ThE JOkE

THE JOKE

It was like a scene from a courtroom drama: crowded and shrouded in commotion & anxiety. Few minutes later, heads turned and silence ensued as THE VICTIM entered the room. She looked pathetic; her eyes blackened, her face wounded, her hair a terrible mess, her clothes tattered and bloodstained, yet, the one thing that stood out was she, herself. She looked lost, like in a trance or under a lot of sedatives.

She took her seat in the centre, surrounded by different people forming a circular arrangement around her. She eventually spoke.

“I’ve been raped and tortured!! I need justice!!’ her yell, pierced through the silence in the room but couldn’t pierce through the people around her. Sadly enough, no one seemed to notice. Not a single person out of the many encircling her.

She waited for a reply but had to yell again when nobody bothered. “Ma’am I’ve been raped! I need justice!” she looked at THE FEMINIST with hopeful eyes – whatever little that she had left with her. “You seem like the one who cares. Please help!”

THE FEMINIST looked at her, adjusted her own glasses, stood up from her chair and yelled even louder. “YES!!! Yes, I bleed once a month! Yes, I have periods! Why is that a problem with you?” she looked at everyone, with fury in her eyes. “Yes, I have a cleavage and my bra strap shows, but it’s my life to live not yours! All men are scoundrels! All men are dogs!”

THE VICTIM looked astounded and confused at the same time. “What are you even talking about?” she yelped with very little strength. But that didn’t seem to affect THE FEMINIST, who was on a different spree altogether.

“How dare you guys address someone as a woman entrepreneur? Would you have done the same if it were for a man? No, sir, you wouldn’t have!” she continued. “It’s in your sick patriarchal mindset sir! But mind you well, women are no less than men today!”

“Are you even listening to me? Am I visible to you?” THE VICTIM tried to ask her again, but to no avail.

 “It’s an era of gender equality and we want gender equality in India as well!! We demand 51% reservation for women in all spheres!” THE FEMINIST continued unabated and finally slouched down on her chair. She didn’t seem to notice THE VICTIM altogether. So, THE VICTIM turned to THE JUDICIARY for help.

“I’m in immense pain and suffering,” she begged for THE JUDICIARY to listen, who was busy with more important cases, like the decades old cases of a Mosque being pulled down. THE VICTIM kept urging it to listen to her and finally after she had nearly fainted, THE JUDICIARY bothered to look at her and stood up.

“The court needs proof that the rape indeed happened,” THE JUDICIARY said. “If no proof is submitted, the court will sue THE VICTIM for wasting the crucial time of the court!” THE VICTIM painfully stood up and returned a while later with a medical certificate and submitted it. THE JUDICIARY rose again.

“The court will now analyse the medical evidence and is adjourned till the next hearing!” it said. THE VICTIM looked horrified, but patiently waited for the next date. Meanwhile she looked at THE SOCIAL MEDIA sitting on the other side of the chairs and implored it to help her with her painful grief.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA stood up, addressed everyone and spoke. “This is indeed horrific! She needs justice! We order a new hashtag #PunishmentToRapists and umm,” it looked at THE VICTIM, “What was your name, again?” Before she could reply it stopped her and spoke again. “Never mind,” THE SOCIAL MEDIA said. “We also order another hashtag #WeAreWithHer. Also, we will launch new display picture frames for this support and order emotional memes at this moment itself!”

“We don’t know what the new display picture frames signify, but heck! They look cool so we’ll use them. And yes, she needs justice so we’ll post angry messages on our timelines and viral the hashtags from this very moment!” THE PUBLIC shouted in excitement from the other side. THE VICTIM looked at both of them as they danced in excitement. She looked at THE NEWS MEDIA with high hopes, who was busy analyzing trends from the latest Bollywood flick and the TRP reports.

“Don’t sweat it! Thousands of rapes happen in the country on a daily basis, it’s no worthy news!” THE NEWS MEDIA replied. “It’s certainly not worth the effort! We are already busy with the upcoming cricket tournament.”

A lot of time had already passed so THE JUDICIARY rose again to address the case. “It’s indeed established that the rape did take place. The court now needs evidence that the victim and the culprit were present together at the crime scene,” it said. “The court is adjourned till the next hearing!”

 The trauma was already eating her up. Her strength was seeping out of her now. But hope is a funny thing. So, THE VICTIM then resorted to THE POLITICS for justice. “Nobody seems to understand my agony,” she said. “Please help me!”

