The 'BELOVED'!

"Have you heard about the seven ages of life mentioned by Shakespeare in 'As You Like It'? Out of which the most precious one is Childhood. It is filled with sweet and unforgettable moments that we often cherish with the same level of enthusiasm and fondness. Lucky are those who could caress only the best moments from their childhood and there are some, left with only the excruciating pain of the wound which aggravates ever since it was created.

Samyuktha is one such soul struggling to find the antidote for her wounded heart for 21 years. She was hardly 4 when the demon with the alluring smile approached her. She was so meek and innocent to get hold of her uncle's dirty mind and the poor one was sexually molested brutally."

Revathy kept on staring at the screen as she went in short of words while rough drafting her next story. Characters like Samyuktha and the bloody debaucher were fixed and so was the theme but the journey was at a crossroad with no satisfactory progress.
Being someone who values self-satisfaction as the predominant criteria for writing, she was not ready to pull off another courtroom drama that eventually abuse the survivor in the disguise of justice. She wanted to focus on the life of a girl hailing from a not so influential family, who is cognizant of the fact that her family will favour the culprit and she will be ridiculed even though she proves her part with vivid explanations. She was not ready to be embarrassed further. The readers could call her coward, but she was protective, of course of herself!

She turned off the screen on receiving a call from her family who almost forgot her existence ever since she flew to Melbourne. There was dissension in inviting her to the event, but they did it out of formality. Their only demand was to reach the place as soon as possible considering the seriousness of the event. They were certainly shocked when she agreed to their condition quickly. She was elated and was waiting for this auspicious day for a very long time and finally, better days were coming back to her life.

She quickly packed her backpack and drove to the airport. She made up her mind to thoroughly enjoy the trip to her native no matter what, as there won't be another visit shortly. She purposefully took the longest route to reach the place - first in flight, then by train followed by the bus, instead of a direct flight from Melbourne to her native.
The flight was smooth, but she was excited to get on the train as she missed it since she left India. She was accompanied by a series of calls enquiring about her arrival and she managed it with a pack of lies just like a pro. To be honest, she was enjoying the immediate attention received from her family.

She had always dreamt of visiting her family who abandoned her soon after the death of her parents. Now she was nothing less than a celebrity after establishing herself in literature. The ones who called her 'disgrace' were addressing her as 'darling'. She treated them as mere objects of scorn.

A loud snap pulled her out of the thoughts and she budged a bit to make way for the guy standing next to her.

The sound of the train reminded her of the obsession she had for the 'Chaiyya Chaiyya' song from Dil Se and she smiled wholeheartedly displaying her dimples. She kept a straight face when she noticed the guy's gaze on her. For the next 20 minutes, both of them were stealing glances at each other. She even thought that he was eyeing her biryani. However, she sensed a strong déjà vu.

"Do we know each other?" She abruptly ended the awkwardness in the air.

"I'm not sure. I have not seen someone with Cherry red coloured hair, but your smile.... especially those dimples resemble one of my schoolmates." 

"Oh! Even I have seen you somewhere. Uhmmm... Please don't mistake me. Is she just a schoolmate or......" She purposefully dragged it with a teasing smile.

"Well.... she was my school crush, and I regret not confessing."

"Your misfortune! Anyways, nice meeting you Mr....?"

"Amrith...Amrith Raghavan. And you?"

"Revathy Krishnan," she said leaving each other astonished.

Both of them were surprised but remained quiet. An awkward silence filled the rest of their journey. She was overjoyed hearing her school crush's confession while he mentally facepalmed for blurting out the truth just like that.

She was different. Her transition from a dull, meek girl to this extremely confident lady amazed him. Finally, he mustered up the courage to continue the conversation. "How is life in Florida?" The question from him halted her train of thoughts." No, no... I live in Melbourne, Australia." She corrected him immediately. When he was about to make another comment, she stood up as she was nearing her station. "Do ring me if you feel like." He handed over his card and they parted with a heartfelt smile.

While the train was about to move, he came near the compartment door to see her retreating figure. He voiced out, "Why so happy to visit the ones you hated the most? Did they fix your marriage?" She turned back and told merrily," My 'BELOVED' uncle died in an accident.", stressing the word beloved with a cynical yet sarcastic tone and walked away laughing at his confused face.

NOTE: 

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." - Maria Robinson

Speaking out loud after being abused requires a lot of courage and strength. Everyone of us deserve to live in an abuse fee world. Through the story I have tried to address it in a subtle way. In abusive relationships, the survivor is expected to be relieved or happy when the negative person is no longer alive. I think this is a realistic reasoning for Revathy's behaviour after the call.

The story is about a girl, who was ridiculed and silenced when she expressed about the pain she had to undergo from her own uncle at the age of 4. Those mocking compelled her to suppress her feelings. The fighter in her never settled and she eventually succeeded in her life and career.

Have you ever thought what would have happened if 'someone' was ready to listen to the little one instead of laughing at her? 

    :If not, please do think about it.

    : but if you have, let us try to be the 'someone' in somebody's life.

Thank you for reading... Have a great day!