"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." - Alfred Pennyworth (Sir Michael Caine)
We live in a generation, where people don't believe in prophecies. December 21, 2012 may not have turned out to be the prophesied doomsday to mark the end of the world, but it surely marks the end of humanity. The moment we stop fighting for each other, that's the moment we lose our humanity.
Those days aren't far when the morning newspaper's main headlines would be, Six men mercilessly rape a girl in her twenties, with an iron rod, in a moving bus, almost killing her; or making her life worse than hell. A madman, indulged into his whims enters a school and becomes responsible for the death of 22 people, mostly children. A father, who comes weary and drunk at home rapes and murders his 10 year old daughter, who is later found in pieces by the river. A woman poisons her entire family, because she's going through a bad marriage and she cannot handle the everlasting depression. A mother of four children, sedated and gang-raped just for the sake of revenge. The list will never end. Ironically, one stops having any qualms from thievery, smuggling and similar organized crime in the city as they seem to be pretty innocent compared to what goes on.
In this era, it seems like giving birth to a girl child and letting her stand up for what's right, would be a grave mistake. The moment she steps out to face this sadistic world, is the moment we start challenging her endurance level. But there are some things that cannot be endured. These barbarous crimes are committed with such cruelty, that merely reading about them sends a chill down our spine. We feel sick and devastated, only by imagining the agonizing pain that a victim goes through. One can feel echoes of the screams and shrieks of agony, begging them to stop. Begging them for mercy. The torture that an innocent girl faces, thinking about how a few minutes could change her entire life. How someone can prick your balloon of hopes and dreams and send you spinning down forever to the chasms of misery. The pain that a family feels losing their daughter, which is nothing less than dying; each day for the rest of their lives.
We live in a society, where girls sharing their reviews on social networking sites are arrested and punished. But if the same girl becomes a victim of rape and molestation isn't provided justice. Every moment, somewhere in the world, a girl falls prey to physical or mental abuse. Eve-teasing is one of things, which has a common occurrence with every girl, around every corner. One stops caring about these casual things. The weak are neglected as trivial hindrances in our justice system. It takes years, sometimes decades to serve them with proper justice. There are only some such cases which can be brought to notice by the media, while 90% of them go unnoticed everyday.
Since as long as we can remember, the Law has always been sidestepped as a joke. The deeply flawed and corrupt system fails to create any terror whatsoever among the rapists, molesters and such category of criminals. After getting paid over and under the table for warming their seats for such a long time and enough pressure put under their asses, the 'government' might finally condemn the accused with the death sentence. But, would this be enough to serve justice to what happens with so many women every day in India? Wouldn't justice be to castrate the rapists and tie them naked in middle of the street, leaving them to the mercy of people? Let the people decide their fate, not the Law. Let people fling stones, throw acid, hurl knives or do anything that they'd want to. Let them be punished with such savageness, that no scum would ever dare to harass a girl. In such circumstances, you'd want to support the Arab law of punishing the organ that committed the crime. Unethical and violent it might sound, but what they did defied all acts of brutality and heinousness.
We, the people would offer our condolences and protest against such callousness with fierce, bruised hearts. We would walk down the city holding candles, praying and protesting at the same time. But these things slowly subside, in a few weeks or months' time. What after that? Things fall back to the place where everything started. We lunge ourselves into our daily busy routines and then sooner or later, we get over it. We recover so easily because at the end of the day, it hardly makes difference to any of us. We are born with the mentality to keep quiet and continue nodding with our heads down, until the day something goes wrong with us. Until that extremity is reached, no one really cares. We just let things go, according to the flow.
Today, I see a country where every girl will now fear to step outside her home, not knowing what horror awaits her round the next corner. I see a country where a girl wouldn't walk even twenty feet in a lane, without the fear of being eve-teased or raped. I see every girl, woman and lady groped with terror and despair. I can see hopes and happiness being washed away in the river flooded with terror and inhumanity.
Yes, no country is perfect. We have to strive to make it better. A night is darkest before the dawn, nothing lasts forever. Someday, somewhere, somehow everything comes to an end. Something, has to be done. A change, has to be made.
