KHUSHI

A Ford was moving at a snail's pace with its headlights off in midnight. Crossing the silent streets of New Delhi it stopped at a place where street lamps were out of light. “Over there!” An old lady at the front seat of the car pointed towards an absolute dark place taking her hand out of the window. Her face was emotionless, firm as a strict dictator. A mother was feeding her new born girl child for the first and last time on the back seat of the car. She was in pain of recent delivery of her baby; her pain was bleeding through eyes in shape of tears that she was constantly wiping. They paused there for a while with the hesitation of not doing a misdeed. “What are you looking at? Make it fast.” Grandmonster (grandma) ordered his son who was on the steering wheel.

Little angel was sleeping after taking first dose of meal from her mother. Men snatched the baby from the hands of her wife. He wrapped her from mouth to leg in a white sheet then took some steps forward to the dark and finally disappeared into it. He stopped inhale and placed his hand on nose as garbage was stinking as toxin. Little angel was then placed onto the heap of junk. Men took his steps back and raced his Ford Car straight to home. “She gave birth to a dead boy, we have buried him.” Sad news was given to the relatives. Mourning mother didn’t sleep that night.

It was seven in the morning, when a nun heard a baby crying while passing by the public dust bin. She stopped, and concentrated on the voice of baby blubber. She lifted the box of garbage bin aside and was terrified to see a new born baby crying endlessly. Nun picked the baby in her arms without wasting a second. She fused the baby to her chest just to make her relax. Fortunately the nun was associated to an NGO who used to work for the welfare of orphans. She took the baby to her organization. Mother Jane was the director of orphan organization. Jane saw the baby child; she was barely 12 hours old. She was a beautiful baby, white in color, black starry eyes and soft hair increasing her charm. They fed the little hungry girl. Little girl was calm after a while, looking at the women around her, she smiled and scattered her innocence in the souls of nun and mother Jane.

She is a gift of Jesus to this world, and we are very lucky to have her in our cottage. She is stunning. She makes us joyful with her smile. We will call her “Khushi” from now onwards. The little girl smiled taking button of nun’s scarf in her tiny fingers.

It had been four years when Khushi was playing and growing up on the soil of same orphanage. khushi always carry a doll with her.  It was a usual day when all the children were eating at the big round dining table. Khushi took a spoon full of curd and poured it on the table. Children observing her laughed on her silly act. She saw all the children are laughing so she again did the same thing. All children went to laughing on a node; khushi was repetitively pouring curd on the table. Mother Jane came and asked her not to do so but khushi was in mischievous mood. She threw the bowl on mother Jane. This made her angry and from that day khushi was not allowed to go for evening walk for one week as punishment. As a schedule all the children were used to go for an evening walk to the park under the guidance of a nun each day. Going out to the park was the most lovable thing for khushi so it was a kind of third degree penalty for her. This punishment made khushi more violent.

Khushi was a different kind of girl among all. Her behavior was annoying. This put all the sisters and care taker in doubts. They all decided to take khushi to a doctor. After number of medical tests doctor reads the report. “She may be growing physically but her mental growth does not match her age” Doctor states.  She was a mental patient.

From that day she was under extra care of the sisters and mother Jane. Khushi was always very curious to go to the park. She wanted to roam around all the time. Considering repetitive requests and violent nature of khushi , mother Jane  arranged two outings of park for her. But still she was very eager to visit park each day. She spend six more years of her life. One day she fooled the guard and jumped the gate of cottage, she roamed around the city all the day with a doll in her hand. It was a one way journey for her. She finally reached the park and slept over a bench when it approached to night. A girl was missing from the cottage. Earth had been slipped under the feet of Mother Jane. A missing report was lounged at police station. It was impossible to search a girl in the city where more than 50 such reports are lounged each day and where more than 200 parks exist. She never came back to the cottage.

A guard in the morning found her sleeping on the bench of park. He asked her address but with the exchange of words he came to know that girl is not mentally balanced. Guard had his contacts with the Mahila Ashram at Hyderabad. He contacted them and managed to send Khushi at Ashram. It was a place where girls over the age of ten were used to do craft work for their living. That Ashram was more like a shelter for such girl. Ashram was running under the effect of Director Suniti. She was a generous lady who was very kind to all the girls residing in her Ashram. They also had a lady warden Kamla who was living in the Ashram with the girls.They had three watchmen Raghu, Raman, and Sampat. They were giving protection to the girls since years. All of them had their eye on Khushi since they day she arrived there. All of the girls and management of the Ashram were well known about the mental condition of Khushi.

Though khushi was 15 years old now but her mental condition was like a five year old child. She still used to carry her doll and play with her in the garden of Ahsram. In the span of five years she also made some of the girls her friends. Khushi was loved by everyone in the Ashram because of her childish behavior. On the journey of her unnamed life she fall sick one day. She was vomiting endlessly when her mates noticed she is not well. Director Suniti arranged a lady doctor Seema , who gave them shocking news of her one month pregnancy. It was completely out of their mind how Khushi can get pregnancy. Though there was only three men in the complete staff, needle of doubts were pointed on them. Suniti tried to ask whatever wrong happened with khushi. Khushi was only saying “there were three men” in her childish tone. Suniti filed a report on three watchmen. Under the pressure of police investigation they all accepted their crime. They used to rape Khushi making her unconscious by giving her pills. It all happened with the agreement of Kamla who used to take money in return of it. They also revealed that they were doing this for three years. All of the watchmen and kamla were now behind the bars. But pregnancy of Khushi was a big problem for Suniti and Doctor Seema.

They all decided to abort her pregnancy. But for doing this they first went to court for permission. A case was lounged on behalf of Doctor Seema to access permission of abortion of khushi’s pregnancy. A girl who is not mentally balanced, who don’t even know what had happened to her must not be allowed to deliver a child. How a girl would care and nurture her baby when she is not able to take care of even herself. Kindly make the judgment as soon as possible because with each day passing the baby inside the womb is growing. These were some of the points of the plea that they put against the judge. But this is Indian law system which took four months to conclude on a point of judgment. After four long crucial months they ordered to abort her pregnancy. The news becomes headlines of a local news paper. Doctor seema and Suniti were happy with the result as they approached to take their action.

A social government lawyer Shikha put her writ at high court against the order of District court in same case. She did this after reading news about Khushi’s case in a local newspaper. The girl has four months of pregnancy and it is risky for her life to go for abortion in such case. In spite of doing abortion we should ask the girl personally if she want to have a baby. These were among the points in the writ of lawyer Shikha. She was probably right to her points. India is a republic and everyone has a right to raise her voice against the wrongdoing. Shikha was doing the same. Doctor Seema and Suniti were again prohibited to abort her pregnancy. It took two more months to High court to comprehend the points of lawyer Shikha. High court approved Shikha’s writ and lapse the order of Lower court.

Khushi gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Who was declared mentally and physically fit by the doctors. Raghu, who was her official father refused to take responsibility of her girl child. But Khushi had her real baby doll with her. Khushi’s baby was the most precious thing for her. She became mother at the just sixteen. Her life was more beautiful with the arrival of her baby. Khushi started to take things seriously from then. Doctor said mental condition of Khushi is now getting better because of her child.

From the posh colonies to the slums area of India, Girl child is very often getting treat like this. Why we always wish for a son. Why a girl is not powerful in our country. Why she always live in the cage of restriction. Is not it a big question on our society governed by Men who has always been killed Khushi of a girl. Countless girls have been tortured to death for the sake of money and honor in our country, and the rest who survive are getting raped like Khushi.