Dad what is rape? she asked me. I was nonplussed for a moment….. The mahagony tree next to our class VI D was a witness to everything. Its big thick protruding roots were the makeshift pantry seats where we sat during the recess to have our snacks, lunch and the friendly convos That day her question was intriguing SHe asked me - Do you know babies can be produced even without getting married? Dont be silly I said Why do you think people get married? It is to produce babies There is no way babies are coming without someone getting married SHe retorted - Then how come Manju Bhargavi got a baby in the movie Shankarabharana m? She was not married you know. Shankarabharana m (remade as Sur Sangam in Hindi) was a blockbuster movie that time and the lead actress get raped by some rich guy and gets a child. SHe was referring to that. Maybe she married the rich guy I wasnt so sure while replying. No she didnt she said to me again, with more conviction and busy caressing the leaves of the touch me not plants on his side as they closed down their leaves one by one like the shutters of the shops in curfew. I wasnt too sure whom to ask this to clarify as the convo continued to haunt me throughout the night. The next day I shored up some courage and asked my neighbour Raju who was in class X and already had a tentative moustache that he used to proudly flaunt by stroking it deliberately whenever he talked to us. Hey, she was raped man. Did you not see he forcibly taking her into a room, closing the doors and then they show the ceiling fan after that? I was even more confused. Rape? What is rape? I asked. I had learnt about rapeseed oil under the different food crops and cash crops examples in the GK book. Definitely this is not that. Raju guffawed and said. You will soon learn it son, soon learn it. Wait for a couple of more years and we will watch some different kind of movies. He winked and walked away. I was even more perturbed. Later during lunch I told him - Maybe you are right. Babies could be made by rape too. But then those children may not be good, they might be bad children. I added to emphasise the legitimacy of marriage and to attribute causality to the existence of criminals and bullies. No. SHe shouted almost as though inflicted by a sudden sharp pain. No the boy in that movie was a good boy, not a bad boy at all. Yes, I thought, but did not admit openly and left that topic to get to some other discussion. SHe did not attend the quarterly exams that year. And since then was missing. A few weeks later our class teacher told us that his mom had come to get a TC and that he was gone from this place. Even though he used to come to my place, he never once invited me to his home. Always he would have some excuse. His mother was working and came home very late, so he himself used to stay at the neighbours till she reached home. His dad was in military, and was in some border so hardly ever came home. And just like that he was gone without even telling. I did not want to give up just like that. A few weeks later, determined I set out to find his house and made several enquiries through known and unknown people and managed to locate. The house was locked. I went to the neighbours house where he used to stay and asked them. The elderly person in that house came out and said to me - Oh, they left a month back from here. Rather disappeared one night. They did not even tell us you know. The mother and the son had come here a couple of years back. We were told that his father worked in military and we never saw him once. He continued. But then a few months back, there was a talk in the street that the lady during her younger days had eloped with her boyfriend and her boyfriend along with a few of his other friends had raped and dumped her. She couldnt go back to her place for the fear of shame and dishonour to her people. She survived somehow and then the baby was born. So the boy never had any father in the first place. When this story was out, people started to look at them differently and the boy was harassed by the other big boys in the neighbourhood that he used to cry silently while sitting here waiting for his mom and refused to go out and play. For a few moments of pleasure, the men ruin a ladys life. They raped her just once. But even the boys life was raped forever Though I hardly understood the impact of most of what he said at that time, I felt sad and the words kept ringing in my ears for years together #AbhiShek
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 15:25:42 +0000
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