DAY SIX!!

Trigger Warning!!

It was all over the news!! One more rape victim had been burnt alive to prohibit confession at the court!! Durga switched off the TV since the news was quiet disturbing.. She had stopped reading the newspapers too because there was always one or the other news about rape. Earlier it used to be printed in bold and would be at the center of the page demanding justice for the victim but nowadays they printed it in the side column with a text font so small..it almost could be overlooked. And justice was never asked in the article if the news was from some rural village.. they just gave the information. Durga remembered her time as Katyayani...one of her incarnations.. who had heard the most of these assaults.. There was this one time for Katyayani where the whole world was shocked by the gruesome assault on a woman named Nirbhaya. The country had fought together for her. She did not survive but her fight ensured that her perpetrators got punished for their inhumane deeds. The cost that she had to pay to get justice was with her life!! Katyayani had seen a lot of abuse around her. There was this incident when her maid was beaten up to a pulp by her husband under the influence of alcohol just because she didn't give him.. her hard earned money to buy alcohol. The scars and bruises stayed on her skin for months. Katyayani on knowing this..had asked the maid to lodge a police complaint but the maid's husband was not scared of the law anyway and had threatened her with dire consequences. Katyayani had applied ointment on the scars and tears flowed down her eyes whenever she saw her maid's skin..by then it had turned black and blue from the injuries. Another incident she remembered.. when one of her friends had been slapped and her glass bangles were broken by her husband in a fit of rage just because she refused to cook for the family as she was not feeling well. Katyayani had to provide an emergency first aid to her friend who came to her house sobbing. She looked at her friend's wrists and the blood was dripping down like anything. Again Katyayani cried while tending to her friend. She was even more hurt as her friend's husband had been known to her.. and she had considered him as a brother. He was from a well to do family.. earned decent and had a good reputation in the society. Katyayani was shocked... People simply are not aware of a person's true identity. A person can be a happy go lucky guy amidst his friends and can turn into a complete psychopath with his close family. Only the close ones always know a person's true identity. On Holi when her same friend and her husband came to their house to apply colors on her face, Katyayani grabbed his hand and stopped him from applying the color to her face.. she told him, "The hands that slapped and assaulted her friend had no right to apply color on her face even if it was her own brother". Her friend had decided to let go off the incident but Katyayani never could. Such incidents stayed with her forever. It has been 8 years since Nirbhaya and nothing has changed.. gasped Durga... Delhi is still the worst place for women.. and her beloved mother India still ranked 133rd out of 167 nations in the Global index for Women's Safety. Durga just got a text on her phone. It was her friend. She had texted Durga to pick her up from her home and take her to the hospital because her husband had slapped her again and her eardrum had ruptured!!