“Twenty is not an age to die”, coming out of inferno, she mused, as she watched the lifeless body rolled to one side of the deserted road.
With dawn breaking over its horizon, India’s national capital buzzed with activity. The sight of a naked, battered corpse shocked its inhabitants. However, they quickly recovered and got enraptured in the voyeuristic delight that the grotesque bareness offered them. So much so, that the thought to accord it some decency with the ripped fabric lying nearby didn’t occur to them.
“Twenty is not an age to be the bread earner for your family; but a college-going youngster exchanging furtive smiles in the classroom of a DU college, if not bunking class to watch Ranbir Kapoor serenade Alia Bhatt on silver screen. It is an age to upload reels of your dances on your Instagram handle to show off your moves to the world, to dream of a future as bright as the stars in your eyes.”
As the day progressed, the turnout swelled. The wagging tongues gleefully tore apart the deceased woman’s character and laid it threadbare, just like her tattered apparel. They wondered why an unaccompanied young woman was roaming about the city at midnight, instead of staying in the safe confines of her home; for that is what good, sanskari girls did, didn’t they? They also marvelled about the copious amount of alcohol she must have chugged down her throat, the kind of men she must have had as her paramours, how many boys she must have danced with on the night of debauchery, before deciding enough is enough and hitting the road riding her Scooty.
“Twenty is not an age to get lodged underneath a speeding car on a cold, wintry night and dragged by it for twelve kilometres; get your skin and flesh stripped off your body by the gruff tarmac in the same manner as your mother grates a vegetable ; close your eyes with all your might hoping somehow doing so will also shut out the suffering; scream for help only to find your voice getting lost in the din of the moving vehicle, or more likely because its occupants choose to ignore it.
Twenty is not an age to beg for your own death as New Year’s gift, but when you are spent struggling to live, you don’t desire anything else. Nothing but an escape from the inferno beneath the moving Maruti Suzuki Baleno.”
The milky white beam of light silenced the echoes of the accident that tormented her as it pulled her into its embrace. She looked back at the gathered spectators for one last time before transcending to the next realm.
“At twenty, I have found my peace. Will you find yours whilst you wait for your women to return home at night?”
Glossary:
DU – Delhi University
Sanskari – cultured
Maruti Suzuki Baleno – a popular car make in India
Author’s notes:
#Borrowed word – Inferno is an Italian word meaning hell.
This piece is loosely based on the actual horrific road accident where a twenty-year-old girl was killed in a road accident on 1st of January, 2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Anjali_Singh
[zombify_post]
