*Dear Reviewer,
Please read the following and ponder, its not meant to be only a story.when you are reading this.think about what the victim can do.or rather what the victim SHOULD do. Agian Please do not read this as a simple story.*
She felt something warm trickling down the side of her face, painstakingly she opened her eyes saw what the she already knew, the sharp shooting pain at her temple was hurting so much, she was expecting thick black sinister blood to pour out a lot earlier.
She almost smiled, knowing that soon all this hurt and pain will disappear. She knew that she would leave behind all the suffering and a life time of being hurt. Her body begged for the inevitable end to come sooner. She could not feel her legs, but she did feel the cold steel that touched her shoulder blade, making its presence felt.
But then she stopped knowing she was never going to be able to hold her child, her baby, her only daughter, ever again. A single tear escaped her unblinking eye and cascaded down her cheek, another one threatened to escape when the realization came that she could not even move her hand to wipe her tear away.
Then she saw it from the corner of her eye, the one that was not blinded by the blood, a slight movement, a pair of baby feet inching towards her. “Mummy “Mummy”….she gathered all her strength “Chavi ……. I’m here…don’t worry beta”. Then she heard it, the most heart wrenching sound a mom could ever hear, a muffled cry of a child, who just knew something was wrong.
Unable to move to console her own blood, the one thing that she cared about, she closed her eyes. She was taken back to the day she met Ravi….She remembered, it was the final year of her Master’s. She was at her friend’s party. She noticed him immediately; he was tall and strikingly handsome. “Hi my name is Ravi and you are?” she was completely taken aback, what beautiful black sensuous eyes he had, and a smile that lit up the whole room. She realized she was staring at him, “Shamli…Hi I’m Shamli”.
The months that followed, with just magical, they went out for long walks, holding hands and talking about what the future holds. He was always possessive, never liked her talking to any other guy, she understood and cut away all her male friends. She liked the way he protected her, occasionally she had to stop him from beating up a guy severely, just because he was looking at her. She remembered all the discussions that they had, about where they will stay, if she will work, he always won. She always bowed out, and listened to him, she had too, it was better than listening to him scream at her.
All wasn’t bad though, she always enjoyed when he cooked for her, when he sat with her when she was reading, watching TV. She enjoyed the fact that he was always there with her, no matter where she went, always there by her side, always there to protect her.
Then came the day when she told him that she was pregnant, he didn’t say anything for a long time. That was just the calm before the storm. She remembered being slammed into the wall, his head gripped her head and didn’t let go. When she gained consciousness, she was all alone in the house. She was too shocked to get up from the floor, she welled up inside. “What did I do? Why did he get so angry with me?”
She was too ashamed to call her sister, Malini. What would she say, how could she let this happen to herself? She remembered, the many bruises on Malini, and how her sister always said that she had either fallen down stairs, or bumped into a corner, or walked into a wall. She knew now, her sister was bearing this violent treatment for the past 6 years from Arun.
Months passed, and every day he would push her, hit her, and kick her. He refused to touch talk to her normally anymore, any conversation only entailed him yelling and letting her know that he did not want this child. She cried herself almost every night now. Malini, noticed and still had no courage to say anything, at least not in front of Ravi, or when Arun was around.
The best day of her arrived, her daughter, Chavi, was born. Ravi was not there. The day she went home, she found him asleep on the sofa. Her mom and Malini ushered her into the bedroom with the new baby, but not before she noticed the empty beer cans.
Things were not good, Ravi, never came and saw the baby, never touched his daughter, called her names, screamed at her mom and Malini. Arun came and dragged Malini away a day after her mother left to go back home.
Time moved very slowly, Ravi’s outburst grew more and more violent, all she prayed was for her child to be safe. She called Malini and made her promise that she would take Chavi away, if anything should happen to her. Amid tears and pleas to seek help, Malini promised her sister, the only nieces life.
This morning Ravi left without telling her. She was washing the clothes when she felt his hands grab. She could smell the alcohol. Then she saw him draw the knife. Before he could swing and slash her throat, she ducked, but the knife tore through her forehead and temple. Then she felt cold steel jammed into her arm, withdrawn and then jammed in again and again ferociously. She felt herself being pushed into the wall, his hand held the neck, his knife had missed. Things were going dark, and she felt herself slump to the floor.
“Shamli….Shamli…get up.please for god’s sake get up!”. Malini tried desperately to shake her sister awake. She picked up her sister’s limp hand and checked hand. The pulse or the lack of it told her all she had to know. She looked at the child sitting near her sister’s body. She felt a pang of love and determination she never known before. She picked up Chavi, and walked out the front door.
She drove straight to the police station, told the inspector everything she saw, everything she knew, the months of abuse, the beatings, the blood and the tears. She told them about Ravi and Arun, and about her lifeless sisters.
Then she walked out, boarded a bus to a far away place. With Chavi on her lap, she knew what she was doing was right, this is what she should have done years ago, her sister would be alive now. She sighed.and lay her head on the back support, and promised herself that Chavi would never know anything like this all her life………Chavi would always be happy.
PS: For my justification about this review, please read my comment. Thankx for RRCing.
