Haven't I Seen Her Before(1)

One evening, me and my daughter set out for a shopping and panipuri eating spree.

At the same time a girl who seemed just a few years older than my teenager came to the same panipuri vendor with two other women ( whom I assumed to be her relatives).All of them were clad in gorgeous dresses,flashy foot wear and wore excessive gaudy make up and jewellery.

I had this feeling instantly that I have seen this girl somewhere..I asked my daughter whether she knew her,but she denied. All through our session of panipuri eating, I looked at that girl squintingly to remember her and to prove my intuition right.Strangely enough the girl never looked back at me ( I feel deliberately) which isn't natural as we were the only people near the vendor.But still my memory failed me!!

Two/three days have passed since then ,when I saw this film ' The Lie' today ,in which a teenager girl is so desperate to bring her divorced parents together, that she maintains a lie that she's killed her bestfriend.

Another version of some teenager rang in my brain instantaneously," They( her parents) don't care for me at all!! They care for only themselves!!"

Yes!! Now I remember how I had met that girl ,few years back when she was sixteen. She had been brought to me for rape case examination ,to which she was vehemently protesting.

She had absconded from her house then,for which her parents had lodged a police complaint.They firmly believed that she had run away with some boy friend.

She had been recovered from her uncle and aunt's house in a nearby town and was kept in an NGO because she completely denied to go back to her parents and she had been brought to me by a lady police officer .

Her parents had also arrived but separately. I tried a lot to explain to them that she was swearing to God that she didn't have any boyfriend at all and a girl above the age of 14 can't be forced for medical examination

The parents carried on arguing with me incessantly that she was their only child and if she got pregnant or faced any problems ,would I take the responsibility. I had answered their questions quite patiently that day,that no doctor can examine any patient without his /her consent.

Finally the girl had told me to notice the way in which her parents were behaving in front of the police officers and medical officers. She denied to go home with them and left with the NGO member woman.

When I saw her again that day,she had grown up into a beautiful young adult. But the questions that are still boggling me are," Why did she try so hard to avoid me?Were the women with her ,her relatives or NGO people? Had she ever returned to her house or not? Why were they all so exuberantly dressed??

( To be continued...)