The juncture

Juncture to many a thing actually. You know, there often comes a time when you need to choose the course of your life, a juncture that decides the fate for the rest of your life, a cross-road that forces you to weigh your options. This end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 present a similarity.

It’s just past few hours that the clock hands struck 12! Happy new year everyone! But honestly at this juncture of life I am not too sure how I feel. So, describing my feelings on this onset of a new year is definitely not an option.

So, like every 1^st Jan, I woke up today, trying to feel the excitement. I sit with my usual cup of coffee and newspaper and the first incident that I read about is of a teenager girl raped and died. Many of you must be thinking with a sigh, yeah, one of those usual cases happening too much around these days. My first reaction was also the same. But NO! This particular girl has been raped twice, she was left to die once, and it was done by the same group of guys, repeatedly twice! But she fought. She fought to live. She was starting her usual routine of studies and everything. She was trying to settle down in a new household but as soon as the neighborhood people got to know about her past two incidents, they just could not let her live. This girl committed suicide not because she was raped, not because she hated herself, not because she was under trauma, but because our society could not accept a victimized girl, because, our society could not sympathize, leave alone empathize. I am shocked! What this girl received was cheap level of curiosity, humiliation and hatred! I cannot believe that I am part of this society!  I just cannot decide who the bigger scoundrel is, the rapist? Who raped twice and still living with no regret or guilt or punishment! Or, the people around us who dare not rape but are equally uncivilized and inhuman! With the increasing rate of abusive incidents around, there are so many counseling sessions and preaching going around for the rape victims. They are asked not to leave the hope of life and are asked to fight their internal trauma, etc. But how in the world can someone live in a society that contradicts a person at his/her every footstep?! I feel and I feel strongly about it that our society, the non-victims and the culprits are the ones in need for counseling sessions.  Once, we can free ourselves from such discriminatory and downsizing outlooks, once, we ourselves can empathize with people around us, only then we can help the suicidal tendencies of so many and actually find a cure to their trauma.  When I was reading the news, I was so in awe of this girl, that yes! This is the kind of indomitable spirit that every girl needs to have, that yes! She holds herself strong before such threatening incidents; she could be an inspiration to so many! But then it’s like our society decided not to stop until she took her last breath! Shameful!

I stand at the crossroads of my life, scrutinizing my own personal standings and then I feel so small realizing the crisis the bigger world faces, the crucial blind lanes that our society has reached!