This letter will probably never
reach you, Damini. And if by chance it does, I hope when you're feeling a
little better, you read it.
Outside your room in the
hospital, outside the corridors smelling of medicine, outside the operating
theaters, the world is crumbling. Thousands of people are protesting, signing
petitions, updating facebook statuses, writing to the PM - all to bring justice
to the accused. Some people want them hung. Some want them castrated. Some want
them to be handed over to the public.
Obviously, none of this will
actually happen.
I read in an article somewhere
that death penalties can only be given to the rarest of rare cases. And (it
continued to say) that unless the victim dies, it cannot be eligible for a
rarest of rare case.
Kasab qualifies because he killed
many in cold blood. Your rapists apparently don't.
We live in India Damini. A
country of complications and contradictions. A country with age old laws and
age old people fiercely guarding them.
I got an invite on facebook
today. It read "Save women". The event was at India gate, I believe.
I remember shaking my head when I saw the invite. Save women? All in the course
of one day?
Things are not looking good Damini. Not for you, not for Delhi, not for India
and not for humanity. People are people, but only bodily so. Inside, they're
animals. A man guns down little children in a school. Someone murders his own mother.
Four drunk men rape and almost kill a defenseless woman. No, things aren't
looking good at all.
Perhaps the damn Mayans were right. Perhaps the world is going to end.
Because as far as I'm concerned,
this is the end right here. When humanity fails, there's nothing to look
forward to. All the education we've received, all the upbringing we've had, all
the degrees we've religiously collected, all the Gods and Goddesses we believe
in - amounts to precious little if at the end of the day, we're but as wild as
a beast.
And even animals are better than
us.
Outside the hospital, there's a
blame war raging. The BJP's blaming the Congress. The Congress is blaming it's
Police force. The police force is blaming the society. The society is blaming
the party in power. And so, like passing the parcel, everyone's shifting their
baggage of responsibility to the next person.
Meanwhile, the people who really care, the people who are affected, are
organizing protests and candlelight marches. The people who care, are praying
for your speedy recovery.
Because Damini, the truth is this.
Nothing else can be done.
Shinde says measures are being
put in place. No more tinted windows. More patrolling. Speedier case hearings.
But you know and I know, and I know that you know that these are mere words.
In a few days, there will be more sensational news. (Paris Hilton coming to
India perhaps, who knows?) And you will be forgotten. Your case will suffer the
same fate hundreds of cases of despicable crime has suffered -they'll fall into
a void of nothingness.
Damini, I wanted to apologize to
you.
Because I don't think you've
heard it yet. And you need to.
I apologize on behalf of all the
men who stare, the men who strip women nude with their eyes inside lifts on a
regular basis. I apologize for the men who justify such acts by pointing
fingers at the clothes that women wear. I apologize for the police officer
whose hungry eyes make you think twice about writing a complaint.
But most of all, I apologize for
the scarring trauma and pain my side of the sex has caused you.
From all the Men, We wish you a
speedy recovery.. :'( :'(
Dikshit
