" Everyone's a shade of gray, but in some people the dark side is so more dominant than the white. "
She knew in her heart that this was not right. She was brought up as a responsible kid, so her mother had always told her what was happening around the world. So the moment it happened, she knew it was wrong.
Ruhi was a ten year old bubbly smart girl. One and only child of her parents. Their heart and soul. Not only their's, the minute one talks to her, they fell in love with her. She always had a smile and huge talks for everyone. She was a happy child.
Ruhi's house was a two storey building and the upper portion was rented out. Recently only some youngsters in their twenties, came to live there. They all were from good families and with reputed jobs. Amit was one among them and he was a people's person. Soon he became favourite to Ruhi's parents. And Ruhi also saw a big brother in Amit. And he became her Amit bhai.
One fine morning on a festive day, when the house was beaming with festive mood, aromatic with good food and flowers and Ruhi who was glowing proudly in her new dress was asked by her mom to take 'Payasam' to the above tenants. And Ruhi ran upstairs with the sweet, also to show her new dress to Amit Bhai. When Amit saw little Ruhi, he gave his million dollar smile and called her inside.
The TV was on. And Ruhi was shocked to see what was playing on it. Before she could ask anything, she was squeezed to the wall by her Amit bhai with his body, which was huge on the little one. His lips were on hers and his hands wandered all over her. She could smell cigarettes in his breath and his tongue tasted like venom. She felt disgusting but couldn't even budge a bit. She wanted to scream, but her mouth were sealed with his. She wanted to push him away, but her hands were held strongly by him.
The little one cried for her mother .... Hearing that thinking her mother was coming, triggered him to move. And that moment she ran from there. Reaching home, Ruhi locked herself inside the washroom and vigorously splashed water all over. She started scrubbing her lips so hard that she bruised herself. But even then, he couldn't get rid of his taste in her mouth and the wriggling feeling all over herself.
She was lucky enough to get away before the worst happened. And looking at herself in the mirror, she didn't knew that like many million children, she was also abused... but only understood that something very bad had happened with her.
Even before entering into the real world...
Even before getting to know the people around her...
Even before trying to fly out...
Even before blooming into a flower...
Her innocence was destroyed.
******
When there's so much of beauty and happiness in this world, a few people like this is more than enough to destroy our trust in mankind. It hurts even to think that it would happen to my daughter/niece/any little girl I know any time, anywhere. And "Amit" would have been my son or anyone dear to me. If such an incident happens to someone else in the world it might makes us sad, angry or creep us out of our skin but, if it happens to our people it might destroy us.
P.S. Don't know if it was way too much to hit "publish"... and it took me some time to post this. Know this is a very common issue nowadays but ever since I heard this from "Ruhi" wanted to write it down here.
This was written for Write Tribe Festival of Words from 8th-14th Dec 2013.
Today's theme is "People".
A sad sad fact of life... one which we pray does not happen to our children. I dont know why but I always feel we have regressed in life over time... given in to animalistic tendencies..
ReplyDeleteYou know how I feel about this na girly? How sad that humans are increasingly becoming incapable of controlling the devil inside themselves :(
ReplyDeleteYou know how I feel about this na girly? How sad that humans are increasingly becoming incapable of controlling the devil inside themselves :(
ReplyDeletegosh...I am with you on this, Sheethal.
ReplyDeleteInnocence is being destroyed at every minute by such ghastly beasts.
I pray and pray hard for all this to stop!
There are a lot of sick people in this world preying on our children. It is awful. No one deserves to be abused. ♥
ReplyDeleteAn incident like this can completely change a child. Is Ruhi a real person or was this fiction? I do hope she can look beyond the ugliness and earn to be her sunny self again. As for Amit.. The likes of him should be lynched.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad truth that such abuse mostly takes place at the hands of someone the child knows..
ReplyDeleteI felt something move inside me. So many of Amits in our lives and so many of them go scott free..
ReplyDeleteRicha
This is painful. Our kids are not safe anywhere. This nemesis is catching up every nook and corner of our country. Whom do we trust?
ReplyDeleteYou left me shocked reading this one and the world is surrounded by vultures who don't respect relationships. It's really sad what's happening around us as we dunno who to trust. What we need is stringent laws so that those vultures think twice before doing something like that.
ReplyDeleteThat was shocking.. it is a curse of the society that such people exist amongst us. Even more life shattering when they are one of us - the victim, the perpetrator, doesn't matter.
ReplyDelete