Lost in translation

 I love writing but sometimes as in the present times it seems futile because nothing changes . It’s like we are caught in a time warp and the state of the nation doesn’t change . One thinks the pandemic would change the hunger of the flesh or the base desires of human but every single day , every moment they come back with something worse and leave me with a heavy heart that breaks again and again . Last week in the country that is next to ours had the worst rape committed where a lady was travelling back with her children at night . The petrol finished and she stopped to ask for help , two men ( obviously ) overpowered her and took her after hitting , looting her and in front of the children repeatedly raped her . 

Why does this bother me ? I am an Indian , it shouldn’t bother me . I should be oblivious of this, I am safe , it wont happen to me and why did this woman travel late at night ? Why didn’t she take this road instead of that ? As my maid gave me her homespun advice ,she said koi baat nahi , aurat ki galti hoti hai hamesha , yehi dastoor hai . It doesn’t matter where or what she was doing or what she was wearing , society here or there will always have a list of guidelines, instructions outlined for a woman . 

She will always be too provocative, too daring , she asked for it , she posted pictures online, she said no . I have cried myself hear imagining the horrors but what got my gall was saying this that this is an elitist crime ,so that’s why its bothering me ? I mean really ?

How the blazes do you call rape , elitist isn’t that that’s why women are out on the roads ? Our countries are not safe for women , for minors , for religious , ethnic communities , for corpses, for animals ( yes animals too) . Anyone who has a voice , isn’t safe either . She is brought down to her knees, I know physically they over power her and they break her spirit and mutilate , defile . Our system is such that a woman who is raped , will shy away and hide her self , the woman said so to she said kill me and bhai don’t tell anyone . I broke down when I read this.

Don’t confuse this by saying it happened in Pakistan , it happens here too in large numbers. It’s hushed up , or just a hue and cry and the file makes rounds and rounds , lost in the dusty shelves of the police station and mysteriously a fire breaks down just because the accused is high profile . 

I think we all deserve for the world to end , the bestial , animal nature of man has raped the woman who gives birth , cradles him to life , carries him for nine months and no amount of reference to the Holy Books that give us a sacred place doesn’t save us . The scriptures give the highest position to women but lost in translation , it is .

I speak like Yoda right now , because maybe that might help us to solve and stop this rot. Public hangings , slow death chemical castrations seems what I suggest and I hope the day comes when this all is done and isn’t just a sop as always . Rape , is a four letter word ,say it , say it aloud , its akin to hate , and all we need is love and kind ( ness ) for us to survive . Society always has this list to curtail women , why not teach boys and men that this is fundamentally wrong and against any grain . When animals don’t rape , what makes us worse than them? Why will you not spare the two year old who was wearing a diaper? The skirt , the burka all cry but the diaper couldn’t even speak .

The next time you prostrate in front of the bir sahib , or at the temple , or sit in the pew of the church or even on your ceremonial mat to say your namaz remember it could happen to your mother sister , or daughters too.