation and has made a desperate decision. Piju, oblivious to everything, comes out of the closet and runs towards her mother to show her her painted lips.  As always, he gets no response.  Then he looks for the cream and clumsily applies it to Puya’s face .

  She uses so much that she ends up getting the bed and floor muddy.  At that moment, the iron begins to smoke.  Piju sees the smoke, but doesn’t understand what’s happening.  He approaches curiously and touches the warm fabric.  The heat burns his hand and he bursts into tears, begging his mother to wake up.  Even so, it receives no reaction.

  Exhausted, she snuggles up next to Puya and ends up falling asleep.  After a while, the phone rings again, but Pu doesn’t pay attention to it.   He wakes up later hungry and calls his mom for milk.  Although no one answers.  She goes to a shelf, takes a baby bottle with milk from the day before, and when she tries to drink, the liquid spills on the floor.

  Piju sighs and looks for a rag to clean up the mess.  Then she walks to the kitchen and finds some pancakes stored inside a container. Without really knowing how to use them, he flips some switches.  One belongs to the water heater and the other to the microwave. She puts the pancake inside and heats it for too long.

  She watches the plate spin inside the microwave, fascinated, until the bread burns.  Disappointed, she tries to use the stove, turns the knobs uncontrollably and places another pancake on the flame, but it also ends up getting burned, gets scared and walks away leaving the stove on.  Then he goes to the refrigerator, it’s hard for him to open it, but he finally manages.

  She takes out some food and, bored, starts emptying the bottom part to get inside and play.  She tries to close the door from the inside, but it gets stuck and she pushes hard.  until they manage to get out.  All the contents of the refrigerator fall to the floor; tired, she sits down and spreads some jam on a slice of bread.

  She starts eating peacefully until someone knocks on the door.  He is a garbage service worker asking if there is anything to be collected.  Piju replies that she is eating, but the man does not listen to her and walks away to another apartment.  She approaches the door, looks down at her feet, and calls him several times without success.

  Finally, he gives up and goes upstairs with the bread to see his mother.  When he arrives, he tries to give him a piece, but Pu doesn’t react.  Piju ends up eating it herself and starts playing with the balloons from the previous party.  While playing, one of the balloons gets too close to the iron stand.

 Without realizing it, Piju keeps throwing them until the hot iron bursts one of them with a loud pop.  Startled, the girl backs away and screams, believing it was an explosion. Just then, the phone rings again.  Pihu takes a ruler and uses it to drag it from the furniture.  This time she manages to answer. “It’s her dad, Gauraf,” he says, surprised to hear his daughter’s voice.

 He asks about her mom, and Piju replies that she’s asleep in her room . He says he’ll give her the phone right away. He places the phone next to Pua, and Gauraf continues talking, unaware of what’s really going on. He tells her he’s already on the plane and won’t be able to talk for long. He says he only called to ask if she’d turned off the iron because the automatic system stopped working.

 When he doesn’t get a response, he complains about how stubborn she is and says that’s what drives him crazy. Then he apologizes, admitting he made a mistake by arriving late and missing his daughter’s birthday. He explains that he didn’t think it was such a big deal until the argument dragged on all night.

 He also mentions that he doesn’t understand why she insists so much on talking about Mira, a coworker who, according to him, means nothing more than that. He even reminds her that Mira is Puya’s friend and that there’s nothing between them. While he’s trying to justify himself, a flight attendant asks him to turn off his phone because  The flight is about to take off.

 Gorf abruptly ends the call . Piju, not quite understanding, looks at the phone and presses the buttons several times before leaving it on the bed. Then she takes her toy phone and goes out to the living room to continue playing. However, the toy’s cord is tangled in the iron’s stand. When she pulls it, the iron falls onto the metal table and starts burning the fabric on top.

 Piju doesn’t notice the smoke rising and goes to sit in front of the television. She enjoys the program she’s watching, but suddenly the screen goes black. Thinking it’s a connection problem, she goes behind the television to try to fix it. There are several exposed wires, but not understanding the danger, she tries to flip the switch.

