MAKING OF A REBEL

About 20 years ago Sunday morning calm was shattered around 8’O clock by loud screams from our next door neighbours’s house. We rushed to see as to what had happened. A lot of persons from neighbourhood also had come there. Mrs X was screaming saying something incoherently pointing finger at maid while her husband was beating the maid with stick making her scream loudly. We learnt that their young maid had thrown scalding water on her. Police reached there is short time as call had been made to emergency number. They took the maid and Mr X to police station. Subsequently we learnt as to what had happened.

They had brought a girl of about 12 years from their native place a year earlier as domestic help for household chores with promise to educate her and quarterly payment of decent amount to her parents. But right from beginning it proved false. They did pay money but with delays and there was no move to send her to school as promised. She was made to do all chores at home from morning till late night. She was made to sleep on floor in the kitchen with just a thin mattress and an old blanked during cold weather. On top of that Mrs X used to keep shouting at her and at times hit her. The maid used to look longingly at their children when they went to school. A few times she asked Mrs X as to when would she be sent to school and in reply she got shouting with degrading remarks about her family. Not a single day passed without maid getting shouted at as well as beaten. A couple of days earlier than that incident Mr X tried to molest her when he was alone at home with the maid. She had resisted and ran out of the house. She told this to Mrs X who instead of sympathizing with her beat her very badly telling that she was telling lies to blackmail them. On that morning the maid was asked to boil water for some chore and at the same time she was also asked to prepare breakfast. The maid was finding it little difficult to cope with both tasks. Mrs X lost her temper and started hitting her with the stick. All this while she was abusing her and passing degrading comments on her parents. That is when the maid threw the scalding hot water on her.

This had set me thinking as to why do persons retaliate in such drastic ways. My thinking was and still is that if you deny anyone what is rightfully his or her and do not let them progress alongwith rest of the society, such person will have no option but to rebel. With the current scenario in the country this is more important that if some class of people are not cared for because the their not being a major vote bank, then they would surely rebel. Such situation would be exploited by those with vested interests, including foreign powers by supporting such groups in whatever ways. To avoid that it is of utmost importance that visible and sincere efforts to bring them at par with rest of the society are made by the Government without any bias.

ENDURANCE ?

Life throws so many challenges which many of us face with patience and confidence but isn't it that a time comes when one may say, " God! I am ready for RETURN JOURNEY and waiting for Your Call."

AND IT HAPPENED

This post is inspired by book review given by Restless in her space, myworldmyperception , recently.

We have progressed so much in technology, specially in the past hundred years. Our forefathers, if they can witness it, would be so surprised at what we can do. Being at one place we can project our virtual image thousands of miles away and talk to people there, this all started with our voice being sent to such distances earlier. Why that even while visiting Moon our astronauts were here with us, albeit on TV, and we could not only hear them or see them doing their chores but also some of us could converse with them. We can be physically also at another place in a matter of hours by air, be it by any type of aircraft. We can make rain by using scientific methods to make clouds do it and we can also set any place miles and miles away on fire by sending our guided missiles, conventional or nuclear. And it happened as it did a few times eons ago. History was repeated. One day someone in fit of anger due to frustration, just like that US soldier who went on shooting spree, pressed a button which unleashed nuclear holocaust and it was retaliated by others who were targeted. So the present world with all living beings got wiped out, well almost. Very few who were in deep waters or in deep interiors of jungles survived. Very very few indeed. So the Mayan prediction of end of the world this year came true.

Those who survived could not venture out of their normal habitat as that made them contact illness not understood by them and died. So it was fabled that there are evil spirits out there which gobble up those who venture out.

Then many thousands of years later as the number of living beings multiplied they had to venture out of their habitat by compulsion. They started inhabiting places away from jungles and in another thousands of years they came across time capsules buried by us at various sites. These have many photographs alongwith write ups. But the language was alien to them. So some of their elders depicted what they could from photographs and birth of new epics took place, making some figures as heroes and some as demons. The coming generations started worshiping the heroes and decreed the demons. Thus the new civilization was born. As time progressed it was felt by some that the dictats were becoming too rigid, so they started their own cults. The new civilization began progressing till they also reached a stage competing with God and fighting with each other on our God and your God culminating into another holocaust.

