Saturday, May 27, 2006

Why It Was Okay To Rape Indira Ishwarlal Thakur?

Let me tell you a little story. It is a bit gruesome, but quite interesting nevertheless. And there is a moral too, in the end. If reading about the illtreatment of women and violence against them makes you feel funny in your intestines, then this post is definitely not for you.

There was this unbelievably beautiful girl, Indira Ishwardas Thakur (You could call her Ms. IIT for the sake of convenience), who used to live in this pretty interesting locality called Indrakumar-Natwarlal-Durgadas International Avenue (you could INDIA, for the sake of convenience). I.N.D.I.A. was interesting because it was full of diversity. The people who lived there came from different sections of society, and there was nothing homogenous about the place. There were some swanky malls and office-complexes located about the avenue, as were some less interesting places like tabelas and filthy fishmarkets.

Ms. Indira Ishwarlal Thakur happened to be the most beautiful woman who lived in IND International Avenue, and half the male population of the locality wanted to be friends with her, or better still be something more than friends with her. Most of the local boys who used to get together for a chat or smoke, would somehow always talk about how great it would be to sleep with Indira. She was definitely every mans fantasy.
Not only was Ms. IIT beautiful, she also happened to be one of the smartest and the most intelligent human beings who inhabited the locality. Being beautiful, intelligent and confident and a cut above the rest, Indira was quite understandably a bit choosy about the men she liked to fraternize with, or accept as lovers. She had very high-standards and was only known to accept the company of men she really liked. Men who were intelligent, men who were handsome, men who were witty, men who were capable, men whom Indira thought were really worth her.

Ms. IIT liked only five men in her locality, and was great friends with them. Nothing serious, really. Just the sugary goodness of a platonic friendship with each of them. A little bit of flirting was, of course, implied. These men were undoubtedly the coolest dudes who lived around the place and the smartest ones too. Their names were Mohan, Edwin, Rohit, Imitiyaz and Tarun (well, MERIT, for short). Ms. IIT very happy in the company of Messrs MERIT, and they got along like a house on fire.

This, of course, left a large sections of others males in the avenue frustrated and jealous. They didnt like the fact that IIT was only friends with MERIT, and not with them. Forget being friends with them, she cared two hoots about them and wouldnt even care to talk to them. How dare that slut!, thought the others. Something should be done about it! Who does that whore think she is? Lets do something about it!, rose a few voices.

Then there was this rather nasty gang of streetside thugs whom Indira hated. There were too many of them, actually. There was Ibrahim, there was Naresh, there was Chandru, there was Omar, there was Maqbul, there was Peter, there was Eijaz, there was Tony, there was Eric, there was Nagesh, there was Chetan, and Erics little brother Edward (Messrs INCOMPETENCE, to be short). The only thing these people ever thought of, when they were sufficiently drunk, was how to manage to get Indira laid. Messrs INCOMPETENCE went to a local gang leader and expressed their desires. The gang leader, who was the most demented of all the people, said it was okay to rape Indira, if they liked. They just had to make a clean job of it, and he would take care of the rest.

Buoyed by their Godfathers assurances, the people whose names could be summarized with the acronym INCOMPETENCE hatched a nasty plan. They would first bump off the guys, and then tackle Ms. IIT. So they got into a couple of TATA Safaris, with half a dozen guns, a few baseball bats, knives, etc. and set out to action the plan.

Indira and the boys were having a quiet chat in a classy upmarket restaurant, when the rowdy crowd entered, brandishing their baseball bats and shiny pistols. Soon, they all overpowered Messrs MERIT and dragged them out of the restaurant, violently pushing Indira out after them. MERIT did put up a small fight, but they were simply overwhelmed by the numerical strength of INCOMPETENCE. Within a few minutes, MERITs game was up. Mohan and Rohit got their throats slit, Tarun had every bone in his body smashed to bits, Imtiyaz and Edwin were shot in their heads, with minimal fuss. INCOMPETENCE didnt suffer much, except for a few scratches here and there. Soon, the dead bodies were dumped into a garbage bin and left to rot.

During the scuffle, Indira had tried to escape and managed to run a short distance, but she was soon caught up with by Maqbul and Peter, pushed to the ground and firmly held there, with Maqbuls foot firmly pressed against her head. Soon, the rest of INCOMPETENCE arrived at the scene and proceeded to realise, what they had been able to hitherto only dream of. A couple of them violently slapped her across her face till her lips bled, just to get her to stop screaming and creating such a huge ruckus. Ibrahim and Omar ripped her clothes off, without further delay and then Maqbul pushed her down once again, this time with her back to the ground.
They all took turns mounting her, with one of them choking her neck and another firmly pressing her mouth shut, to stifle her groans. Young Edward amused himself by piercing Indiras naked flesh with the knife which he was carrying, just to see how she bled. It was an interesting scene, actually: twelve men, a few of them with their pants pulled down, huddled over the body of a completely helpless, naked woman, as if the female body wasnt alive, but just a mere toy with which they could play with.

