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Here Yesterday, Gone Today, Forgotten Tomorrow

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by satchitananda, Apr 12, 2012.

  1. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    [JUSTIFY]Below is a picture I received as a forward by e mail today. Unfortunately the system does not allow me to choose where to place it. So please scroll down, see the picture and then read further.

    Isn't this a heart-warming picture? It makes us wonder and marvel at Nature and other creatures who protect their young ones just "like us". Or do they? "Like us" I mean. Hold on, I think I would like to drop out those two words - it would embarass and shame all the creatures in the animal kingdom to be compared with "us", some of whom selectively destroy their young ones - not based on some physical defects, but only on the fact that they are females. Yes the very same females of the species who procreate and bring forth new members of the species and protect and nourish the young ones.

    Last month Baby Falak, a 2 year old baby girl died after being battered by some inhuman adult.
    It shocked the conscience of the nation. If that was shocking, then what does one say of a "FATHER" who battered his 3 month old to death? Yes that is the tragic story of Baby Afreen born to a 19 year old mother.

    This young mother was married off at the age of 17 to a divorcee whose parents promised her parents that they would take her on a Haj 1 week after the wedding. The impoverished parents who could not afford to ever go on a Haj very happily agreed, thinking at least this daughter (of 3 daughters) would get to go and be ensured of her place in heaven. The son-in-law it turned out was a drug addict and would harass their daughter. Once the daughter was born, he asked her to get Rs. 1 lakh as compensation because the child was a female. And then started the sordid tale of battering the baby girl. When he tried to smother the baby about a week ago, she was brought to the hospital by the mother and was in a coma till yesterday, when to her good fortune she went to a better place - away from the monsters of this world. Had she survived, the chances that she might be challenged for the rest of her life might have been high. Better she was spared that agony. God decided she deserved better.

    What do we say of a society where a daughter's life is decided based on criteria such as her chances of going on a pilgrimage? What do we say of parents who get their daughter married off before the legal marriageable age, without checking out the credentials of the man whom they are entrusting with their daughter's happiness? And sad to say I cannot write them off as the exceptions or as deviants from the normal. They are probably the norm in our country, even if their reasons for getting minor daughters married may be different.

    What do we say of a mother who does not report the husband who batters her baby? What do we say of parents who do not bring their married daughter back home despite knowing that she is being tortured every day?

    What do we say of a society which claims to worship female deities and sees a mother as a Goddess, but chooses to destroy young female infants?

    What do we say of parents who destroy female foetuses before they are born? Or are they better than parents who give birth to them and then batter them?????

    Should I consider myself as particularly privileged for having been allowed to live, learn and flourish? For having had a particularly good set of parents who were extremely enlightened for their times? Should I be grateful to God for this or should I be grateful to my society to have allowed me to be what I am today? Or should I be grateful to have been born in better times, before a so-called "ancient civilization" fell inexorably sick and started moving at breakneck speed in reverse gear into the dark ages?

    This is the society which has produced Indira Gandhi, Kiran Majumdar, Kiran Bedi, Indira Noorani and other great women whom we tout as our claim to our "liberal, forward looking society". But then these are women we can count on our finger tips, while the Baby Falaks and Baby Afreens are part of an innumerable statistic - here yesterday, gone today, forgotten tomorrow.

    P.S. A few days ago, when I published a poem http://www.indusladies.com/forums/blogs/satchitananda/here-yesterday-gone-today-forgotten-7138/, a few friends told me that I was being very negative and things were not so bad nowadays. Was I depressed etc.? It was actually a newspaper item on some gang rapes in Delhi that had spurred me on to write that poem. This news about Baby Afreen has only served to strengthen my argument.[/JUSTIFY]
     
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  2. vjbunny

    vjbunny IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Satchi...
    Its such a sad thing that these things are still going on even today when women have proved they are no less compared to men....
     
  3. Sriniketan

    Sriniketan IL Hall of Fame

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    Satchi's, very sad indeed, the questions you had raised here, is absolutely, right! But the answers elude us, when these questions are raised and it was here yesterday, gone today and will be forgotten tomorrow...sad state of human nature :-(

    Sriniketan

    PS: The picture is too cute.
     
  4. InnerBliss

    InnerBliss Gold IL'ite

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    The title and the questions are very thought and emotions provoking. I admire your empathy towards the situation. The title and the picture are also attention catching.

    It was nice reading your thoughts highlighting some facts. I would pray that may these be the last tragic incidents. May such practice is stopped asap.
     
  5. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    What a though provoking article bringing the plight of some of the female infants sufferings in the hands of very same people it looks up to protect and be loved. You have raised series of questions in this Blog which were excellent. But, the main question the humanity should ask themselves is whether these infants deserve to die in the hands of their own parents or for that matter by any fellow being and what gives them the right to do such gruesome acts?

    Every man who commits such gruesome acts should think for a second what would be their plight if their parents thought of getting rid of him by killing him? Or if his mother was executed in the same fashion how he would come into existence?

    There is only one specie in this Universe that drifts away from righteousness despite its ability to discriminate and that is called human. If there is any specie that should be ashamed of its act, it should be the human.

    I spent my entire young age longing for a sister and now in the later part of my life, I spend every day missing a daughter. A woman is a precious gift to a man and I learned it by spending my young age with my mother and now through my time with my wife. Every one of my interaction with IL members in this forum only validates my opinion about woman.

    If I learned how to walk without hurting myself, from my mother, I learned how to walk through my life peacefully without hurting myself or others, from my wife. If I learned how to talk, from my mother, I learned how to talk lovingly to others, from my wife. If I learned how to enjoy the love showered on a child, from my mother, I learned how to enjoy showering love to the children, from my wife.

    I will not be what I am today without women in my life. I rest my case.

    Viswa
     
  6. SM11870

    SM11870 Silver IL'ite

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    Dear Satchi,

    A superb write up that reflects your inner thoughts which are more beautiful.

    Actually I was also wondering about the fate of female lives in our country after reading aboutan article on "honour killing"in the newspaper yesterday.After killing our daughters for mere ego do the parents are entitled to be called "honour killers"?Then what is the difference between them and a ruthless murderer.These cases are brought up,they become national sensation for a while and then closed forever.Look at Aarushi murder case-I wonder if we will ever get the real picture???

    What is the fault of a girl-she plays all the roles that Mother nature has planned for her with the utmost perfection,still she is humiliated,cheated,harassed and at last murdered.I pray to God to let us have a peaceful life.

    Shruti
     
  7. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    That is indeed right VJ. They have proved themselves capable, there are laws in place to prevent demanding dowry despite which parents get caught in the trap of "society and custom" demand it, there is free education for girls upto the plus two level despite which they don't educate their girls, there is a law forbidding marriage below the age of 18, still they get their daughters married as minors. Legalese calls physical relations below that age as "rape". So here are parents subjecting their daughters forcefully to rape in the name of marriage. Will we ever change?
     
  8. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    You are right Sri. Barely a month since baby Falak breathed her last under similar circumstances, the only differences being she was aged 2 and it was not her father who killed her. She has already been forgotten. Baby Afreen will be forgotten before the week is out, we can be sure of that. Nothing changes. Public memory is indeed short.
     
  9. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Thanks InnerBliss. Yes, I too wish we as a society see some good sense soon. I wonder if God is hearing. Or is God a male?
     
  10. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Thanks Viswa for a wonderful, thoughtful FB.
     

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