Every day while I went to school,he came to take me to the bus.Those 5 minutes down the elevator still brings a chill down my spine.The smiling face of the same sweet 'Sunny Bhaiya' somehow changed to a thirsty beast ready to attack it's prey.At first his sweet words,a chocolate or two made him a hero for a six year old me.But the day he told me to lift my skirt for a game, I didn't realize that he already changed into a sick psycho.His game continued without any disturbance because little did I realize that this same man whom my mother trusted wasn't someone to trust upon.
That Diwali was very joyous and bright.I remember my house being lit up with fancy lights and earthen lamps.All our near and dear ones came to visit us.Everybody was cheerful.At night after the puja,all my cousins started playing hide and seek.I still remember Ravi uncle my father's third cousin was a favorite of us.He was in college that time and every time we looked forward to his visits.But after that night every time I heard his name, I felt scared,an unknown pain engulfed me every time I recalled how his Bright eyes and his hands groped my little body in the pretext of playing Hide and Seek and finding me out.
I was sixteen now, every time I went out my mother used to teach me to be careful,to avoid strangers,to distance from troubles.One day at school, I saw how my lab attendant in the lab looked at us with his lusty eyes.He would search ways to talk to me and often passed dirty looks.By that time I knew what it meant.I felt bad, I felt disturbed.On coming back home I remember lying in the bed for a long time.
After that on several occasions I had been groped,passed comments on,looked at with lusty eyes,wanted by strange men and what not.Everytime I think about it I feel unsafe even after being independent.Why is it that every time I am on my way to home alone at night, I pray for my safety? Why do I have to be in the company of a man to feel safe?
Is it because our femininity so fragile or is it that masculinity has always been powerful?
But Everytime I see a girl child coming into this world, my mind ponders about the hardships that little bud has to encounter in it's journey to a beautiful flower.
Some perish,while some bloom the best even in the midst of plunderers.