While Messrs INCOMPETENCE were half done, a local social worker suddenly descended onto the scene. INCOMPETENCE just blankly stared at her - it was Anitatai Zopadpattiwale, a woman they held in high respect. They were afraid, she might not approve of what they had done, but she gave them a reassuring smile. Messrs INCOMPETENCE moved away from the body on the ground - yes, for all practical purposes it was just a body on the ground now. Anitatai knelt on the ground and ran her fingers through the semi-concious Indiras hair. INCOMPETENCE had by now pulled up their pants and were eyeing Anitatai suspiciously.

It is okay dear, said Anita to Indira. This was long since, coming - You ignored these people for such a long time, and you wouldnt talk to them. Well, this was the only solution. But! These people are thugs! And they are raping me!, said Indira. So be it, said Anita. Isnt it all justified - you ignored these men because you thought they werent good enough for you. You were friends with MERIT all along just because they were smart, all along. Could the INCOMPETENCE boys help it, if they werent smart? Could they control what parents they were born to? They are dumb, incompetent and good-for-nothing because they did not get the enivoronment which merit did?

Do you ever realise yelled Anita, that for these people to be so lousy that you hated them, a historical wrong must have been perpetuated on them? You further aggravated the problem by judging them unfairly.
And how are you sure that your method of judging men is the best method? In fact, it has always favored smarter men, without any concern for the needs of the helpless incompetent imbeciles.

Messrs MERIT are intelligent the way you want them to be, and have a way with words, the way you would like them to have, because they have been born into families which werent socially disadvantaged. They learnt the ropes, fairly quick, and developed intelligence and social skills which poor INCOMPETENCE didnt. All INCOMPETENCE could do was sit and mope - and for no fault of their own. Isnt it poetic justice that they should be allowed to rape you?

Doesnt equality in society matter more than whos better than whom? The balance was always unfairly tilted in the favor of you smart, resourceful, intelligent people - If only you had wholeheartedly embraced your undeserving co-residents. This would have not come to pass. The writing was on the wall all along. You should have known

Indira was left dazed and speechless with all of this. Anitatais little speech stunned her more than than the half a dozen thugs, who had just raped her. This was surely an epiphanic moment - she understood.

Soon, the social worker walked off, and Indira let the rest of the thugs ravage her body without bothering to struggle.

(writer...unknown)

3 Comments:

Blogger zubin said...

wow...The best piece of stuff coming out of the reservation issue I have read, and believe me, I have read a lot.
By the way, IIT's elder sister IIM, is the one which suffers more. Think about it. IIM is about smartness more than IIT is.

11:55 AM  
Blogger tihom said...

good to see your comments....this was not written by me but i think it is anti-reservation in a very satirical way.

3:00 PM  
Blogger Sahil said...

I agree with the fact that India will surely go to dogs if it keeps favouring merit over incompetency( or over the underprivileged so that they become incompetent). But this still doesn't justify reservation.


All this story communicates is that reservation will ensure an upliftment of the socially backward/downtrodden in a way that they will not go against the country's laws in the future or do something which might jeopardise the country's interest.

But, that will be at the cost of merit serving the country, which surely means a hamper in progress.

Reservation is a pessimistic action. It is not a mode of social upliftment after 59 years of independence. The root cause, which is social discrimination and lack of opurtubity at an early stage, must be worked upon. I know it is easier said than done.

So, it basically means that the government must fulfill its role in a better manner. By ensuring schools for all, in the remotest of villages, for the 'most' backward of classes. It must ensure good health, water, employement oppurtunities to make these communities less 'backward'. The Scheduled castes have been 'scheduled' because they were discriminated against. The government must function in a manner that this discrimination is completely removed.

All this should have been done in the last 50 years. By accepting the fact that there are still the downtrodden and the underprivileged, the government is accepting its failures as a responsible government till now.

Reservation is like the 'license raj', i.e., issue of licenses for everything, to protect state's interest. It is like the concept of subsidies( Ironically, WTO's motto is free trade, and India supports it). And we all know how license raj suffocated india's growth till liberalisation came in.

There is nothing which can justify reservation, not in 2006. India is at a brink where it needs more engineers( and better engineers). It needs more doctors to ensure that all sections of the society gets the benefit of the country's booming economy.

And it needs people with open minds, so that there is no discrimination, and thus no reservation.

PS: Just one request to the writer of this story, it is beautifully written and highly imaginative, but couldn't you have chosen a better analogy than RAPE??? Somehow it seems that RAPE was a medium to make sure that more readers read your story!!

12:48 PM  

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