Left all my cares,

left all the worries.

Nothing to talk about,

not a word to speak.

In the trivial fights there is love,

in the commotion there is silence.

Our eyes meet,

the lips arch into a smile.

Left all my cares I have,

ever since I held thy hand.

How did I chance upon thee, my love?

Was it fate or a mere stroke of luck?

Or are you a mere illusion? 

Serendipity it is, 

your love so divine.

Destiny it is,

your soul so sublime.  

Left all my cares I have,

ever since I held thy hand.

My body stays hidden,

But the soul is bare.

We are one spirit,

Barriers but immortal.

My mirror you are,

I am your reflection.

Nothing to say there is,

only to smile...

Walking together under the aging trees,

I look at the autumn sun.

The birds head back home,

With the sky turning crimson,

Nature settles down.

We waltz to the song of the crickets.

Hear music of the silence.

There is tranquility,

Beauty unparalleled. 

Wordless conversations are all we have

As we sail away in the infinite sea of love. 

There are no worries,

No cares at all.

Left them all I have,

Ever since I held thy hand. 

A couple of days ago, I was watching this interesting debate on a news channel regarding Rapists, Kidnappers, Sexual assaulters and the death penalty. Of the opposition leaders of our country, Sushma Swaraj tweeted: "Law should declare rape & murder, kidnapping and murder as 'rarest of the rare' to make death sentence mandatory." 

Since my country had been ruled by Englishmen who loved to write laws as vague as possible, the custom continues with Indian judges often using the phrase 'rarest of the rare'. I don't really understand what it means and what exactly puts an offence under such a category. Everyone loves to speculate and give a different interpretation thereby increasing the confusion. 

Now, the whole story came down to this woman Aruna Shanbaug, who has been in a vegetative state for 37 years now after being asphyxiated and sodomized by a Ward Boy. A recent Euthanasia petition filed by her Lawyer friend grabbed national attention and raised a lot of questions. Unfortunately, the petition was rejected as in our country, Euthanasia equals cold - blooded homicide. The woman has to live the same miserable state for the rest of her life. I'll talk about Euthanasia in another post.

Interestingly, the ward boy, who committed the heinous crime was incarcerated only for seven years. Wow! Too less? That's the law. A noble man like Dr. Binayak Sen can get life imprisonment for allegedly seditious activity (poor man gets to be in jail for spreading literature he didn't even know was seditious), but a brute like that ward boy gets a mere 7 - year imprisonment! Talk about proportionality of punishment people! Talk about Justice!  

In India, the instances of crimes against women seem to soar with every passing year. Every half an hour, a woman is raped. Young brides are tortured and burnt alive for dowry. Child marriages continue to be the custom in many villages. Sexual favours are demanded in schools and workplaces. Domestic violence is rampant. At least one in ten girls has been molested. The picture just gets uglier with the recent case of Soumya, a 23-year old reporter and the sole bread earner of the family was pushed out of a train and raped. She ultimately died after fighting for her life for five days in a hospital and the case of 22-year old Radhika Tanwar who was shot dead by her stalker while crossing a crowded bridge. Even some politicians and judges have been alleged of molesting young girls. Alas!  

Only one in about 70 cases of rape gets reported. This means that about 69 women get raped before one lodges an official complaint. Of the reported cases (only one out of 70), only 20 per cent are convicted. Consequently, only three out of 1,000 rapists ever get convicted. So most rapists can get away with rape. 

Most cases stay unreported for the sole reason that in our sick patriarchal society, the victim and her family lose all the prestige if such an act has been committed against her. A raped or sexually assaulted girl is 'ineligible' for marriage and is looked down upon. Some people even go ahead by saying that if a girl is raped, assaulted, eve - teased, it's her own fault as she dressed 'provocatively'. I too was asked by a young man to dress more modestly (more modestly than a simple long top and a jeans). it's not only the elderly who have this viewpoint, but also some of the so-called civilised, refined and educated people - even girls themselves.In fact, the trauma a victim goes through is unbearable. Medical examinations, cross - questioning, public shaming, and what not! Would it not discourage a woman to reach out for the authorities?  A journalist tries to explain things in this thought - provoking article - 

"If you are as puzzled as I am by the collective silence of women, would their silence be less puzzling if you were told that almost half of those raped are a vulnerable population, under the age of 18? Or that most sexual abuse takes place in the sanctity of that most venerable of institutions - the Indian family? Most women are raped by men who are well known to them. The rapists are fathers, grandfathers, fathers-in-law, husbands, lovers, uncles, cousins, or the voyeuristic neighbour next door. Lower class and lower caste women are raped by upper caste and upper class men. Women are silenced because they are the safe-keepers of their families and communities. When the victims are very young, they are coerced into silence by their older, more powerful abusers. These women live in cities and slums, villages and towns, all across India. Surely they aren't all dressing up provocatively to tempt their rapists?

Ludicrous criteria such as the amount and type of clothing worn, the moral character, caste, class, and the marital status of the victim (married women can't report their husbands), are never applied to other violent crimes. But this is exactly the kind of laughable reasoning applied to rape cases. The fact that rape consists of sexual abuse in addition to physical and emotional abuse, should make rape a crime harder to get away with, not easier." 

Tell me, even if a girl likes to dress up and go out - whether in a short dress or something fancy - should she suffer such intense atrocities? Does a woman have no right to dress up the way she wants and not get dirty looks? We talk of 'free will' and 'civilisation'. Isn't it all about respecting other's choices? Why are called 'sluts' and 'hoes' if we dress sexily? We are trying to feel great about ourselves and not attract male attention. Everyone has a right to dress and live the way he or she wants, with complete dignity and respect. Apparently, the sick aren't ready to understand. And if modesty really mattered, woman who wear burqas or live in purdah would never be raped. That, however isn't the case. 

Getting back to my point, the debate raised some very interesting points, one of them being about the psyche of those retards. A rapist is more likely to rape and murder and girl if death penalty is the punishment for rape - this was observed after a series of interviews with many rapists. They would kill the girl so that there is nobody left to report. This implies that the death sentence would actually do more harm than good. I was stunned when I heard it, but after thinking for a while, I had to agree. The brutes wouldn't stop doing it. Even death penalty doesn't scare them. The simple solution would be to murder the poor girl and get done with it. It is argued that murder is much more serious and needs a strong head. Well, my only answer is, if a man can dare to rape a woman, killing wouldn't be a big deal. To me, rape is as ghastly an act as a cold-blooded murder. Not only are physical injuries inflicted on the often helpless woman, but also deep, mental and emotional ones. The scars on the body might go away with time, but the scars on the mind never do.     

So what is the punishment? How do we get rid of such elements? How to stop these crimes? The answer isn't a simple one. There is no quick-fix way to solve such problems. The roots lie in our sick society, the faulty system. We need to change the way we think. We need to teach our kids that they must respect women - no matter who they are, what they do, how they live or dress. A woman deserves respect and she should rightfully have it. The laws need overhauling. Woman need to speak up. My mother often asks me not to react to eve - teasers. She is right at her place because such an act might provoke them to do more, but it is just as true that if we keep tolerating these rascals, it would encourage them. To nip the bud in the root, we need to deal with such people in a very stern way. 

What do you think should be done to Rapists and men guilty of other such crimes? Should they be hanged or should they rot in prison for the rest of their lives?