Hidden Stories- Women’s Day Special

“I stand still, still like a rock, my hands holding my head, It feels like it’s gonna burst, burst aloud!!
I am helpless, helpless as always, no idea about what to do and what not to. I just stand still, hopelessly that it’ll stop. But no, there’s no end to this. I am suffocating inside, I wanna speak out stop, stop, please stop!! But no I can’t, words simply don’t fall out of my mouth, and I stand still, still as a rock!!!

One fine day, I return from my school, last day of my final exams, so happy that I wrote my exams well and the holidays has begun. As, I entered I saw my mom sweeping the floor, dad sitting at the couch talking on the phone. I started jumping “momma my exams over, yeaa…hehee”. She just nodded her head and asked to change and get ready for lunch. I could feel a tensed environment at home.

I instantly got scared, scared that it’s gonna repeat again. As I was changing my clothes I could hear loud shouts across the hall, I thought of not going out of the room. I checked if the door was locked or not, cause I didn’t want to hear any of that. I prayed “God no not today, please don’t end this day, this way. No not today, not today….!!!”

(Thud) Loud sound!! I got up from my bed, ran to the door to check what’s going on, but I didn’t have the guts to. (Thud) Again, “I can’t resist, I need to stop it, I can’t stay like this”, I spoke to myself.
And I walked out. Right in front of the door, laid my mother, her hair strangled all over her face, fallen as if dead, and my father stood manly a foot far with the expression of anger and arrogance.

With my shaky hands I went to lift my mother, her lips were bleeding. As she stood up I saw blood on the floor, she was on her periods. My father who stays strict to his rules of menstruating women should not even touch any male, was beating her to death. I try to separate them, but the voice and their actions get louder and louder. Why are they doing this, it has become a daily story now. I read in my social studies book that drunk men beat their wife, but he isn’t even drunk here, why is it happening, I am unaware about.

I try to stop him, but he pushes me away so easily with a dash, as if I am a ball of cotton. My little hands aren’t strong enough to save my mother from my own father who seems like a devil at the moment. How disgust the situation is.

This gets worsen, worst, and I am helpless now, I stand there still, still as a rock, m helpless to stop my own parents from behaving as an enemy to each other. I stand still, hopeless that it’ll stop, I stand still, helpless to save my family from breaking down, and here once again, I stand still as rock.”- From the eyes of a bud.

Today we celebrate international women’s day. It has been marked as a holiday since decades in our calendar but I still wander how many innocent eyes are witnessing such incidents even today. I wander how many such stories are yet hidden behind the locked doors. The purpose of marking and celebrating International women’s day isn’t just about performing skits or dramas or going on a rally, it’s beyond that. And we need to realize that! The sooner we do, the better it is.

नारी जननी, नारी शक्ति, नारी शृष्टीकि दिब्य प्रकाश्!!!