My heart weeps and I wail from the
deepest crevices within as I feel utterly helpless and vulnerable today. Really,
is this the country that I was born in? Please oh please somebody tell me that
I can dare to believe in this country of mine. Please oh pretty please tell me
that all is still not lost!
Shining India is the
country where Sonali Mukherjee was chastised with acid for standing up
against scoundrels who fancied playing with her honour! A country where the
perpetrators of that horrible crime were set free by our esteemed judiciary! I
feel burdened by guilt for I cannot do anything to change the pain that girls
like her go through every day. I feel responsible for not being able to do
anything to put away men who commit such heinous acts against women! I can’t
help but feel violated every time I read or see something like this.
Six years back due to an unfortunate
incident in my hostel I had suffered burn injuries. It was painful and I endured
for six months while those scars remain till today. If that was so hard for me;
then I get goose bumps even imagining about Sonali’s plight!
I know I write articles regularly
speaking about how unfair our society is towards women; perhaps repetitive; but
what other option do I have? As I watched Sonali Mukherjee today in KBC, I was
in awe of her strength. I cannot even imagine the sort of struggle she and her
family would have gone through! Infact they still are!
Who should she blame; the men who
were cowardly and gutless enough to consider that their manhood lay in
destroying her life; the judiciary for failing so miserably or God for putting
her through such pain? The ordeal that Sonali has been put through is so terrifying
and bloodcurdling that today the sensation of hopelessness in me is deafening.
We live in the largest democracy
they say; well I say its utter rubbish and outright hogwash! Our democracy is
selective and comes into being to offer lawbreakers and touts a window to
escape as in this case. It certainly isn’t of the people, by the people and for
the people in India instead it is of the offenders, by the offenders and for
the offenders! We live in a country where mockery of justice is a
way of life!
A beautiful life was forever destroyed
almost a decade back and the sad part is that the ones responsible for it still
roam about freely in public. The offenders unfortunately have moved ahead in life
while the victim still suffers to this day. After blatant massacre of humanity and
justice; was it wrong for her to petition for euthanasia? Definitely not but I
guess there are still people with morals alive who had come forward to help her
with treatment and rehabilitation. Perhaps we just need a bit of jolting but we
are still there to feel for others, aren't we?
But the question in my mind is
would that be enough? Who would give Sonali back a decade of her life lost? Who
would give the peace of mind that her family had lost? Who would give back
Sonali her mother’s sanity? Who would see to it that those three monsters are
punished and punished in a manner that no man dares to ever come close to
harming a woman?
I pity the mothers of those men;
infact those mothers are not even worthy to be called women. They along with
their families are banes to this society. If given a chance I would do anything
to make sure that they beg for their lives to be taken away but are made to
live in pain and grief.
Protecting our dignity is our
right. I feel sorry for those men that feel coercion and force is a stamp of
their manhood. The truth though is that such men are not even worth to be
called eunuchs; perhaps they are even an insult to those. I had read somewhere
that the most courageous act is to think and protect ourselves. Sonali was
courageous, one of the bravest women I have ever seen or read about in my life.
The three scum bags who thought that vandalizing Sonali with acid would let
them take away her dignity must be told how wrong they were. Those morons didn’t
realise that no amount of assault or cruelty could let them snatch a woman’s
honour unless she surrenders it herself! I salute Sonali and I agree when she
says she has no hope from judiciary or the Government. Nothing can reduce her
pain or her agony; nobody can understand her mêlée. I could just hope that one
day she gets better and leads a normal life in the future!
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