Aye Pagli!

She appeared in our building compound one day, out of nowhere. Dressed in weirdly mismatched attire, blabbering to herself, lost in her own world, she made the entire residential society come to a standstill.

The watchman shooed her away, she happily obliged. But she lingered around for a while, dancing to an unknown tune, oblivious to everything that happened around her.

This went on for days, her presence almost became a daily affair, but what disappointed me the most was, the way she was addressed. 'Aye Pagli', the children in the building, even my own son would call out loud. She would always only smile.

One of those days I witnessed what made me brave enough to do something for her, for the society. From my kitchen, I saw a few anti social elements try to sweet talk her and whisk her away. I raised an alarm, some other people noticed and the rowdy elements ran off. But I knew I had to do something.

I called the police helpline and I have to say, they acted immediately. Within minutes they were at my door and I lead them to her. They offered her tea, spoke in her native tongue and dropped her home, which turned out to be some hutments closeby.

I came to know later, that she had been mentally challenged since childhood, was well taken care of till her mother lived. But when her mother passed on, she became too much of a burden for her wasted father and married brothers. Thus she had been abandoned, they had even refused to take her home.

Thankfully, she now lives in a shelter for disabled, being cared for by an NGO.

I wrote a piece about her, an ode to the struggles of mentally challenged people, the constant rebuke, and how we, as humans could perhaps help.

My story about her won me a place in a popular anthology. That was my very first and I have been writing regularly since then. Trying to capture real life instances of grit and survival. But I would say, SHE and my experience with her, were my very first inspiration to 'Write.'