Revenge
by R.G.Asha Nandhini
(Pondicherry, India)
“Have you gone mad?”
“I know what I’m saying, I really like her. I want to marry her”, Abdullah said, sipping a glass of whiskey.
“La hawla wala quwwat!” Amir exclaimed! “But she is half of your age”
“Love is love. It doesn’t matter how old I am or how young she is”, Abdullah said looking straight into Amir’s eyes.
Abdullah and Amir were childhood friends. They knew each other pretty well. Abdullah took another drink, held his right hand on Amir’s shoulder, and said, I will propose her for
marriage tomorrow”
“What if she says no?” Amir asked.
There was silence for a while. Nobody spoke. They kept drinking and thinking.
The next day, it was in the afternoon around 3 pm when Abdullah went to her school in Khadi village, Maharashtra. As soon as she saw him, she tried to ignore him because all this time he has been a nuisance to her. However, he stopped her nearby.
“I want to tell you something”, he said, looking at her face.
“Uncle, please let me go. My mother is waiting for me at home”, Roohi said. She sounded really scared.
“Call me Abdhulla”, he said gently.
She got even more scared this time. “Uncle, please I want to go home”, her tone had tears in it.
He held her hands, and forcefully made her look into his eyes, and said,” Listen Roohi, I like you, I love you, I want to marry you. Tell me when I shall come to meet your Abba.”
She quickly ran away from there. She didn’t utter a word about this incident to anyone. It was like a nightmare.
After one week, Abdullah saw her in the market. She was with her friend.
"Roohi, What did you think about it?”
“About what?” her words fumbled in fear.
“Do you want to marry me or not?”
It was so bad that she got angry this time. He was terribly drunk. “I am like your daughter, aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Do you even think when you say these things to me? I am still studying in 10th standard and you must be thirty-five years old. Listen to me, if you bother me again I will tell everything to my parents”, she said so loudly that people around them could hear everything.
People gathered around Abdullah and started accusing him, “Such a pervert you are, Look at her and look at yourself. She
is a child and you are an old monster”, one of the strangers said as everybody burst out in laughter.
Three months later…….
“Why did you do that?”
“I loved her but she never understood how deeply I was in love with her. I tried to express it to her and tried so hard to be with her. I wanted to marry her and dreamt of spending my entire life with her and with our children. But, she shattered all my dreams to dust.” said Abdullah with pain.
“She was just fifteen years old, more like your daughter. She was too young to understand these things”, the lawyer said in a high pitch tone.
“Maybe”, said Abdullah.
“If you have loved her, why did you kill her?” the lawyer asked.
“I tried to convince her but she never listened to me. I never said anything bad to her. I just shared what I had in my heart for her. However, I felt terribly bad when she insulted me in public. Though, I felt hurt I tried to forgive her. But, as soon as I found her courting with another boy. I could not resist my feelings to take revenge on her. She rejected me and chose him.
“How did you kill her?” asked the lawyer.
Yes, I decided to take revenge. It was around 8 pm. She was coming back from her tuition. I went to her, tried to talk politely but she refused to talk. I was drunk. I was carrying a two-liter Pepsi bottle, cut in the middle filled with a pale yellow colored liquid, I bought from the bazaar. The way she insulted me in the public, flashed in my head. Ferociously I took out the Pepsi bottle of acid and threw it on her face.”
The lawyer and everyone present in the court had tears in their eyes.
“My lord, Roohi underwent 32 surgeries, the doctors tried so hard to save her and to reconstruct her face but she died after seven days of severe pain which can never be expressed in words. This animal deserves to be hanged publicly.
The court decided that he shall be hanged after two months, on the same date when Roohi died. Amir was also arrested in the charge of helping Abdullah to get acid in an illegal way.
STOP ACID ATTACKS!
WOMEN FOR WOMEN!
Let us all join hands and take initiatives to stop acid attacks.
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