I was at the office
today, not that busy, the way I usually remain, when the very thought of how a
girl is exploited even when she is on a public transport just swarmed back in
my conscious mind again. I tried to divert my mind a bit, trying to get rid of
these troubling thoughts when suddenly the newspaper lying on my desk caught my
attraction. There was a story regarding the suicide of a girl who was raped by
her neighbor.
Reading that news, I
was shocked, probablynot as much as I should have been, as such news have these
days become quite common with 2-3 pages of a newspaper dedicated to cover crime
reports from the city with murders and rapes hogging most of the spaces. And it
reminded me of an incident which acquainted me with the word “rape” for the
very first time. I was very young and in the junior section of school. Our
Principal announced during the assembly that the next day would be a holiday as
a student of our senior section had died. Neither did he tell us the cause of
her death, nor was I inclined to know as I was overjoyed by getting a holiday
quite unexpectedly (I think all the kids of that age are quite immune to the
sorrows of the world and love nothing better than a day where they would get to
play at their own leisure). But I did keep a solemn appearance as I went up to
our class from the assembly grounds. It was then when I overheardsome senior
boys discussing, in whispers, something important amongst themselves.I could
hear them in bits and pieces, which were strewn with repeated usage of the
terms “rape” and “suicide”, which till then, was totally Greek to me. I went
home and asked my mom the meaning of these words. She gave me a look (the kind
of look you get from your mom when you do something bad), and told me these
were “bad” words and not to discuss them with anyone.
As time flew by, my
scope of “knowledge” regarding the world around me grew wider and I came to know
the proper meaning and relevance of these words. And gradually, when I was in high
school, I came to know about the whole incident regarding that girl’s suicide,
as it was a very hot topic for gossip in our school for years.
The girl was a student
ofthe 9th standard, and she took tuitions from a teacher of our
school. She was having some problems with her studies when the teacher “kindly”
offered her help and arranged an extra class to solve her problems.When the
girl visited that teacher’s home for the extra class, he took advantage of her
innocence, ignorance and trustand raped her repetitively. The teacher (I don’t
know whether it is right to call him that after what he did) also threatened
her with dire consequences, if she reported the incident to anyone and he would
make her fail in class. She (as not matured enough, and because of very high
peer pressure) was afraid of her failing in exams. Neither did she know what
her parents’ reactions would be in this matter and was afraid to tell them
anything. She couldn’t tell anything to her friends or anyone else; neither
could she accept the fact. That night when everyone was asleep she hanged herself.
The next day her
parents saw her lifeless body hanging, and people said there was a hint of
painful smile on her face. Her parents came to know everything from the suicide
note of hers but it was too late as she was already gone. They did file a case
against the teacher. What happened next is unknown to the gossipmongers yet.
I did feel very sorry
for the girl. I was very angry at the teacher also. But I was unable to do
anything about it just like everyone else, and soon the incident faded from my
mind and vanished into obscurity.
I really don’t know
why after so many years this incident popped back, out of nowhere in my mind. But
I did marvel at one small detail, the girl’s smile. Why was she smiling? Was it
intended for this ignorant and infected society? Or was she smiling at her own
fate, her own doom? That remains unanswered till date.
Was it because the
girl from my school, failing to decipher what to do next - whether tell her
parents or keep mum for the next of her life and get pricked by her inner
conscience - lost the will to live any longer? Or was she afraid of this ignorant,
selfish society, which has never lost an opportunity to out-cast and ridiculea rape
victim (whether the perpetrators have been punished or not)? Was it just the
fear of failure in class, she being unable to understand what was more
valuable; or did peer pressure lend a hand to silence her? Wasn’t it the
failure of her parents who could not give her a strong enough ground so that
she could open up to them irrespective of the level of blunder? Is she the only
victim of such cruelty? There are so many questions and so few answers!
Parents and teachers are “la crème de la société” .They is the pillars on which this society and civilization rests on, and we learn our lessons in humanity from them. How can a teacher desire for his student? Why should a child think that her parents won’t believe her? Again, we are faced by more obvious questions. In fact this society has offered us nothing but questions, and never have we striven for the answers.Generations have passed but the questions have remained the same. Doesn’t this incident bring us face to face to the story of”Ahalya”? Being the most beautiful woman on this planet, she was desired by God Indra, even the king of the gods.He had sex with her in the guise of her husband, which technically can be termed as rape (as sexual intercourse happened with a wrong intent or deceitfully), even if the woman had agreed for the copulation, ignorant of the disguise. Though she was atoned by God Rama, for this girl there was no atonement. Don’t we see the example of Medusa who was raped by the Poseidon in the temple of Athena, where she was the priestess, a ravishingly beautiful maiden; and Goddess Athena, enraged by this fact transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone? Aren’t we taught that our teachers are our God? Haven’t we read in the Vedas that “MatrudevoBhava, PitrudevoBhava, AcharyadevoBhava”? Where are the answers, I wonder…?
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