A Beacon and a Rant!

Needless to say, as is evident from the title of this post and the tone of the previous one, I aint starting this year on the high notes.

The more things change, ... Another year finds me on a course of treatment, errm, management which was offered to me over a decade ago! Hullo 2007, err, is it 1995 again?? *sigh*

I was floundering along, on my precarious, and thankfully, rarely used heels, mooching about in my gloamy gloom late one night, last week, (attending a marriage reception of a friend's son) with the vacuous smile plastered onto my dreary face, when one of my beacons, she called. Thankfully, I did not have to explain, she soon realised the depths of my dark despair. She is one of the few who can reach me through my fogs. She beamed a message in a song. Given that she is the punjab ki kudi, I expected some tappa-shappa which she does send every now and then. (There was a teensy fear that she may lapse into Chitra Singh, even though she knows how I hate THAT) But then anchor and beacon, she surprised me with a song in her sweet angel voice. God bless beacons.

The next morn was no better and I was tempted to beg off my usual hospital rounds. DH insisted I go and dd (being rather worried for her silly old mom who has 'lost it') tagged along. We were doing great together till suddenly there was a storm. A gaggle of women totally incoherent and wailing loudly in different pitches and scales assaulted all our senses. They had wheeled in an adolescent girl, who seemed totally inert. But as quickly as the storm came, it passed. Constrained by dd's presence, I did not do anything actively to help any one of that group and was merely relieved that the storm blew over so quickly. (Did I mention that I felt very cowardly that moment?) Maybe it was just a LOT of over-reaction from the hysterical folk, I hoped.

But then, this truth biz, it has a way of getting out and catching up with one. I learnt that the girl had committed a crime under Section 309 of the IPC and was denied admission in the hospital because the hospital did not wish to be tainted with the consequences of the treatment of a criminal. And the country is worrying itself silly about some Section 377!!! But then that subject is far more glamourous and happening, aint it? How insensitive we are as a nation and just how antequated. NOTHING absolves me of the guilt of keeping quiet and not offering the minimal help and support I could have given to that group of women. Wonder what happened to that little girl!