As per the Mayan calendar, the
human race was to end in 2012. But I guess what the Mayan calendar really meant
to convey was that humanity would end and Mayans predicted it quite accurately.
On the night of 16th Dec, 2012, a Delhi girl who was out on the
roads of the city with a male friend of hers, at a not so late hour, went
through a spine-chilling physical and sexual assault. Her friend too was
brutally assaulted. The girl was raped and put through unimaginable physical
torture in a moving bus and finally dumped on a roadside by six men. She lay
there unconscious with her friend when some policemen saw the two, covered the
girl up in a sheet and took them to the hospital. The doctors there fell short
of words when asked to describe her condition and were amazed to see her alive
despite arriving at the hospital three hours after the unfortunate incident.
This news was soon flashed all
over TV and newspapers. The city went numb with fear and disgust. People talked
in hushed tones about this everywhere from the Metro to the office canteens,
while the doctors in the hospital struggled to save the girl. This female was
an iron lady and had no intentions of giving in. Right from the moment when she
encountered the perpetrators she had been fighting, now in the hospital she was
fighting death. She showed the will to live despite all and soon her health seemed
tad better. The hushed tones grew into one loud and firm voice. This voice
encompassed emotions which had been simmering for a while now. Unfortunately we
waited too long to let them over-flow. Not just Delhi, but the entire country
was angry and sentiments ran high. Protests and prayers across the country
united the citizens. People questioned those in power and demanded befitting
punishment for the culprits. Meanwhile the girl was flown to Singapore to save
her failing health and may be calm down the scenario in India which once had
Central Delhi locked up from all sides. She breathed her last in Mount
Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore on 29th December.
Honestly, going by the fight she
had put up, for once I really thought that she might just pull through it. She
paid the cost for awakening a nation of people who had been taking it all,
lying down till now. I must say, it took a lot to prick our conscience. A
family lost its sunshine, a child who was chirpy and a brilliant student. But
now that we are up, it’s time we don’t rest unless the needful is done. The
momentum must not be lost unless the guilty are awarded exemplary punishment
and the anti-rape law amended. Out of the six culprits, one falls a few months
short of being an adult and hence has chances of getting away with a maximum of
three years and that too in a reformatory home. It would be an utter
disappointment for two reasons: first- this one is said to have assaulted the
girl most brutally and second- this case clearly qualifies as ‘rarest of rare’.
I say the police makes the faces of the culprits known and gives them a dip in
the sea of people and let these six realise how it feels to be helpless and
know what fear is (human rights activists, please excuse as these six only ‘seem’
to be humans).
The girl lost her life wishing to
see these men being sent to their rightful place. It’s time her last wish is
fulfilled. Nobody and nobody at all has the right to rob a female of her
dignity and overrule her right over her own body. We can’t afford any more of
this, the government must prove to us that we didn’t waste our time and vote on
the voting day. I don’t think me or anyone can ever write enough conveying the
anguish each one of us feels. From the deepest corner of my heart I wish the
girl’s family all the strength and pray for the innocent life lost.
This fight has to be won without
any more sacrifices and the scum bags have to be shown their place. WE HAVE TO
KEEP GOING..THERE’S A LONG WAY AHEAD OF US!