It was Children’s Day!
She walked just ahead of me in the park. I guessed she must have been around fifteen or sixteen years of age, and then she ran to a swing which was empty, sat on it happily and pushed herself to move upward, and in her eyes I could see the desire of wanting to enjoy what children much younger than her enjoyed.
As the swing swept up and then took an arc downwards I could see she was enjoying every moment and suddenly I realized she was a little child in an adult body. Soon she would have to give up such girly pleasures, soon it would not be the simple swing that would swing her up and down, but life itself, swinging her up and down with joys and sorrows!
And my thoughts went to other girls such as she, who go out to party, to enjoy life a little. All they want is to enjoy themselves a bit, but then in the supposedly safe roads of our city or country, lecherous men with lusty hands, stretch out, grope and molest these innocents.
I glanced back at the girl on the swing, how safe was she in India?
How safe are our women in the country?
Would someone look at her and say, “Why is she on a swing, that means she is a ‘forward’ woman!”
“That means she is available to us!”
“It means she wants to have fun, let us give her some fun!”
Yes you rascals who touch and molest women because you think they want to have fun, they do want to have fun, but not the fun you think is fun: They want to enjoy life, go for a party with others they are comfortable with, dress up the way they feel like dressing, not for you, but for themselves.
And then I saw the men. They were standing round the girl on the swing. They were staring at her. They did not see a child, they saw a woman. They did not see her joy, they only felt their lust.
I saw her smile vanish. I saw her hastily stop the swing and before it completely came to rest, she got off and ran away.
I felt sad. In one moment, the girl on the swing, had realized she was little girl no more, but a mere body to be enjoyed!
The swing swung empty, showing the emptiness of we people who cannot protect our children..!
******************************************
IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE BOB’S BANTER EVERYDAY, PLEASE SEND YOUR NAME AND WHATSAPP PHONE NO TO [email protected]
*****************************************
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Very true n sad. We need to whisper a prayer for protection of our girls whenever we c one .
James
This is the sad state of affairs in our country. Men with lust in their eyes and dirty desires in their mind. And sadly, there are people in high positions in the Government who do not condemn them. Very sad for the young teens in our country.
Very true and scary for all those parents with girl children. God intervene and protect all of them .
Men do a 24 job protecting n nurturing their ego. They envy anybody else’s success, especially success of a woman.