 She does n’t succeed at first, so she tries again. The television remains off. As she watches, confused, someone knocks on the door, and Piju calls out that she’ll be right there . Before she arrives, the person leaves and knocks on the door of the apartment next door. Piju peeks under the door and overhears part of the conversation.

 She discovers it was the  A milkman was coming to drop off an order for Piju’s mother. The neighbor across the hall told him she wouldn’t take responsibility for it. She commented that Puya and Guraf were bad neighbors because they hadn’t been invited to Piju’s party and had played their music too loudly. The man tried to persuade her, but the woman refused to help.

 After they both left, Piju lay down on the floor and fell asleep. When she woke up, she grabbed her doll and went back upstairs to her room. On the way, she heard a high-pitched whistling sound coming from the bathroom. Seconds later, the water heater malfunctioned and exploded, spraying water and steam all over the kitchen.

 Frightened, Piju screamed for her mother, but no one answered. Hearing the explosion, the neighbor started muttering again about how irresponsible her neighbors were and called the building’s security guard to check the apartment. The guard, without much interest, replied that he would do so later.

 The girl stopped crying after a while, although her expression was still full of fear. She hugged…  her doll and goes back into the room. At that moment, the light goes out, and the fan stops spinning. Luckily, the iron also turns off and stops burning the fabric. It turns out there’s a problem with the building’s electricity , but the technicians are already working to fix it.

 Piju sees the light, but simply tells her mom she wants to go out and play. She opens the balcony door and starts calling to her friends who live on the lower floors. Piju lives with her family on the top floor of the building and still leans dangerously over the railing so they can hear her. When no one answers, she throws one of her dolls down and splashes water, trying to get their attention.

 When still no one responds, Piju tries to show her biggest doll over the balcony, hoping they’ll see her, but it slips out of her hands and the toy falls, getting stuck on an iron bar right below. Desperate to get it back, Piju first tries to reach it with her leg, but she can’t. Then she runs back to the room to ask her mom for help, begging her to get up.

 However, Piju still doesn’t react.  The determined girl returns to the balcony and begins to climb the railing to try and grab the doll herself. She struggles to maintain her balance, but every time she stretches out, her feet slip. Even so, she manages to hold on tightly and not fall. Tired from so much effort, she decides to climb a little higher.

 She wants to get over the railing to climb down and find her doll. Just before she does, a woman from the building across the street sees her and shouts at the top of her lungs, telling her to get down and go inside. Pijo doesn’t understand what the woman is saying, but seeing her upset, she gets scared and goes back inside. The neighbor asks for help from the other residents and the security guard, but no one seems to hear her.

 Meanwhile, inside the apartment, Puya’s phone rings again. Piju runs to answer it. It’s Mira, a friend of her mother’s, who sounds annoyed and says she doesn’t understand why Puya thinks she wants to ruin her marriage. The woman explains that she just wants to talk and that she’ll come to visit her in a few hours.

 Before she finishes, Pijo interrupts the call. Mira…  She realizes it’s not her friend, but the little girl, and tells her tenderly that she’ll come by soon . After she hangs up, the apartment lights start flickering. Pijuo gets scared and stands still, looking around. Outside, some neighbors also notice the power outages and ask the security guard what’s happening.

 He replies that the generators are malfunctioning, but that the technicians are already working on it. When the lights stop flickering, Piju continues playing with her mother’s phone. Minutes later, she hears a car horn in front of the building. She looks out onto the balcony, thinking it’s her father, but it is n’t.

 She goes back inside just as the phone rings again. She answers, and this time it is Goraf. Hearing his daughter’s voice, he’s surprised and asks her why she has her mother’s phone. Pijuo replies that Puya is sleeping. He asks where she is, and she says she’s at home. Goraf tells her that she’s in the city of Colcata for work and to let her mother know.  that she’ll call her back in an hour.

 The call ends and the cell phone shows a low battery warning, but that doesn’t stop Pihu from playing with it for a while. Then she puts the phone aside and starts picking up the pills still on the floor. She climbs onto the bed, lies down next to her mother, and, exhausted, falls asleep again. When she wakes up, the lights are back on and the iron has been turned on again, burning the fabric on the table once more.