And such cycle will go on and on.

BE CAREFUL

Life shows many things, some good and some bad. I shared two incidents of happy ending in my previous posts. I could not hold back a sad incident which happened a few years ago while I was in an organization where my work involved meeting Government officials at various levels. This included police department also.

Hazari Lal, who had migrated to Delhi over two decades ago, was looking after cafeteria of that organization. He was liked by everyone for his gentle behaviour. It was after my stay of about a year there that I saw him without smile for a couple of days while he brought tea. That was not his usual self. So I asked him if something was on his mind. He hesitated for a while then told me that he would speak to me later if I allowed him to do so alone. I normally used to leave office 15 to 20 minutes after closing time but that day I told him that I will wait for him to come over. I am narrating below what transpired in that meeting and subsequently.

He had 4 children. Eldest was daughter who was 17 years old at that time. Younger were two boys of 14 & 8 and a girl of 12. He himself was educated only upto 5 class which enabled him to keep simple accounts of his work. However he had realized that education was a must for progress. So he sent all his children to school. Eldest one, Dulari, was in 12^th standard and was doing quite well in commerce stream. He was keen on her joining the same organization in finance department after completing graduation. The final board examinations were just 4 months away. He told me that she had become totally withdrawn and refused to go to school for the past one week. She refused to tell reasons but cried if she was told to either go to school. She did not confide in her mother also. He stated that he was very disturbed and wanted advice. I told him that I would think over what to do. Next day I spoke to a young lady in HR who was postgraduate in Psychology and we shared a good rapport as we used to join hands in solving a lot of problems faced by workers. She expressed that we cannot say anything unless we speak to the girl. I was of the same opinion. So we fixed up visiting his house on Sunday which was a couple of days later.

We found Dulari to be an above average girl in intelligence as well as looks. She was hesitant to speak to us as we were total strangers. We also felt that she may not open up in front of her parents. So I took him aside to tell him that when I signal he should go away alongwith others leaving us alone with the girl. We then first introduced ourselves giving our needed background to put her at ease and then asked her about her school activities etc indulging in small talk encouraging her to speak. As she started speaking little freely I signaled to her father as arranged. They stayed in a two roomed flat bought by him a few years ago with help from company. He took his wife and other children to other room. It took some cajoling by my companion to make her open up. She kept looking at me before she started speaking, so I offered to leave but she told me not to as I would need to know what happened to help her. What she then told us was shocking.

A little over a year earlier she had come in touch with a student in her school who was in 12^th at that time. It was in one of inter-school competitions where he was team leader. The school won first position mainly due to their efforts. They started speaking to each other off and on which in normal course of time developed into friendship. He passed out of school but used to come and meet her everyday even after he joined college. She used to look for his company as he paid a lot of attention to her. He used to advise her on studies and other activities in which she took part. A number of times she went to his house which was close to the school. He was staying with his uncle and aunt who did not have any children. They were both working, thus they used to be alone in the house. Over a few such visits they got further than holding hands or kissing and hugging. It lead to their making love when they both were carried away with excitement. She cried after that and he consoled her by saying that he would marry her once they complete their education. That was about 3 months earlier. Thereafter they did not hesitate in making love whenever they felt like it. A month later two boys who knew him got into the house through an open window without their knowledge and caught them when they were making love. They told that they had suspected them of doing it and decided to catch them. They then threatened her that they would tell her parents as well as her school principal. She cried begging them to leave her and she would never do it again. Her friend too begged them offering them whatever money they wanted. They laughed and told that they wanted the girl. Her friend tried to reason out with them and even tried to fight but they were too strong for him. They hit him hard which made her scared that they may harm him badly. She told them to stop hitting him and she will do whatever they wanted. So they tied up her friend and both took turns with her while he watched helplessly. That is when her ordeal started. They then used to force him to bring her home to have her whenever they wanted which was almost every week. She was totally in their hands. They made her do acts she was too ashamed to tell. That is when she went into stunned depression refusing to go to school. On our asking she told that her friend was now avoiding her and met her only when they wanted him to call her. She also told that they had not given anything in writing or seen them taking any photographs. This was a real tricky situation as she did not want her parents or anyone else to know of this. She even said that she had thought of committing suicide. She gave us names of her friend as well those boys. I asked her to give us a couple of days and then she could go back to school without any fear. We told her parents that she had been teased by some boys who are local goondas which has scared her and she did not want them to get into trouble by going to police.

