The Wrong Perception

Truth, now has become majority’s opinion. Innocence-guilt, victim-criminal, good-bad, these are all matters of perception. The perception of the majority has unfortunately now become our received wisdom and therefore the truth. But what if majority is wrong?

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Kabir had a happy family with his wife, Ayesha and their children Rajesh and Arjun. They were a small happy middle class family just like any other with small share of happiness and misery in their day to day life. Kabir worked in a private concern while Ayesha was a house wife. Rajesh was in high school while Arjun was in the final year of college.

They were very friendly with the neighbours and were as social as possible. But suddenly they changed drastically.

One night, they went out to celebrate New Year and when they came back, the next day, they were changed. No one who has met them earlier would be able to recognize them. After that night, they barely talked with each other or to the neighbours or anyone else. They seemed to have become very reserved and always seemed to be depressed and angry.

The neighbours also did not ask them anything about the reason for all these because they did not want to interfere in their personal matters. But after a few days, something horrible happened.

One morning, when the newspaper delivery man came to settle his account for the month, he found out something. He knocked the door for several times and when no one responded, he guessed something to be wrong. So, he broke the door and found that Kabir, Ayesha, Rajesh and Arjun are lying dead. The man was shocked to his very core and it took a few seconds for him to understand the situation. After gaining his senses, he quickly reported the matter to the police station and in no time, the police arrived.

One of the police officer interrogated the man while the others were busy investigating the house and the dead bodies. Suddenly one of the police officer's eyes caught something. It was a letter and it was written by Ayesha. There was a blotch of ink on the letter indicating to the fact that when she was writing the letter, she was probably crying. The blotch of the ink on the letter was probably the results of the tears that fell from her eyes. The letter was as follows:-

Murder doesn’t mean only to make someone stop breathing. It means to make someone stop living.

After celebrating New Year, when we were coming home through a dark lane, suddenly some goons wearing masks attacked us. At first they took away all our money and jewellery and then they took us to a cottage inside a forest and tied us. They even tied our mouths so that we couldn’t even shout for help.

We remained tied looking helplessly towards each other while the masked goons continued enjoying their alcoholic drinks and crispy snacks. After almost 45 minutes, one of the goons came towards me and without any warning pulled off my sari. I couldn’t do anything to stop it as my hands were tied along with my legs with the wall. Neither could I shout as my mouth was also tied. I just shake my head but the goon seemed to ignore that.

After that the other goons came towards me and one of them pulled off my blouse while the other pulled off my undergarments. I was then only in my bra and panty. Tears dropped from my helpless eyes and I tried very hard to get rid of the bondage, but I could not. My husband and children kept looking at me with their helpless eyes.

After that, the goons stripped me off my remaining clothes and I was tied naked in front of my sons. Then the goons came one by one and started raping me in bondage. The rape continued whole night in front of my family. Finally, when the goons felt that they are satisfied, they left the garage taking all our money and jewellery.

After that, almost an hour passed and finally with a great deal of effort, I got rid of the bondage. As soon as my hands were untied, I fell down on the floor. My legs were shaking due to the heavy physical exhaustion that I went through last night. I tried to get up but my legs could no longer bear the weight of my body. But still with shaking legs and half crawling, I went towards them and untied them one by one.

Finally, they helped me to put my clothes back on my body but they did not say anything to me. My very soul was shaken by the incident of the last night.

But after we went home, they barely talked to me. Days passed and all of them started maintaining distances from me, even my own sons. Finally, the day came when they stated the real reason.

They said that I am now a spoiled woman, may be a slut or a tramp, and they feel ashamed and embarrassed to be around me. My sons said on my face that they can now never respect me like a mother or any human being just for my crime of getting raped.

I tried very hard to make them understand that it was not my fault that I got raped but they seemed to think that I am the criminal, instead of the victim, in the crime.

My whole universe was my family, especially my sons and when they misjudged me, I couldn’t take it. When I learned that they are ashamed of me as a mother, it just hit me.

Therefore, I killed them one by one with my own hands. I destroyed my created small happy world with my own hands. I killed my own sons with my own hands.

Just because I was raped does not mean that I have become a bad mother or a characterless wife. I was just a victim of some criminal’s lust. I was a victim, not a criminal.

After killing them, I have got no reason to live. Therefore, I am killing myself in the hope that death might grant me the justice that life couldn’t give me.

After reading the letter, the police officer closed the letter and thought in his mind that how important it is now in our society to improve our perception and how wrong perception can have a catastrophic ramification.