It was a rainy night when some people came knocking at Manju's house. Her husband was not home and she wasn't expecting anyone. She thought she would ignore the knocks and so she sat silently in her home.
After knocking for few minutes, the knocking in the door stopped. She felt relieved as her husband has prohibited her to open the door to strangers specially when he is not at home during the nights. It would have been just a minute that she felt at peace when the knocks started again. She could feel the presence of some men outside her house and she again thought that she would let them pass but this time the knocks didn't stop rather they grew louder. Suddenly with the knocks the men outside her house started shouting her name as well.
"Manju, we know you are inside, open the door or we will break it." she got scared but still sat there silently. The voices grew louder and so does the banging on the door. She stood up and with an induced courage said "My husband, Vinod is not here. Come later."
The people outside the door heard her voice and stopped banging. Then a voice from outside said "All of us are searching Vinod, he has stolen money from chaudhary ji's house. We think he is hiding inside so open the door."
She was taken aback with the allegations against her husband. She shouted "My husband is not a thief". "Then open the gate, what do you fear." a voice from outside shouted.
She accumulated all her courage and opened the door. The people outside her door were furious and just as she opened the door they all swarmed inside her house. There were around 10 men in her house. She without looking at them in her low voice said "You guys have checked my house, now leave me in peace."
"Peace, your husband stole money from chaudhary ji's house and you want us to leave you in peace, we want the money back." Said a giant looking person. Though she was in fear but she replied "ask my husaband for money when he comes back, right now leave my house."
The mob in her house got really fired up hearing her words. One of the elder looking came close to her and said "if he never comes back then should we forget about the money ?" Manju got really frightened and started shouting at them "leave now"
The man close to her grabbed her and in few seconds she could feel the hands of all the men touching her indecently. She shouted "leave me or I will complain" but the mob was hardly interested to hear her voice. They started tearing off her clothes. Her shouts got loud but now they were for "help".
People may shout as loud as they can but in these hinterland there are hardly anyone who answer the shouts. Her voice for help was still coming from the house when suddenly a police siren was heard. All the men in the house came outside to see who it was ?
The SI of the area stopped just infront of the house. Manju who was thrown to one side of her own house, came rushing outside to meet the SI. Her clothes were all torn and she had scratches all over her body. The SI looked at the mob and said "What is this ?" The elderly man again came forward and said "she is Vinod's wife and..." The SI interrupted, "is this the way you do justice ?" All the men stood silently.
The SI picked Manju up and told her to went inside her house, he slowly followed her inside. Manju in her half naked clothes sat inside her home when the SI closed the door and locked it from inside.
Manju kept on screaming the whole night...
This is such a sad story Gaurab... it is a sad situation for women.. when the protectors start tearing women apart they can only scream for help... a scream which can never reach the ears of those flesh eating animals.. I am so hurt.. this s just very sad...
ReplyDeleteYou have told your views subtly through your story
ReplyDeleteSad that such incidents happen.
ReplyDeleteSome people give a bad name to the entire force...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat you have written is the sad truth of our nation.
ReplyDeletePolice is recruited from the people of this country
You have portrayed through your story, the sorry state of affairs.
Some people just can't handle power, they abuse it.
The weak becomes weaker, The Strong Becomes stronger.
We need to reach the root of the problem
The nation's mindset needs a complete overhauling.
The politicians, The police and every one is an Indian.
Better society, better individual means a better nation overall.
It is time for some serious changes,
Being a woman, I am no stranger to the abuse of power
But I cannot technically support blind rage.
It makes stoop to the level of the evil we are fighting
Why this story you have written is repeated millions of times?
Because we as a nation are not righteous enough.
Because we are not strong enough
We look towards a Messiah to save ourselves
But forget The Messiah is with in us.
The neighbours chose to keep quiet.
The neighbours would have easily outnumbered the goons and that SI
But no its "Jiski Lathi Uski Bhains"
Have we thought that we too have hands to pick up the stick and defend
But no, the lady was tortured but so are so many because she is not our own
Have we thought the next could be our home?
Your point is right The Police sometimes is the biggest criminal.
But then again I see our neighbours dishonouring cease fire for years and yet we support peace, it shows our tolerance.
Let us give them a consideration before passing the judgement.Let us work towards a better recruitment procedure (Refer Premchand's Pariksha) Understand what is so horribly wrong with the system.
PS your story made me think of these things for hours
so sad, yet so true.
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy of our country!
ReplyDeleteIt's a harsh truth...these type of incidents have happened and will happen....when the keeper becomes the hunter...what more we can expect ?
ReplyDeleteMy heart wrenched. It's hard to trust the whole cult because of some unworthy ones.
ReplyDeleteAwesome way to portray your feelings!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written! Harsh reality of our nation.
ReplyDeleteOh my god! Such a horrible treatment for women. While I read the first part of the story, I thought that these men should be flogged in public. But when I read the ending I realize that this SI should have been hanged and all these others should have been meted out corporal punishment.
ReplyDeleteOh dear.. OMG! Gaurab that's.. I have no words.. :(
ReplyDeleteThat's terrible.
ReplyDeleteSad. Sadder is the fact that we all are a part of this hinterland, where rationality is nowhere to be scene. The land where a woman's respect is nothing but hokum. A woman is seen as an object and nothing else.
ReplyDeleteVery well written! :)