Diwali Of The Underdog

I don't know how many times did I type "Happy Diwali" in last two days.  I am wondering what was so happy about diwali? I know i sound very very selfish and negative here. 

While I was dressed up in my anarkali kurta and chudidar, all braced with jhumkis and bangles, walking cautiously in my heels holding my sleek clutch in one hand and a gift wrapped in shiny gift paper, I passed by the press-wali(see meaning below) stationed underneath the staircase of the multi storey flat where our family friend lived.  I had the same thoughts in my mind - What is so happy about Diwali and Diwali gifting?  The eagerness and efficiency with which the middle aged press-wali clad in her simple, unstarched cotton Saree, was ironing the clothes of her clients made me feel so shallow. I was fortunate to be wearing one such dress and not the one ironing it for someone else to shine brightly in the well creased dress done by me.

I lowered my head, thanked God for that for his graciousness that He has bestowed on me and my family.

Back home, when I lighted a diya and a candle outside my home before doing puja performed by my Mother in law, I saw a bunch of rag picker boys. I was surprised to see one of the boys lustily looking at the burning candle.  Confused,  I asked him whether he wanted to steal the candle.  A bright light shone in his eyes and he smiled sheepishly on my question. Seeing a strict look in my eyes, he backed off, but then shot a question on my, to which the only way I could have reacted was a dropped jaw - "aaj Diwali hai?" he asked, meaning "Is it Diwali today?" 

Needless to say that i felt a great pity on the boy who does not even know about the one of the biggest festivals of India.  He added quickly that since he does not have new clothes so he does not know.  Then, I realized,  he was just making a fool out of me. Phew! it's so easy to fool me.  The boy was soon joined by his friends, and they had around 5 or 6 packets of correcting fluids and thinners in their hands. 

Rag- pickers and correcting fluid is one mismatch.  But, I was not surprised.  These young boys like many rag pickers, beggars etc. use them like drugs, to get a high, as an intoxicating agent may be.  They spend their hard earned money in buying stuff to please them for a few hours.  It was Diwali for them, to be able to buy so many bottles at one go.  The bunch of small boys, all dirty and stinking, jumped like monkeys, with their pockets stuffed with red and white packets, and they vanished in a by lane, probably to enjoy their Diwali.

I didn't know should I be happy for them or sad for them.  I don't know....

All I know the boys will be back the next morning, looking for unexploded crackers, match boxes, empty cartons etc on the roads.  They will be equipped with some tool to scrape off the melted wax of candles of Diwali night outside the houses.  I'm sure they would catch hold of some leftover sweet box somewhere on some corner of the colony.

I'm sure about that....

Anyways Happy Diwali guys..... 

RESTLESS

Press-wali - In many Indian cities, some people create small stalls (basically a wooden table and a coal iron) in the lanes and by-lanes of colonies and iron people's clothes for money.  They are commonly known as press wali or press wala.

Custodial Death Of A Rapist - Should We Be Happy??

Ideally, I should not have been happy to read this news.  It's about death.  about death of a human being.  About death of a man in police custody.  Does death in judicial custody not bring out anger in us?  It does.  But not this time.  I am sorry.  I am surprised with myself.  But, I am happy to know, this guy Mohana Krishnan who was a cabbie in Coimbatore was killed in a police encounter two days back. 

Was it a conspiracy? Or the alleged "act of self-defence" by the police officers? or the Robin Hood act?  I don't know.  But as a citizen of this country, where there is a general feeling of hopelessness in the law and order situation, I am happy.  As a mother, I am happy.  As a woman I am happy.  But believe me, as I type this, there is no smile on my face, because as a human being, somewhere I am pained by this man's death, because ultimately he was a human being, who had even requested his doctor for a lethal injection during the medical examination just 2-3 days before his death in this shoot out, when he allegedly snatched the revolver of one the police inspectors and shot him.