On the way back I discussed a plan with my colleague and she agreed with it in toto. The plan was to avoid involving Dulari’s name thus protecting her from any loose talk. We put that plan in action next day and it took two days to have success. It was not strictly legal but at the same time we did not indulge in any illegal activity also. We used my contacts with police as well as some of heavy weight union leaders. She rejoined school four days after our meeting. Her boyfriend went back to his home town joining college there. I moved out of that organization a year & half later. I have learnt that she joined that company as per her father’s wishes.

My idea of sharing this is to impress on young girls to be careful in what they do, why young girls only, anyone for that matter of fact.

PS : Names as well as some settings have been changed for protecting privacy.

TRUE LOVE WINS

Minnie was all of 16 years when she met Rohan. Though he was little over 6 years older than her, their attraction was like magnetic pull. He also liked her. She was in final year of school while he was in final semester of MBA in marketing. They would try to meet as and when they could. Well, I know this as her father was our next door neighbor. We were like one family. Though his children were younger to ours, they treated each other as siblings. She has a brother younger by 3 years. Rohan lived in a locality nearby. I saw them in the market or park of our locality a few times lost in each other. It seems she knew that I have seen them. She confided in me about her liking. On my asking she told me that her father is aware of their friendship. I advised her to see that their friendship does not get any blemish. Their love flourished though not very openly known to everyone but we, the close ones, knew. Her father had told her that he trusted her and was sure that she would not do anything to make them feel ashamed.

In due course of time after completion of graduation in computer science, she went into much sought after IT stream. He had by then established himself in a MNC as Manager Marketing. Once she started working, her father broached subject of her marriage. As expected she confirmed that she would like to marry him. He then approached his parents and it was learnt that they too were aware of their closeness. They readily accepted the proposal. So they got married about 5years ago. It was a marriage much talked about as they both looked made for each other couple. We all were so happy that their love had happy conclusion. They used to visit us whenever they visited her parents. We shifted out to a locality a little distance away about 6 months later. We, of course, remained in touch. She too used to call up off and on.

I visited her parents place a little over a year after their marriage and was shocked to learn that she was with them due to differences with Rohan. It was totally unexpected as their love was comparable to legends. She was in tears when she told that after initial couple of months there were small misunderstandings which developed into quarrels. His parents started blaming her for all such issues. He though still loved her but started showing anger more often. He even blamed her of listening to her parents and creating unnecessary issues. Things went a little too far when in a fit of anger he started getting physically violent after each quarrel. She kept it to herself as she did not wish to burden her parents. On one occasion he slapped her hard many times. She was so stunned that she could not say anything for a few days. She just went into a shell. During this period she was needled by his mother and he told her that he did not like her behavior. So she came to her parents place hoping that her absence might change his outlook. But he never even called her up asking her to return. This was about a month ago. She called him up a couple of times and he brusquely told her without any show of love that if she comes back it would be her own decision and she would have to cut off from her parents in totality or she could file for divorce. She told that she loved him and felt incomplete without him. After listening to all this, I told her that she had two options. First being that keeping ego aside she should meet him and have a heart to heart talk. Second was that if he did not want to meet her or showed his unwillingness to make efforts for marriage to work, she had to move on. Her father agreed with me fully. He told that he wished that she settles down with Rohan as he knew her love for him was immense.

A fortnight later she called me up and gave me the good news. She had followed first option and their meeting lasted for more than 2 hours in which they spoke to each other very openly. He too said that he did not wish to be without her. So they decided to give their marriage another try. He even went to the extent of asking his organization for transfer to another city. They moved to the new city within a few days after their meeting. He had come to her parents place requesting them to send her with him. She kept in touch with me by mails, though had been lazy at times. She sent me their photographs in mails often.

Today they are proud parents of a son born just yesterday. That is what prompted me to write this to say that TRUE LOVE ultimately does win.