All Are Naked

She was sitting naked near Almora's Raghunath Temple. She will be around sixteen years old and was totally dark from head to foot. From a distance, it looked as if someone had thrown a black cloth in front of the temple. She was looking naked because the clothes she wore were also black as her body. A half T-shirt in the upper part had turned black due to lack of washing for years, and a frock which went up to her knee was sloppy as well as torn at many places.

Now my eyes moved upwards from her feet. As she was squatting with folded knees, the back was visible. Her undergarment was also torn, out of which her right hip protruded like a rat peeping out of the bill. I saw what I shouldn't have seen. She was not naked, but she was still naked. What did she have? She had nothing. She did not have two meals to fill her stomach. She did not have two pairs of clothes to cover her body.   

A person who is naked with body, mind, and money is the worst. This sixteen-year-old girl also looked naked to me deprived of all the three things. She had a body that was very weak. He had the mind which had completely withered. She hardly had any color in her life. She did not have any money at all. That is why she was sitting there holding the bowl.

I wanted to run away from her sight as soon as possible. Seeing her in that condition, my mind was trying to spontaneously escape from that ugly sight. My legs were automatically sliding backwards. The age at which roses smiled on youth, at that age thorns of cactus bloomed in her body.The age at which river flowed in the girls' body, at that age her body was stained with mud. The thorns of the cactus, spread in her body, were causing fear in me. The mud in her body was causing hatred in my mind.

I had read in the book of psychology that at this age varieties of flowers bloom in girls' bodies. There is a spring of youth, but I could see the only autumn in his body. The body was dry with only skin and bones! Let not a dog swoop over her.

What a pitiable plight at the age of sixteen! I started remembering all the songs composed on the girl in her sixteenth year. I found all the songs to be false. How much nonsense has been written by our lyricists!!

I saw her hands and feet which looked like dried wood. Dust-baked brown hairs, which had probably never tasted oil till date. Small pitted nose. Dry lips were like crisp papad. In her deep but dry lake-like eyes I saw a dream that she also wanted to become a sixteen-year-old girl. Do the sixteen-year-old girls really look like this?

I remembered a TV advertisement in which a sixteen-seventeen-year-old semi-naked girl came gagging and said- "New beautiful fairness cream that makes your skin soft, beautiful and attractive!" She goes on humping her hip after saying this.

Once I thought that I should definitely buy this cream and give it to her. Then I thought that it would be better to get her bread twice daily. What will she do with the cream? I stepped forward but my eyes were still on her. She was now standing. She raised her left hand which had a bowl and begged, "Babuji!" I stayed there puzzled.

I did not like her calling me Babuji at all, because I was a young boy of twenty-six. Well, she should have called me Dada, but I would not have liked her calling me grandfather also. So how should she have addressed me uncle, brother, friend or something else?

Well, I found her word Babuji very strange and also her voice equally strange. There was a pain in that strange voice. The pain of a child when the toy is snatched away. A pain of a mule burdened with unbearable load on its back. A pain of a goat on sacrificed. She was in great pains. Who says that pain comes only when you get beaten? Who says that pain is caused only when the fingers burn? Pain comes even when dreams are not fulfilled.

I think whether that girl may also have a dream. Anyone can see a dream! But what does this girl know about a dream? No, after seeing other girls, she too might wish to become like them! Hopefully! May there be a lot of happiness in her life as well. Seeing her withering face, I do not think that she would have ever smiled till today. Stories, tales, sports, jokes, might not have come in her life till date!!

I look back and forth, right and left all around. I see many girls passing by that girl. A girl who looked about twenty-one years old, wearing blue tight jeans and pink top and high-heeled sandals was smiling at her feet. She was giggling and going away with her friends. She was accompanied by another girl, who was probably eighteen years old. She was wearing half-jeans at the bottom and a mesh top at the top, with a deep red bra inside which enhanced her beauty.

She was accompanied by two more girls, one wearing a colorful suit and the other wearing jeans and a shirt. The second girl had kept the buttons of the shirt open which attracted the attention of the onlookers. My mind also got distracted from a sixteen-year-old girl to those beautiful girls.

After those girls moved forward, I looked around. Mind prompted me to enjoy the beauty and go after them. However much a man tries to become great from outside he has the weakness from inside for beautiful girls. Seeing the beauty, a man's mind gets lost because beauty has an elusive charm which draws everyone towards it. From among those, I found a girl so beautiful that my mind started humming - "If someone like you comes into life, then the thing should become ...."”Aap Jaisa Koyi Jindagi Me Aa Jaye, To Baat Ban Jaye…”

The mind is also a strange thing. The faster it runs, the faster it returns. After returning back from those beautiful girls, my mind again rested on that sixteen year old girl. I thought, wouldn't that sixteen year old girl wish to be as beautiful as those girls? Wouldn't she want to wear a variety of costumes? Would she not want to have friends too, with whom she would talk? Eat well, dress well, and stay in a good house?