I share my happiness of this fast track justice with those many cab drivers and auto rickshaw drivers and the people of Coimbatore who celebrated his death by distributing sweets.  Of course, they had a reason to be happy.  After all, this man had brought a bad name to their profession.

Mohana Krishnan, a 23 year old cab driver, who worked as a school van driver for a few days, picked up two children, a 10 year old girl and her younger brother before their usual school van arrived.  He had originally planned to abduct the kids for ransom, but later developed cold feet.  He tortured the children, raped the little girl and later threw the helpless innocent children in a canal near Tirumurthy dam, 77 kms from Coimbatore.  He was helped by another tractor driver.  This is such a ghastly act.  How can we be so intoxicated with greed, with lust that we are unable to understand how helpless a child is?  Were we not children once.... does that memory also does not scare these animals when they decide to do such ghastly acts against little angles??

This man, died in police custody, while he was being taken to another place (the reasons behind his movement at the early hour is unclear).  Police says that this guy snatched a revolver and was almost on a shooting spree, when they had to kill him in self defence.  As expected, there is an enquiry into this matter.  (Thankfully, a small news in one corner of the newspaper, and not the front page, mentioned about it today, or else I would called it displaced sense of priority or sensitivity).  Now, the Human Rights people may also raise their voice on custodial death.  May be they have a point, yes they have a point, as whether a person is guilty or not is decided by judiciary and not the law enforcing agency ie Police. 

But, do you know, a similar case happened in Delhi just one odd month back.  A school van driver, again a young man, used to sexually exploit three siblings - one girl and two boys, all between 6 to 12 years age (as far as I remember), the girl being the eldest.  This man, on the pretext of picking these kids up for school would take them to some houses, where he had access and would rape the girl and sodomise the boys. The kids were drugged every time.  They got used to the material abuse.

All this continued for almost two years.  I am aghast to think about it.  The kids were too scared as the man allegedly had made MMS of the three kids in objectionable condition and had threatened to kill them as well.  The pitiable part is that their widowed mother was a working woman, living alone with kids in Delhi, and she could never realise, that the children are not reaching school for many a days.  The kids, specially the girl started withdrawing herself and showed change in behaviour, of course the drug had physiological effect on all three of the kids.

It shocked me and pained me, as everyday, the update on this kept coming.  Just another day, I read that, this man guilty of drugging and sexually exploiting poor and helpless kids had been arrested.

Now, does it make us content?  Does taking somebody to custody is punishment enough?  Will he be tried? or will he manage to unshackle himself, courtesy some who's who of the power capital Delhi?  Will the children, who had to be put in a rehabilitation centre to get out of habit of drugs, would ever live a normal, healthy life?  This scar in their innocent minds will pain them all their lives. 

And if the the situation goes bad, in all likelihood, we are witnessing  the making of another rapist, another abductor, another thief, another molestor.  Will he be or for that matter, they be feeling guilty of what they are doing..... when they grow up? NO.  because they would be giving back the society what they got.  They had their childhood trampled under a pair of filthy boots, they are going to give the filth back on the face of their world, their families, their relationships and anybody who comes in touch with them.

However, education can help, counselling can help, but a bad memory of childhood moulds us, moulds our psyche and our being.

There is a need for us, parents, us guardians, and teachers and people to preserve the childhood of not just our children but children, in general.  The channel of communication with our kids should always be open to know what they are experiencing.  Parents need to be more sensitive and perceptive with small children, as they don't even know how to express things.  We have a huge role to play in this increasingly unsafe world.  Also, please try to think beyond my kid, my home, my family mentality.  We get affected because overall, situations go bad,  and we keep our eyes shut saying, this has not happened to me.  It's time we stop being selfish.

Meanwhile, the accidental shoot out or encounter, whatever you call it, this quick justice is making me feel good...... mmmm bad..... well a mixed feeling.

How do you feel about it? let me know.

RESTLESS

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