"I am starting with the Man in the Mirror. I am asking him to change his ways. And no message could have been any clearer, if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change." - Michael Jackson
We live in a generation, where people don't believe in prophecies. December 21, 2012 may not have turned out to be the prophesied doomsday to mark the end of the world, but it surely marks the end of humanity. The moment we stop fighting for each other, that's the moment we lose our humanity.
Those days aren't far when the morning newspaper's main headlines would be, Six men mercilessly rape a girl in her twenties, with an iron rod, in a moving bus, almost killing her; or making her life worse than hell. A madman, indulged into his whims enters a school and becomes responsible for the death of 22 people, mostly children. A father, who comes weary and drunk at home rapes and murders his 10 year old daughter, who is later found in pieces by the river. A woman poisons her entire family, because she's going through a bad marriage and she cannot handle the everlasting depression. A mother of four children, sedated and gang-raped just for the sake of revenge. The list will never end. Ironically, one stops having any qualms from thievery, smuggling and similar organized crime in the city as they seem to be pretty innocent compared to what goes on.
In this era, it seems like giving birth to a girl child and letting her stand up for what's right, would be a grave mistake. The moment she steps out to face this sadistic world, is the moment we start challenging her endurance level. But there are some things that cannot be endured. These barbarous crimes are committed with such cruelty, that merely reading about them sends a chill down our spine. We feel sick and devastated, only by imagining the agonizing pain that a victim goes through. One can feel echoes of the screams and shrieks of agony, begging them to stop. Begging them for mercy. The torture that an innocent girl faces, thinking about how a few minutes could change her entire life. How someone can prick your balloon of hopes and dreams and send you spinning down forever to the chasms of misery. The pain that a family feels losing their daughter, which is nothing less than dying; each day for the rest of their lives.
We live in a society, where girls sharing their reviews on social networking sites are arrested and punished. But if the same girl becomes a victim of rape and molestation isn't provided justice. Every moment, somewhere in the world, a girl falls prey to physical or mental abuse. Eve-teasing is one of things, which has a common occurrence with every girl, around every corner. One stops caring about these casual things. The weak are neglected as trivial hindrances in our justice system. It takes years, sometimes decades to serve them with proper justice. There are only some such cases which can be brought to notice by the media, while 90% of them go unnoticed everyday.
Since as long as we can remember, the Law has always been sidestepped as a joke. The deeply flawed and corrupt system fails to create any terror whatsoever among the rapists, molesters and such category of criminals. After getting paid over and under the table for warming their seats for such a long time and enough pressure put under their asses, the 'government' might finally condemn the accused with the death sentence. But, would this be enough to serve justice to what happens with so many women every day in India? Wouldn't justice be to castrate the rapists and tie them naked in middle of the street, leaving them to the mercy of people? Let the people decide their fate, not the Law. Let people fling stones, throw acid, hurl knives or do anything that they'd want to. Let them be punished with such savageness, that no scum would ever dare to harass a girl. In such circumstances, you'd want to support the Arab law of punishing the organ that committed the crime. Unethical and violent it might sound, but what they did defied all acts of brutality and heinousness.
We, the people would offer our condolences and protest against such callousness with fierce, bruised hearts. We would walk down the city holding candles, praying and protesting at the same time. But these things slowly subside, in a few weeks or months' time. What after that? Things fall back to the place where everything started. We lunge ourselves into our daily busy routines and then sooner or later, we get over it. We recover so easily because at the end of the day, it hardly makes difference to any of us. We are born with the mentality to keep quiet and continue nodding with our heads down, until the day something goes wrong with us. Until that extremity is reached, no one really cares. We just let things go, according to the flow.
Today, I see a country where every girl will now fear to step outside her home, not knowing what horror awaits her round the next corner. I see a country where a girl wouldn't walk even twenty feet in a lane, without the fear of being eve-teased or raped. I see every girl, woman and lady groped with terror and despair. I can see hopes and happiness being washed away in the river flooded with terror and inhumanity.
Yes, no country is perfect. We have to strive to make it better. A night is darkest before the dawn, nothing lasts forever. Someday, somewhere, somehow everything comes to an end. Something, has to be done. A change, has to be made.
"I am starting with the Man in the Mirror. I am asking him to change his ways. And no message could have been any clearer, if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change." - Michael Jackson
