Serendipity

“Sukriti! Sukriti! Come out already we are getting so late for school.”, shouted Prakriti, standing with two well-made ponytails behind her back, outside Sukriti’s house.

Sukriti came out of the balcony and replied, “Count till 10, and I will be there.”, and ran back in. She quickly tied her hair as neatly as she could and picked up her bag. She was searching for her shoes when she heard from the outside- “...9,10!” Sukriti came out and said, “In Hindi!” and laughed.

Prakriti got fed up and started walking briskly in revolt. Sukriti quickly tugged her legs in her school shoes untidily and ran to keep up with her.

Don’t go on their homogeneous names, Sukriti and Prakriti are not sisters but maybe meant-to-be sisters. The whole village in fact knows that they are the best of friends and they have been since childhood. They do practically all the things together, well maybe not going to the school as Sukriti is a trained procrastinator.

“Wait, wait, my P.T. Usha”, said Sukriti hopping on one leg and fixing her soles in the shoe. “You always make us late. At least today you should have been on time.”, said Prakriti.

Sukriti asked, “Why? What’s so special today?”

“You forgot? Today is a holiday for the boys! Only the girls are allowed to enter, our headmistress Bose Ma’am told us that there is a special seminar for us. She didn’t say what it was about. Since yesterday I have been guessing what it can be, but I am so excited that at least some divergent activity the school is having. I think it’s a beauty contest or, or as the attendance of girls is always more so I think we are getting rewarded. What do you think?” said Prakriti with her eyes glowing in imagination. She tried to hold Sukriti’s hand like she always did while they walked to school, but Sukriti flung it away.

“All okay?”, Prakriti asked her.

Sukriti had been behaving oddly for the past two weeks and to avoid answering she changed the subject.

“Ugh, I feel lucky for the boys! One day off and that too without any reason. Don’t you think a holiday for us would have been a better gift?”, said Sukriti giggling.

“Shut up, at least take something seriously! Always trying to find a way to not go to school. If it weren’t for me, you too would have come to school only for the tests. Now don’t say a word until we reach school.”, instructed Prakriti.

On reaching the school, the duo saw a new face at the entrance. A young woman, who didn’t seem more than 20. She was wearing a white kurta with black embroidery and jeans with Rajasthani Chappal and had a young radiant smile across her face. She was standing at the school gate and was greeting every girl who was coming in.

“Didn’t she look too pretty to be a watchman?”, said Sukriti and gulped. Prakriti nudged her.

Sukriti and Prakriti went inside and saw that all the students had gathered in the school grounds. A make shift podium had been erected there on which there was a projector and a white screen.

“There is your beauty contest, the projector will throw light on your face and you will look really beautiful”, Sukriti teased Prakriti. Prakriti nudged her again.

The 20-year old college girl who had greeted them at the gate appeared with Headmistress Bose and fellow female teachers. All the male teachers had also been given a holiday.

On seeing Ma’am Bose there was utter silence in the fields and every girl quickly stood in perfect symmetry. Ma’am Bose, a lady of 60, had a boyish haircut with grey hair, she wore spectacles and a properly draped green saree. Her mannerisms dictated her persona and they were highly intimidating.

She approached the podium and said, “Girls, as you all know that we have only called you and not the boys as today we are going to talk about something concerning the female gender. We have with us Miss Aarti Singh, a college student from Delhi who has undertaken the job of women empowerment. She will be talking about some sensitive and taboo topics which every girl should know. Be on your best of behavior and listen everything very carefully. Please come Miss Aarti.”

Aarti who was operating the laptop and the projector quickly wore her spectacles and climbed the stage.

“Good morning girls! Instead of me making a long and boring speech for an hour, let us make this an interactive session. So I want you all to be pretty comfortable with me. As you can see that we all are girls here. Me, your headmistress, female faculty and each and every student. Therefore, try not to be shy about anything. So as I can see that most of you are of age; does anyone here know about ‘periods in girls’?”

There was a little giggling in the crowd, Sukriti started chuckling. Aarti smiled and said, “Well by that sound I think so that most of you are aware about them. Now can anyone tell me why do they happen?”.

“I was wrong! Things just got entertaining.”, whispered Sukriti to Prakriti.

A girl raised her hand and explained menstrual cycle which went straight above the head of the remaining girls.

It seemed that Biology had been neglected as a subject in this school.

Aarti understood this by the inscrutable expression of the crowd and opened a diagram of the female reproductive system on the projector. She carefully explained all the parts in the diagram and what contributed towards having periods in girls. A mix of uneasiness as well as satire was filling in the crowd. The juxtaposition of such contrasting feelings made the introvert girls absolutely dumb and the extrovert, hysterical.

Aarti ended by saying, “…. So never forget to use clean pads and if they are not available then try to borrow some pieces of cotton and wool from the household and knit them neatly, they can function as an adequate substitute, but never use a dirty cloth. Well with that being said, does anyone know what the word ‘rape’ means?”

