Bell Bajao….
I looked up. I could barely see him in the dark, yet I tried to find my way up.
My left eye had gone blind; I could feel the blood trickling down the forehead. I looked up again; his shadow loomed over me as he stood there on the landing above. I had fallen down the whole flight of stairs…fallen? No pushed! Kicked! Thrown down!
“Please Ravi, it won’t happen again. I won’t visit my mother, am sorry Ravi. Please…”
I knew my pleads were falling on deaf ears. He would come down slowly and I would have to painfully wait for yet another blow to come at me…Another black eye, another injury will go unchecked, another day of nursing myself and thinking of my miseries- but why? What did I do to deserve this? Just because I forgot to get back home before him and serve his tea on time? Just because I had gone to visit my ailing mother and she saw the marks of injury on my arms from last week? What did I do last week?
Ah! My head aches from thinking…oh, no, he’s coming down. God give me the power to get on my feet.What did I do last week?No, is he really carrying a bat in his hands now? Is he going to kill me?God, if you exist help me…save me.“Ravi, have mercy Ravi in the name of God Ravi, have mercy…I will not do anything that goes against you ever again”- but why not? Why do I have to do whatever he thinks is right? Why does he have the ‘right’ to hit me and I not?“Ravi…” I crawled backwards. I knew I would come up against the wall behind…he would just batter me to death…“Help…please, help” I knew, there was no one to help me… no one would hear to my pleas…no one…what can I do?
This is just a figment of my imagination, and imagination breeds a part of it from reality. This is happening. Not in just households where people are but illiterate, but mostly in the so-called ‘literate’ households too… high time people check on to their neighbours regular injuries. High time people looked up their neighbours when there is no sign from them for long. High time we go and check that scream…it’s High Time we realized the importance of ringing that one Bell!
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mma bettingOctober 10, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Thanks for writing this article. Now everything is clear for me.