They stare at me everywhere I go.
Even their shadows linger on my face.
I am not even the dust that you see,
When sunlight pours into the dark room.
The children in the bus cringe,
The fat old ladies sigh in disgust,
The Professor sees through me.
Father has lost all hope.
He tells his mother, “You were right.
I should have killed her when I had the chance!”
Mother prays, with no life in her soul,
(Hope sucked out of her a long time ago)
Cautiously hoping that they will not ask for a Maruti.
“We have to give them something to make up for the face!”, she says.
Was it my fault? , I thought to myself…..
To come back after six, in the dark?
To stand up for myself, while society
Tried to throw me into the realms of ignorance?
To give him what he deserves, was what I thought was right.
It was a fatal attempt at justice, I say when I look back now.
I was a fool to believe that the truth would redeem me.
Little did I know, that boys like him have wings of money
And that those leching eyes could never feel shame.
The FIR I filed set off a fire indeed.
The kind of fire that burns your face
And turns your life into ashes.
What is done cannot be erased. But now I know,
That while I chose courage, he chose ACID.
About the Author:
Ramya Katti
A ferocious dreamer, a confident speaker, a propagandist of rational thought, a determined debater, an incandescent poet and a voracious reader; she is a student of Symbiosis Law School, Pune. She takes keen interest in International Law and Human Rights and wishes to pursue the same in the future. She hopes that her intricate eye for detail and innate ability to analyse will enable her in getting more out of new experiences in life. She also enjoys sarcasm, political humor, convoluted characters in novels, good music and a cup of hot black coffee during rains.
