My Struggling with Twilight: Part 2

It’s been quite long since I penned down my thoughts under the title “Twilight” and I thought it was high time I took it further, so here goes, part 2! I’m sure even the Twilight movies can easily beat me to it. Anyhow, this is another one of my trysts with Twilight.  

I’ll begin with what inspired me to write this down. It was just yesterday evening when I was waiting for him to arrive, and I stood by the road in front of a shop. The road that lay ahead of me wore a deserted look. There were a few stray dogs lazily strolling across the road and of course, one or two automobiles which seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere zoomed past me. Apart from all this, it was relatively a dull evening, windless and it somehow made me feel sad and bored. Now that is a deadly combination, isn’t that! I have no idea why I hate this time of the day; I hate Twilight. As usual, He took a while to arrive, as he does always and as I looked around I could see a television playing inside the house across the road, through its window. All I could figure out was that it was probably a cartoon show and I could also see kids stuck to the TV screen. And this reminded me of the time when I was a slave of television.

It was the happiest time on TV, well before Ekta Kapoor ruined it all. The time when Star Plus wasn’t a popular channel but still was my favourite! I would avidly follow a show called “Star bestsellers” even if it meant reaching my tuitions late by 15 minutes! 

And there was this one show I could never watch but had only seen its promotional ads and it was called “Kshitij ke Uss Aur”(Beyond the horizon). The whole ad was shot during twilight. From the ad it looked like the story was divided into two parts, one was based in Mumbai and another on the other side of Kshitij in Shimla. In Mumbai, the shot was that of a Gunda who has kidnapped this young girl and had held her at rampuri knifepoint! And the other part showcased a couple in their late thirties sitting on a bench amidst pine trees with hot coffee mugs clasped in their hands and with sad, gloomy faces. Surprising! That’s where it all came to an end, the ad I mean!

And I guess the fact that the ad was shot during the twilight hour was the only thing what made it memorable to me. I wonder why. I don’t see anything special about the ad, not even the hunky gunda guy, not even the beautiful beach or breathtaking scenario of Shimla, but still! 

It is so gloomy! Both outside and on the inside! I am sad. I just wish every time I’m immersed in this feeling I have him by my side who would only make this worth enduring! J

Thanks to Richa, harish, Onir, Cindrella, Aamir and a thousand others for making a difference.

And yet, I don’t understand why every year at the end of April my parents invite the whole family for lunch. Mom says “family ko season ka first aam ka ras (we gujjus cant bear a summer without it) toh khilana padta hai na.” :’( and I’m always like “What the....???”.

Ideally in any family a get together means bade bado ke sath and bache bacho ke saath. But the sad thing for me I guess, was that I happened to be the youngest kid in family. And the next in line was 5 years older, leaving me all alone with none to play with!

So it was the same get together “mango” lunch for the so-called mango-crazy people. My school vacation had just started off and I was excited to enter the last year of my middle schooling (7th grade). I was 12 years old and as ignorant and innocent as any 12 year old could have been.

After lunch while everyone sat down chitchatting with each other in the drawing room, my elder cousin, who was I guess 19 years old back then in the context of a pakdapakdi game, dragged me into one of the rooms.

What happened next – I hadn’t imagined it in my wildest imaginations, the time froze and so did I. I was clueless. And the same thing continued for a span of 3 years. It took me that long really, to finally pull myself together and to reach a point where I could finally “disagree” or nod my “dissent”.

Finally when I went to college I got to know about the entire situation, I got to know that I am the victim or survivor of Child Sexual Abuse(CSA), the current laws of India, 2007’s report of UNICEF and Ministry of Women and Child Development - everything was just a mere disappointment.

Years passed and then I saw Harish on Richa Aniruddh’s show “Zindaji Live” on IBN7. I was glad and so happy to see that one person is trying to tell the world about the hidden reality of our society and more glad to see Harish for taking this courageous step of telling the world about it. Later in 2011 Onir comes up with the film “I am Abhimanyu” based on the life of Harish Iyer and Ganesh Nallari. And now Aamir Khan confronts the much taboo’ed topic in his show “Satyamev Jayate” leaving no stone unturned.

 I would like to thank those people who are trying to make difference and on the whole making the country more humane.

Thank You Richa, it all started with you. It’s you who took the first step to tell India that her future is falling prey to “abuse”. Thank you so much for being such an inspiration for others.

Thank you Harish, nothing much to say, you have been there fighting for it for years and we are all proud of you.

Thank you Onir, for such a wonderful film.

Thank you Aamir for leaving the whole India deeply moved with the hidden reality of our families.

And as per the latest news Child Sexual Abuse Bill has been successfully passed in Loksabha. Time to cheer.. yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy….  