 THE POLITICS stood up and looked at everyone present there and then began, “बड़े बड़े देशों में, ऐसी छोटी छोटी बातें होती रहती हैं। Stop making a fuss out of it!” it said to the horror of THE VICTIM. “Anyhow, it’s impossible to believe that anyone would even bother to rape a mother of 3. It just doesn’t make sense!”

“That’s just pathetic!” THE VICTIM was exasperated. “What about the other me, then? That me wasn’t even married, you psycho!”

“Who asked you to wear short skirts and revealing clothes then?” THE POLITICS retorted. THE VICTIM tried to say something but it interrupted her and continued, “Young boys get swayed in your revealing clothes. It’s the heat of the youth. What were you even doing roaming late at night anyhow? Be at your home!”

“It happened in the broad day light in a place of worship, for god’s sake!!! And I’m a 5-year-old child, damn it!!!”

“A HINDU TEMPLE is at the centre stage of brutality with a MUSLIM girl!!” THE NEWS MEDIA suddenly yelled and rose from its chair. “Is this the HINDU vendetta against MUSLIM Love Jihad?”

“That???? That, is what you make of this whole tragedy?” THE VICTIM was terribly shocked and almost passed in a trance with weakness. She somehow gathered all her strength and looked at THE GOVERNMENT for justice. Maybe THE GOVERNMENT was really empathetic, that it came to action by just looking at the miserable state of THE VICTIM.

“The people of India are together in this tragedy,” THE GOVERNMENT began as it stood up from the chair. “This is indeed a pathetic and despicable act of horrendous brutality. We strongly condemn it. And we would like to assure the country that our daughters are safe and all the culprits will be brought to justice soon! Thank You.”

Isn’t that the same, repeated banality that THE GOVERNMENT has been feeding us for decades now? Everybody present thought so, but nobody cared. THE VICTIM was helpless and in a deplored state now so she urged THE STUDENT PROTESTERS known for their protests against the government and for a demand of certain azadi. But they were too busy protesting against the college lectures and suspending routine education, to even look at her.

“See, we agree that this is indeed a pathetic tragedy that has struck you,” THE PRO GOVERNMENT spoke, uninvited. “But it’s nothing compared to what happened in the reign of other governments. Those were the pathetic days to be frank. And look at the economy growth today! That’s development. Look at the World forums where the country is being lauded at an international level! Look at the ra…” THE ANTI GOVERNMENT cut him short.

“To hell with your PM and to hell with your government dumb-ass!” THE ANTI GOVERNMENT said. “What has your Pro majority government done for the minorities? It keeps oppressing the minorities! It keeps harassing people over black money! It keeps talking about the development when in reality, it is exploiting the mi…” And that soon escalated into a heated and violent argument with manhandling and communal remarks.

THE NEWS MEDIA rose and yelled, “Communal tension arise as two fractions clash at a discussion! Stay tuned for the latest updates!”

Meanwhile a terrible amount of time had already passed so THE JUDICIARY rose again and began the hearing again. “The culprit in the case is a juvenile and so can’t be tried as an adult. With that said, the court recommends judicial custody and rehab for the accused. The court is adjourned till the next hearing.”

While the other fractions were colliding with each other and THE NEWS MEDIA took an active interest in the clashes, everybody forgot THE VICTIM. Nobody cared about her battered life, her shattered dreams, her mutilated emotions and her destroyed self. She was broken beyond salvation and her plight fell on deaf ears.

She stood up, looked despondently at mad people yelling all around her and shot herself with a gun. Her blood spatter and body matter splashed on everyone and suddenly the room was filled with dead silence, again.

After a lot of time had passed, THE JUDICIARY rose, wiped the blood spatter from its face and proclaimed, “It is an open and shut case of Suicide under trauma. Case dismissed.”

"The people of India are together in this tragedy,” THE GOVERNMENT began as it stood up from the chair and washed the blood off its face. “This is indeed a pathetic and despicable act of horrendous brutality. We strongly condemn it. And we would like to assure the country that our daughters are safe and all the culprits will be brought to justice soon! Thank You.”

Everyone began wiping the blood off their faces & clothes and suddenly there was a sudden tremor in the floor beneath us. Like the doomsday had actually arrived. Everything started shaking and I fell into deep trance, my head caught in circular mazes.

“WHOA!” I woke up, sweating profusely even under the 20 degrees of air-conditioned ambiance of my bedroom. It had been a terrible dream, I reckoned. I took deep breaths and tried to calm myself down.

I thought I was relaxed. But then something shocked me to the core! There was blood on my hands! THE VICTIM’s blood, I suppose…

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