"BECAUSE SOMEONE SAID SO"
Like usual she greeted her father as he came home, but that day he didn’t reply. It was nothing unusual; he had done that many times before. Worried about what she could possibly have done, she returned to her room and busied herself. For quite some time she could hear him talking to her mother harshly but it was hard to grasp what the matter was.
After an hour when he had had his dinner, he called for her. With unease in her heart, she went to his room and followed his order to sit. Glancing at her mother, she tried to figure out what this was all about but her mother’s cold expression did no help, instead, it added to her discomfort.
“When I sent you in co-education, did I not tell you that my dignity is in your hands?” he shouted.
Scared of her father’s wrath and surprised of what was going to follow it, she clutched the sofa beneath her hands, as tightly as she could.
“You ruined my honor today, I can’t face anyone in the society now, I am ashamed I raised such a characterless girl”
“What have I done?” She couldn’t keep her voice down.
“Don’t raise your voice” her mother shouted.
“Look at her, now this is the way she talks to her father” she heard him yelling.
“What you have done hasn’t left us to face anyone, you filthy disgrace to this family”, the yelling continued.
“Can you imagine what I went through when I had to hear it from someone that this filth had been fooling around with guys?”
“That is an accusation” she tried to argue.
“You think I am lying? You think my friend is lying, that man is such an honorable person.”
She was shocked to see her father trusting an outside source than her.
“Who was the guy at the bus stop?” her mother inquired.
And it all became clear; she recalled waiting for the bus while a class fellow walked over to her discussing some stuff related to class. So that was what disgraced her family. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
She remembered the mockery she faced as she tried to avoid her class fellows, how she was called rude and her behavior inappropriate.
Out of the door, her brother stood listening.
Tired and shocked, she left the room but from then on she did not try to avoid anyone. What good had it done to her? She befriended boys as well but did her best to stay out of her family’s sight.
One morning, they found her dead in her bed. Her brother was gone. But a note lied beside. “FOR THE SAKE OF OUR FAMILY’S HONOR”.
No comments:
Post a Comment