Smoke fills the room again. At that moment, the phone rings with a promotional call. Pijo answers, but doesn’t say anything. The annoyed salesman hangs up. The girl puts down the phone and tries again to wake her mother to talk, but she can’t; she’s too tired. Thirsty, she grabs a bottle of cleaning product that’s nearby, and since it’s a milky color, she asks her mother if she can drink it.

When she doesn’t get an answer, she goes to the kitchen, opens the cleaning product, and pours it into her water bottle. As she does so, she accidentally spills both liquids on the floor, mixing them together. She wrinkles her nose.  Piju frowns and is disappointed. Then she goes back to her room and asks her mom to get up so she can feed her.

Meanwhile, a text message arrives from Mira saying she won’t be able to visit due to an unforeseen event. Not understanding, Piju simply puts her phone aside and goes out to the dining room to find something to eat. The house is a mess with water on the floor and food scraps on the table.

 The girl wades through the puddles until she finds a plate of leftovers and sits down under the table to eat. Suddenly, someone knocks on the door and asks if anyone is inside. Piju hears it but doesn’t answer. The man, thinking no one is home, complains loudly about Guraf and Puya, saying they are messy and that leaving a tap running is disrespectful.

 He says he will complain to the building management and leaves. Piju runs to the door, telling him to wait, but he does n’t hear her anymore. When she returns to her room, Piju sees the phone ringing again. It’s her dad, Goraf, again. Hearing his daughter’s voice, he begins  Gorf is worried. He finds it strange that Puya still isn’t answering.

 He asks her what her mom is doing, and Piju replies that she’s asleep. Before continuing, she asks her dad to tell her a story. Gorf agrees to calm her down and tells her a short story, trying not to show his anxiety. When he finishes, he asks the girl to give the phone to Puya, but Piju tells him that her mom is still sleeping and isn’t answering.

 This leaves Gorf silent for a few seconds. Finally, he tells his daughter not to hang up while he tries to call Mira on his other phone. He dials several times, but Mira doesn’t answer. She left him a voicemail begging him to come to the apartment to check if Puya is okay. Then he tells the taxi driver to change course and take him to the airport immediately so they can return home.

During the ride, Gorf is anxious and asks the driver to speed up, but traffic is at a standstill, and they move slowly. Meanwhile, he assures Piju that he’s on his way and that everything will be alright. However, the call is suddenly cut off.  Piju returns to the room with a plate of food. She tries to feed her mother, but when she sees that she doesn’t react, she eats it herself.

 Then she picks up one of the pills from the floor and asks if she can take it. When she doesn’t get a response, she puts one in her mouth. The taste is bitter, and she grimaces. She looks at the rest, hesitates, and after a moment, sets them aside and lies down on the floor. Little by little, she begins to feel dizzy. Her vision blurs, and her body weakens until she finally collapses on the floor.

Hours later, the house is dark, the iron is still on, and smoke fills the air. Outside, some neighbors notice that something strange is happening. They bang on the door and call out, but no one answers. They are afraid to force entry without knowing what they might find inside.

 Finally, Gaura arrives at the building, runs up the stairs, and when she opens the door, she finds the house filled with smoke. The iron is still plugged in, and the smell of burning permeates everything. She rushes into the room and stops dead in her tracks. Puja lies motionless on the bed. Her face reflects a profound calm. Gaurab is paralyzed, unable to believe what he sees.

 The phone falls from his hands as his eyes fill with tears. He then begins searching for his daughter, calling her name throughout the house. He runs back and forth until he hears a small voice say, “Daddy, I’m here.” Gaurab crouches down and finds her under the bed. The little girl, with an innocent smile, tells him that she built a little house with her toys and asks him to wake up Mommy.

 He can’t say a word, he just looks at her with a broken heart and breaks down in silent tears, while the little girl continues speaking tenderly, not understanding the magnitude of what has happened. And so ends this story inspired by true events, based on a case that occurred in Delhi in 2014, where a child was left alone after a family tragedy.

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