Today I won't be speaking to my diary. I expect an audience whilst I am penning down whatever I have been facing as a girl trying to find her own place in the society.
News channels are streaming the atrocities a woman faces everyday because she is a woman. Why should she? Just because she has a hole where anyone can insert their red hot iron rods mercilessly without asking the person in question whether she wanted it or not?
All of this begins when we as mothers and guardians explain our daughters not to wear short and revealing skirts, place them under a curfew, tell them not to go out alone, etc. When we as mothers tell our sons to be however they want and explain to our daughters in law 'Men will always be men, just bear with it.' And yet here we stand talking about equality and women empowerment. Where will the entire essence of women upliftment come from if we treat our daughters similarly our ancestral women have been treated?
I have faced things that many girls face at some point of their life. I have never wished to talk about this not because it may char my dignity but because it still sends a chill down my spine. Does anyone, now? I have been lured into a web of lies and taken away out of my comfort zone and when I ran out of the place to escape because I was lucky as I realised 'something was not right' and I had my God with me to save me from something that was about to happen, I realised that the world was anything but a happy and safe place to live in. I still remember the paling of my father's face once he heard everything my mom was saying. I remember how he checked the already terrified 8 year old me for marks and scratches and possible DNA. It was my good luck that I had come out of the fire unscathed, but it had definitely left third degree wounds in my innocent heart. I still remember coming home and holding my mom and crying as if I had had a narrow escape from death which I knew not about. After all, no one had precisely done anything. Never in my entire life had I seen my loving father so furious, all he wanted was to maul the man's face like a hungry rogue wolf. But seeing me safe was more than enough to calm him down and hug me as if I were to vaporise any moment. Everyone right now reading this would have definitely started reprimanding the mother of an 8 year old child, a daughter per se the society's prejudice but no one knows about the newborn that my mother was carrying around. How can she be blamed? It was natural for her to think I had grown up because now there was a tiny little addition to the family who needed her more than me.
After such horrendous incident which thankfully hadn't turned gruesome, my father restricted me from exploring the world all by myself. But could I blame him? Could I blame him for being extra cautious?
The things happening around forced my parents to jail me at home even more. I don't question the curfew, the wearing of full hand-sleeved kurtas, the surveillance of my phone etc anymore. My papa always says 'Beta, stay away from boys, Bloody uncouth street urchins.' Whilst him being a strong, egoistic, patriarchal and a staunch brahmin and the most important - a man, was foul mouthing the entire gender, the gender to which he belonged so openly in front of me.
The incident that had happened had gone unreported because it was a mere attempt according to my mom and that I may face a lot of unrequired mental trauma or PTSD as some of them may call it along with a lot of judgemental looks questioning my chastity at the moment. But can my parents be blamed for trying to protect me from the harsh society first than the criminal?
When we don't reach home before curfew, our parents begin to get worried and start calling up our friends and relatives just in case they may know our whereabouts.
Now I want to ask just one thing - why should my parents or rather any parent who has a girl child be worried about their daughter's safety? Why should a girl stay budded and not bloom like the flower she is? Why should she need a chaperone - a male chaperone to be precise to accompany her at all times? Why can't she become something that she deserves to become?
Every moment a girl is barred from going out with friends because men don't know to keep their valuables inside their trousers. Every moment a girl has to walk cautiously because men just can't keep their valuables inside their trousers. Every moment a girl has to cover herself up with the fear of being attacked just because men just can't keep their valuables inside their trousers.
All of my fingers are pointing towards one direction. If this direction was cleaned up, none of this would happen. Right?
Hence a sincere request to all the mothers and fathers out there - let your daughters blossom and leash those ferocious sons of yours. Then will all of you see, the eutopia that you all desire.
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