"Don't Say a Word...."
Aruna looked at her client who sat opposite her in her office and nervously fidgeted with the clasp of her hand bag. Her name was Kamal. She came to Canada from a small town in Punjab as a 20 year old bride and lived here in this city ever since. She lived with her husband and two children aged 7 and 3 as well as her mother in law and and a cousin of her husband's who came from India two years back to attend the community college and lived with them as a paying guest. Kamal's husband Manjit was a taxi driver while Kamal and her mother worked the late evening shift in a cleaning company. The ladies left for work each evening after dinner was ready, children were fed and settled for the evening and by then Manjit would have got back home from his work. There were days when Manjit had to work late and his cousin Jasbir would have to baby sit the children.
All these details were in the file folder that was prepared by the social worker who investigated the case initially. It has then been assigned to Aruna in keeping with the new office policy to match clients from minority communities with social workers from the same ethnic background who would be more sensitive to the cultural aspects of the case.
It was obvious that Kamal was ill at ease and not too happy to be sitting for this meeting. Aruna tried to ease the tension by making small talk, but she had to come to the issue on hand. Kamal had already had a phone call from the social worker who first investigated the case and had an idea about what it was all about. Nevertheless, Aruna gently repeated to her the details of the case.
Kamal and Manjit's seven year old daughter Prageet confided to her class mate and friend Ashley that when Jasbir was baby sitting them, he did some naughty things to her after her younger brother was asleep. She said she was not supposed to tell this to her parents or anybody else as it was something very special between her and Jasbir. Ashley talked about this to her mother who then alerted the children's class teacher. As per protocol and regulations, the school authorities contacted the Family Services.
"So what will happen now?" Kamal timidly enquired
Aruna could see fear and anxiety reflected in Kamal's eyes .
"Now we are required to take some steps. The police have been notified and a case of abuse and sexual interference against a minor child will be filed against Jasbir." She said
"And they will shut him up in prison?" Kamal asked.
"Not necessarily. After he is charged, a bail application can be made and he will be be released till the case will be heard by a judge. Even then, the judge may let him off without a jail term on condition he will go for counselling and will be required to have no unsupervised access to children till he success fully completes the prescribed program.
"And Prageet?" Kamal asked.
"She will be kept away from this whole thing. Nobody will ask her any more questions and she will not be required to testify or anything."
"Can't we just let this be? What if our family has no complaints? What if we say this did not
happen?"
"The child has already spoken, Kamal. We cannot let her down. We have to let her know that we are here to support her. We have a duty to protect her." Aruna replied.
"But this thing is going to destroy our family. Jasbir's father in India has helped our family a lot after Manjit's father passed away. We still owe him money. Jasbir is like a brother to my husband. He is not a bad boy. He is young, he did something he should not have and he is sorry. He has said he won't do it again. Then why are we making everything worse by going to police and court and all?" Kamal went on.
"Please get us out of this....please, I beg you....." she pleaded.
"We can't do that, Kamal. This is the law. We have to protect our young children. We cannot give them the message that what happened to them was not important. They also have to know that they are not to blame in anyway and the person who wronged them has been punished"
"You don't understand anything....I thought you will be different as you are from India. But you are like the rest of them," She was getting more and more agitated.
"I think it is useless talking to you. You people are supposed to be helping families, but you are just here to make trouble," Kamal declared angrily.
"We are going to tell the judge that none of this happened. We will say that Prageet was lying and none of this happened".
With that, she stormed out of my office as Aruna sat there stunned.
Her mind raced back through time, to that day when she was just thirteen years old. Her father had passed away after a long struggle with cancer, his hospital bills and funeral costs leaving them penniless. Aruna and her mother had to move to a distant relative's home where Aruna's mother took over all the kitchen duties. They had a small cramped room behind the kitchen which also served a storage room. But her mother was really thankful. The head of the family whom she called uncle was a lawyer and his wife was a college lecturer. Their two children were already married and living abroad. Uncle's mother who was in her eighties also lived with them. It was a satisfactory arrangement for everyone as this family had agreed to bear all the expenses for Aruna's education along with their living expenses and in return her mother did all the cooking and also looked after the old lady.
Things moved pleasantly enough for Aruna in that big house till aunty's brother who was living in some other city came to spend his holidays there. Actually he was a very pleasant person who was very friendly and nice to Aruna and she in turn adored him as a father figure. Whenever he went out, he bought chocolates for her. He would sit in the veranda by the kitchen and regale her with funny tales.
Then on a school holiday when her uncle and aunt were both away at work and her mother was busy in the kitchen, Aruna went upstairs to his room with a cup of tea for him. She lingered on in the room, he gave her handful of chocolates, showed her some books he had bought and before she knew what was happening he was holding her tight, kissing her and feeling her all over. Aruna felt uncomfortable and tried to get out of his embrace. He then pushed her into his bed and ravaged her. She pleaded with him to stop, told him he was hurting her, but he had turned into a stranger, an animal. He clamped his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming, almost suffocating her in that process. As pain seared through every cell of her body, she felt her insides ripping and tearing. After what felt like an eternity, he rolled off her and callously told her to go and wash up with a stern warning not to talk about this to anyone or her own reputation would be destroyed for ever. Aruna staggered down to the small room she shared with her mother, fell on her mattress and curled herself into fetal positon, shuddering and shell shocked.
Her mother came upon her in the same postion hours later. She sat by her, gently stroking her hair, while Aruna sobbed and told her what had happened.
"What has happened, we can't undo," her mother said.
"But don't say a word about this to anyone. It is for your own good. Even if anyone comes to know, they will think you have brought this on, with your own behavior." She warned her.
"Take this as a lesson. Don't ever get too friendly with men. Don't go to their rooms alone, because if you do, this is what can happen."
Aruna carried that vow of silence to this day. Even as she sat there remembering the pain and humiliation of that day, she wondered at that very moment if little Prageet was being sworn to secrecy by her mother, her childhood and innocence being snuffed out even before it bloomed.
© Sue Menon., all rights reserved.
In case you missed...
Some other recent posts by Sue Menon
© 1998-2008 Copyright Sulekha.com Connecting Indians Worldwide, All Rights Reserved.
Recommend
votes