Thursday, January 13, 2011

India, that is Bharat

I read in a blog (http://theindianhalf.blogspot.com/) recently - To be born in India and that too as a girl is a double whammy as the Americans like to say. I was reminded of this today when I read the news item today about a father in Vellore, Tamilnadu, murdering his two daughters aged 3 and 2 by throwing them into a well because he did not have the means to raise them. He had spared his four month old son. Initially the father complained to the police that his daughters were missing and that he suspected that they might have been kidnapped. Later police found the bodies of the little girls floating in an abandoned well two km. from their house. On inquiry they found that the two babies were never comfortable with strangers and after interrogation the father confessed to have taken his daughters on his motorbike and threw them into the well and returned home. He also said that he lodged a complaint with the police, an hour later, that his daughters, Taniya Tashiba and Ghaziya Nashiba were missing. What lyrical names.... Two lives lost in vain...what joy, what light they could have brought to any family which longed for a child and would have been more than willing to adopt them?

Apart from all those thoughts like how could a father throw his innocent children into the well, why could he not have thought of giving away the little ones to someone who would have cherished them and how did he decide that he would kill them, one thought that stayed in my mind throughout the day was this: Like any other children these two poor babies would have been wary of strangers. But when their father took them in his bike they would have happily gone for a ride without suspecting that they would end up floating in a well. The trust and security a child feels with its parents is indescribable. What could make a human being break that trust?

We indeed have a long way to go....poverty, gender inequalities, illiteracy, lack of social support systems .... we are grappling with so many insurmountable problems. How many innocents would have to lose their lives before our country gets a semblance of development?

3 comments:

Balu said...

And She, the judge, found her daughters on the liabilities side of financial balance sheet.

Geetha said...

Oh yeah...She would definitely qualify to be labelled 'educated' but what does that term mean?

prema -just sharing my thoughts said...

I dont know if u read an article almost a year ago, about a woman who delivered twin girls Chennai and both the new borns were killed by the woman and her mother since they were 'girls'. When the mom and grand mom feel this way is it any wonder that the 'male-head of household' did what he did.. We are in India, a land of diversity, beliefs people and culture...