Suddenly, I was disturbed by hearing the same voice - "Babuji!" I glanced at her- "Oh my God, this girl has started following me." I tried to ignore the voice, but by then she had reached me. Coins of one rupee, two rupees were visible in the bowl kept in her hand. What a pity to beg at this age of sixteen! Is this a business for a girl of her age? This is the age for going to school. It is the age of reading, writing and having fun. On one side there are beauties who are ready to bare their bodies despite everything and on other side this girl who doesn’t want to bare herself but still naked.

Her nakedness is seen by all the big and small people passing the market. Everyone is seeing her wandering around with a bowl in her hand. She is seen even by the leader who makes big promises to the public. He says,” I will see the Ganges of development flow”. She is also seen by social reformers who claim to carry out various agitations for the benefit of the public. She is also seen by the intellectuals who put the line of principles everywhere. She is also seen by the teachers, who claim to build a nation by making children knowledgeable. And I am seeing her too. Everyone is watching, but while going in front of this naked girl, everyone is exposed of their nakedness. The leader's promises disappear. The service of social reformers disappear .The intelligence of the intellectual is lost. The teacher's knowledge is not visible. I do not understand why this is happening?

I look towards the market. I find that the market is looking at me with the same keen eye. A market is a place where different people meet and everything is sold here. Here the most expensive to the cheapest things are available. The interesting thing is that buyers of every type are found here.

Nowadays, the markets are flooded in the colors of Western culture. By speaking in English, imitating English costumes and living, people consider themselves very civilized. But the truth is that we are not civilized but imitators like monkeys. It is our nature to imitate without thinking anything.

People who look decent and cultured from outside are not necessarily decent and cultured from inside. From outside, everyone seems to be affluent. This charm and in its glow also tempted my eyes.My attention is drawn to a ready made clothing store.

There were varieties of ladies and gents dresses hanging outside this shop, but my attention was drawn by the mannequin made of plastic which looked like a film heroine. It had the most fashionable dress. It wore a top on its head. Seeing it my mind said- “Aha! How beautiful!” Take her home and get married.”

Modern girls are not reliable. They run away with their boyfriend even after marriage. They change their decisions fast. Stories continue to be published in newspapers about women’s illicit relations, elopement, suicide etc. At least this mannequin will not cheat me.

Yes ! TV, when I talk about newspapers, my hairs gets erected. The news of murder, suicide, robbery, rape, dacoity, fraud, deceit, illegal relations are nauseating. Frankly, these media have become the medium for exposing the nakedness of man. Man is the only creature in the world who is naked despite wearing clothes. Not naked, but a completely nude.Solah Saal Ki Nangi Ladki)

Now you will ask me as to why I call a civilized man naked. The way young girls  are being gang-raped in the country, what else can I say if I do not call a man naked? If a woman, along with her lover, gets her husband killed for satisfying her lust, then in such a situation, if I do not call a man naked, what else should I say? If a man wrangles relations for land, property and wealth and sells his conscience, then what else should I say if the man is not naked?

The scene changed before my anger got momentum. A beautiful girl came and saw the clothes worn by that mannequin. This pretty girl also wore a hat on her head. Seeing both the mannequin and the girl, I felt as if they have not worn a hat, but rather they have the entire universe on their heads.

Suddenly I heard a song coming from the adjacent shop. As I was hearing the song the voice was heard -"Babuji”! That sixteen-year-old girl stood next to me holding the bowl. I got angry- "Babuji, Babuji, what have you kept! I am a twenty-six-year-old young man. Don't you see me? It spoiled my mood a lot." I told her and turning my attention from her moving towards the temple

In the temple, I folded my hands and took out a fifty rupee note from the purse and placed it on the priest's plate and pleaded with God - "O Lord! Take care of me. Do everything good to me. Let me earn and keep the house going." After this I came out, but on reaching the ladder, I saw the same sixteen-year-old girl standing in front of me again. As soon as she noticed me, she moved the bowl forward - "Babuji, one or two rupees. God will do good to you"

I said angrily- "I don't have money.”

She tried for the last time.” Babuji, my mother is sick. So I need your help.”

I told her, “Don’t give lame excuses. Get lost”.

 I left that naked sixteen-year-old girl again and came back home. At night, when I remembered the incident of the evening, I could not understand whether she was a naked sixteen-year-old girl… or I was naked… or all of us were naked or the whole world was naked… !!!

THE END

Thanks to Pawanesh Thakurathi whose story has been translated.

सोलहसालकीनंगीलड़की

 © Pawanesh Thakurathi

https://storymirror.com/read/story/hindi/v7zctuo2/solh-saal-kii-nngii-lddkii/detail 

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