There was a sudden hush, instantaneously the last word was spoken. This question proved to be a better disciplinarian than the teachers. Even Ma’am Bose’s eyebrows had tweaked on hearing the word ‘Rape’ and Sukriti too had fallen silent.

“Well either this silence means that some of you do not know what it means, or you do know but are uncomfortable while speaking about it. Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without that person's consent. Penetration inside the diagram which you just saw on the projector, from where your periods happen. I know some of you might be too young to know all of this and others might feel uncomfortable on hearing about such act of violence and human indecency, so why am I telling you all this? Last year I saw a news article about an 11year-old girl from Haryana. She had been raped by a group of boys, but didn’t know what exactly happened with her until she was told and explained about it later. She knew that something wrong had taken place but didn’t know exactly what. 

That helplessness, that unawareness is what motivated me towards forming this organization which tries to educate the girls about crimes that can be meted against them. How will one save herself from being raped, if one doesn’t even know what rape is? We live in a monstrous society with predators more than people, but a change is coming, slowly and gradually but until that change happens, each and every one of you should know how to be safe.”, said Aarti. Overcome by her emotions her eyes had filled with tears.

A small girl of the first standard, with two pony tails stretched out and innocent eyes, silently got up and slowly said, “Didi, …. I am a little ……. scared, how can I save myself from ‘rape’?”

Aarti said, “The first thing to note is to identify the predator. The predator can be a known or unknown person, and you will not believe it but in most cases it is a relative or a close family friend, so we have to stay cautious at every step of the day. They may not actually rape but may molest us. And…”

“What is the meaning of molesting?”, asked the same little girl inquisitively.

“Molestation means making unwanted advances like touching your body parts where you might not feel right like the breasts, back, hips, thighs etc. Just make sure that the person who can touch you at this age is only your mother, okay?”, said Aarti.

Out of the blue Sukriti gulped in hesitation, “Ma’am what happens to someone who gets mo.. molest..”, “Molested?”, Aarti helped her.

“Ye…. Yes.”, said Sukriti. Prakriti saw that Sukriti’s body language had changed suddenly. She had never seen her that serious.

“Well, a person who has been molested may have emotions such as fear, shame, humiliation, guilt, and self–blame which may lead to depression and anxiety. For some time, they may not like any other person touching them. They may also get traumatic thoughts throughout their life about the incident and..”, continued Aarti, but she saw that Sukriti was staring at the projector in oblivion.

All the girls were looking at her and Sukriti got alarmed. She thought she was being judged.

She quickly got up and ran away from the playground into the school. Prakriti called out, “Sukriti!”, but she didn’t look back.

Prakriti also rose and followed her. She saw her halt at the school gate and panting, Prakriti said, “Hey what is up with you? Are you okay? Are you bored kya?”

Sukriti turned around, her face was lifeless as a skull and her teary eyes were the only thing that made her look like a human. Prakriti was alarmed and said, “Are you okay? What happened? Tell me, please. What happened?”

Sukriti paused and reverted back so late that Prakriti thought that her enquiry hadn’t been heard at all.

“I think that I have been molest….ed.”

“What? When?”

“Two weeks back, my Uncle’s close relative came with him to stay with us for one night. He seemed very friendly at first and we played outside during the day, but he was a ‘Predator’ as Aarti Di just said.”

“What…… what did he do? Did he hurt you?”, asked Prakriti.

Sukriti gulped in anxiety and Prakriti could literally see her uneasiness in even speaking about it.

“At night, when everybody was sleeping, he came over to my bed and touched me at the wrong places which Di told us about, and ….. I didn’t like it at all, I knew that it was wrong but I didn’t ……even… know ….what was going on! I just can’t even put it into words… I”, Sukriti started crying, “I am so scared that it will happen again and all the things that Aarti Di told us about, will it happen to me? I don’t think that I will be able to forget it, what if I am not able to forget it? and continue to…..”, Prakriti hugged her.

“Wait here.”, said Prakriti.

She went back to the playground where the seminar was being held. When she reached, she saw that the event was practically over and all the girls had risen.

Sukriti quickly ran towards Aarti who was going backstage.

She said, “Aarti Di, I have a request for you. “

“Yes beta?”, said Aarti.

“Can you do the same seminar again and just for the men in the village? All of them. Boys from our school, their fathers, their grandfathers, everyone? It is necessary, believe me.”, said Prakriti.

“Sure! That is a very good idea! I will talk to Bose Ma’am and I can keep it tomorrow here in the school grounds only. Okay?”, said Aarti smiling.

When Prakriti came back to the gate, Sukriti asked her, “Why had you gone back?”, she was a little calm now.

“I got you your holiday tomorrow.”, smiled Prakriti and they held hands like they always did and walked towards their home.