Rita Sinha
On a cloudy day under a tree at Dalhousie, a leg less
physically challenged beggar man, was severely beating up his wife. The wife
was calmly sitting near him and accepting all his bashes. She was
sitting........!!..?.. Had she stood up high on her strong legs, she would have
been saved from the bashes. But she was sitting, to help her husband hold her
hair tight and hit her cheeks hard because the husband has no legs to stand and
cannot reach up to her height.
Standing helplessly, I was wondering what keeps her going
like this. Is she a dumb? A numb? Or is this Eternal LOVE?! Oh God!!! I saw
tears rolling down her cheek, I saw her tremble in fear and pain.
By this time, I was little inattentive, to look for a taxi.
All of a sudden, I heard a loud outburst of cry. Turned back to see... ?! No.
The woman did not hit back her husband. She only pulled and tore off the
colourful glass beaded neck piece which her husband was wearing, with all her
force to express her anger, her pain, stored in her heart. The beads, got
scattered all over and kept on rolling down the footpath with tinkling sounds.
I could see the woman’s anger in the rolling beads like a silent volcano.
By this time, there was a heavy downpour of rain when I got
into the taxi and was conversing with the taxi driver. Within a blink, I saw
the same woman carrying her husband on her shoulder and the husband,
confidently and comfortably sitting on her back as she was crossing the main
road amidst the dense traffic. It was such a wonder to see. This man hits the
woman, who is his only ''Vaahan'". She is his bread earner. Without her,
his life doesn’t move on an inch! Waaaha... re... Waaha....’Patidev’!!
As they were passing by, my eyes kept tracing them as far as
my sight could go. But they gradually got faded into the crowd. Throughout the
way, back to my quarters, I was wondering, maybe the life of millions of women
keeps on silently rolling and rolling like the colourful glass beads which they
again and again bind together in one string.
I had witnessed the incident on 8th March, back
home after celebrating International Women's Day at RBI Kolkata.
